Imperial Intervention in the Disputed Roman Episcopal Election of 418/419

Evidence for the conflict between two rival candidates for the bishopric of Rome following the death of Zosimus at the end of 418 comes from a group of twenty‐five letters, most of which are official letters to and from Emperor Honorius (the rest being from other imperial officials and the emperor's sister), all but one of which are found in the Collectio Avellana. Interestingly, we have nothing preserved from the two episcopal claimants about this matter. The group of letters chronicle imperial concern for the preservation of public order. Do we have here an example of imperial interference in episcopal elections in Rome? In this article a careful examination of the letters reveals that Honorius was concerned only that the Roman church's procedures had been followed (Collectio Avellana, Ep. 15), which should determine who was lawful bishop. Sociological Conflict Theory is employed to investigate the nature of the evidence to address issues of the nature of the dispute and its participants, what values were contested, how it escalated, and how it was resolved. Such an approach makes clear that our evidence focuses on the role of the emperor and only incidentally tells us of the thinking and strategy of the two candidates. The final decision was made not on the merits of the candidates and the legality of one of the two elections, but upon Eulalius' violation of the conditions imposed upon the two rivals while the dispute was to be settled. Despite the emperor's concern only to facilitate the church settling this conflict itself, in the end it was an imperial measure that determined the outcome of the disputed election.     

To Rid the Italian Soul of One Dark Blot: Recognising Race in White Christian Religion

This article describes white Christian missionary uses of racial imagery for assimilating early twentieth‐century immigrants into U.S. society. In early twentieth‐century America, white Methodist missionaries sought to convert Italian immigrants from so‐called “pagans” to “one hundred percent Americans” by distancing them from racial darkness. In their attempt to convert the objects of their evangelism, Methodists syncretised secular marketing and metaphorical images and trained their audiences in a racial conversion narrative. In spite of their effort to combat the racial limitations of perceived Italian darkness, missionaries' use of darkness and light metaphors in conversion narratives reinscribed a racial Manichean dualism in their missionary practices and publications.     

Anticipating fatness: childhood, affect and the pre-emptive 'war on obesity'

This paper draws together recent geographical work on fatness, pre-emptive biopolitics, affect and childhood in order to question the spatiotemporalities of obesity policy in the UK. Through analysis of key policy documents and associated media coverage, the paper questions the dystopian production of the future nation in obesity policy; the role of affect in making futures felt as realities which can be acted on in the present; and the role of childhood and children's bodies within such policy. It argues that children are central to the production and pre-emption of obese futures because of the affective potential of childhood and the paradoxical position of children's bodies both as children in the present and adults of the future. The paper concludes by arguing that obesogenic environment theories are fundamentally problematic and that recognition of the temporalities as well as the spatialities of obesity is necessary for a balanced critical geography.     

Strontium and stable isotope evidence for diet and mobility in Roman Gloucester,UK

This paper presents the results of a multi-isotopic (oxygen, strontium, carbon and nitrogen isotopes) investigation of population and dietary diversity in Roman Gloucester, focusing on individuals found in a late 2nd century AD mass burial pit at London Road, and comparing them to those found in the nearby cemetery. There were no statistical differences in isotopic composition between mass grave and cemetery burials, suggesting, in agreement with the osteological evidence, that the mass burial was the result of a catastrophic event, probably an epidemic disease. Strontium and oxygen isotope analysis demonstrated considerable diversity in the origins of the Gloucester population, with evidence for both UK and non-UK individuals. Diet was predominately terrestrial and similar to that of other Romano-British populations. Elevated δ¹³C_dentine ratios in some individuals are correlated with raised δ¹⁸O_p values and are therefore probably due to childhoods spent in warmer climates, rather than dietary variation.     

Delmephialmas and Sircorcor: Gasparo Balbi, Dalmâ, Julfâr and a problem of transliteration

Gasparo Balbi, the state jeweller of the Venetian Republic, visited the eastern Arabian coast in c. 1580 and recorded many of the places in the modern United Arab Emirates for the first time, giving them the names by which we know them today, albeit in sixteenth-century Italian transliteration. While some places are readily recognizable, Balbi's terms Delmephialmas and Sircorcor present problems. It is suggested that Delmephialmas is the island of Dalmâ off the coast of Abu Dhabi but with an additional phrase as a suffix, giving a meaning approximating to Dalmâ, fî-hâ mâ' , i.e. 'Dalmâ, there is water there'. The absence of any reference to so major a port as Julfâr in modern Ra's al-Khaima by Balbi is remarkable. It is suggested that Balbi's term Sircorcor is an eliding of al-Sirr as a synonym for Julfâr combined in error with Khawr al-Khuwayr to the north of Julfâr.     

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Howard R. Penniman (ed.) Australia at the Polls: The National Elections of 1980 and 1983, Washington, DC, George Allen and Unwin for American Enterprise Institute, 1983, pp.351. $14.95 (paper)

Alexander Kouzmin (ed.) Public Sector Administration: New Perspectives, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1983. pp.329. $15.95

Blanche D'Alpuget, Robert J Hawke: A Biography, Schwartz, 1982, pp.418. $19.95

Frank Cain, The Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1983, pp. 306. $24.95

Leonie Sandercock and Michael Berry, Urban Political Economy: The Australian Case, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1983, pp.193. $22.50, $4.50 (paper)

Brian W. Head (ed.), State and Economy in Australia, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, pp. 305. $25.00, $12.99 (paper)

Bruce O'Meagher (ed.) The Socialist Objective: Labor and Socialism, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger 1983, pp. 198, $24.95, $11.95 (paper) and John Reeves and Kelvin Thomson (eds) Labor Essays 1983: Policies and Programs for the Labor Government, Blackburn, Drummond 1983, pp. 197. $12.95 (paper)

James Jupp, Ethnic Politics in Australia, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp.213. $22.95, $11.95 (paper)

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Nancy Viviani, The Long Journey: Vietnamese Migration and Settlement in Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1984, pp.316. $26.60

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Land Use Theory and Factor Intensities

Although Thünen's rent theory has been formalized and extended, his interdependent spatial theory of factor intensities has received little attention. The solution must be developed from a fully specified rent equation that recognizes the dependence of outputs on inputs, and the important distinction between fixed and variable costs. A general solution is found for the one-market, one-productive-factor case, with the limiting restriction that marginal revenue productivity must be rising more slowly than marginal costs. The flexibility and power of Thünen's model is shown by developing, from the general solution, scenarios under various market and production conditions.