‘When God sees us in the circuses’: Salvian of Marseille’s De gubernatione Dei and the critique of Roman society

This article addresses Salvian of Marseille’s treatise on God’s governance (De gubernatione Dei), one of the most important sources for the Germanic peoples’ period of migration at the beginning of the fifth century. It focuses in particular on Salvian’s critique of public entertainment, in the middle of Book VI. As I would like to show, his invective against this aspect of Roman life is closely connected to the theme underlying the entire treatise, since it offers a key argument for Salvian’s attempt to demonstrate collective responsibility for the present crisis. At the same time, the author’s critique of the circus and the theatre stands as a defining point in his greater appeal for moral reform, letting him challenge the desire in Trier to bring back the city’s glorious past through a restoration of public entertainment.     

Explaining compliance with international law: Broadening the agenda for enquiry

Current theoretical understanding of compliance with international law is based on an assumption that international law consists of a finite set of objective, compulsory rules. This image does not match reality but the two can be reconciled through theorising international law as ideology. Such an approach subsumes questions as to why states do or do not obey law and what influence international law has on foreign policy decision making. By placing the relationship of state behaviour to international law in a broader perspective it can account for previously identified determinants of compliance and provide a basis on which to assess their relative significance. At the same time, the research agenda regarding compliance is broadened by the introduction of fresh questions.