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Mark Masterson
Victoria University of Wellington, Classics Programme, Faculty Member
Research Interests:
Discussions of Byzantine eunuchs have generally relied on accounts that speak directly of a man's eunuch status. This has meant that scholars have constructed discussions of eunuchs from a destabilizing mix of highly critical and... more
Discussions of Byzantine eunuchs have generally relied on accounts that speak directly of a man's eunuch status. This has meant that scholars have constructed discussions of eunuchs from a destabilizing mix of highly critical and highly laudatory languages. This article proposes to de-emphasise the languages of difference, i.e., exclusion or excessive praise, and to consider how the eunuchs and the bearded, i.e., the intact, got along with one another as men. Discussing instances from Byzantine historiography and epistolography and employing Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's notion of reparative reading, we focus on the life and career of Nikephoros Ouranos. He was one of emperor Basil II's leading generals and hitherto not identified as a eunuch in the secondary literature. Nikephoros Ouranos is a good personage to use for considering how eunuch and bearded got along at a time in which they were highly integrated with one another in the government of the empire. Approaching the s...
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This paper explores the emperor Julian's use of pederastic and same-sex sexual tropes to characterize the importance of his friendship with Saturninius Secundus Salutius. The "Self-Consolation" or Oration 4 is read in light... more
This paper explores the emperor Julian's use of pederastic and same-sex sexual tropes to characterize the importance of his friendship with Saturninius Secundus Salutius. The "Self-Consolation" or Oration 4 is read in light of its intertextualities with Theocritus, Plato, and various ancient discussions of dreams with nocturnal emissions.
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Long associated with religion in the ancient world, obscenity features in the works of both the late-Platonic philosopher Iamblichus and the Christian author Arnobius of Sicca. While Iamblichus is decorous and indirect in his evocation of... more
Long associated with religion in the ancient world, obscenity features in the works of both the late-Platonic philosopher Iamblichus and the Christian author Arnobius of Sicca. While Iamblichus is decorous and indirect in his evocation of corporeal matters and Arnobius is exuberant in showing what ought not be shown, it is possible to see both of these authors speaking of the forbidden to render their respective religious agendas more lively and their assertions about the nature of the sacred more authoritative.
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the Muslim advance cut that development prematurely short. Chapter seven concerns itself with how North African Christianity coped initially, but was eventually subsumed, by Islam The most interesting aspects of this book are the... more
the Muslim advance cut that development prematurely short. Chapter seven concerns itself with how North African Christianity coped initially, but was eventually subsumed, by Islam The most interesting aspects of this book are the individual stories it contains, one of the most intriguing being Procopius’ account of the 400 defeated Vandal warriors sent by the Byzantines via ship into exile in 534 to serve the empire on its Persian frontier (215). The men mutinied, turned the ship around and returned to North Africa. Upon arrival, the Vandals escaped to the mountains, well beyond the coastal cities, and ended up living among the Moors. This suggests that the Vandals had become African, that this was their home, and that perhaps they had found some form of assimilation with the Moorish tribes, something which the original Romano-Africans apparently did not achieve. All in all, Conant has given us a very well-considered overview of the story of North Africa between the end of Roman imperial government there and the coming of Islam. In doing so, he has opened up all sorts of possibilities for further research on what remains a fascinating and evocative subject.
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This article seeks to show the effect that Vitruvius' probable social status had on the contents of the De Architectura. The education proposed for the architect, the receipt of a wage, and pleasure all shape the treatise in... more
This article seeks to show the effect that Vitruvius' probable social status had on the contents of the De Architectura. The education proposed for the architect, the receipt of a wage, and pleasure all shape the treatise in significant ways. The article supplements these discussions with a close reading of a section of the De Architectura hitherto neglected in the
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"Dreams, Visions and Desire in the Letters of Emperor Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos and Theodoros of Kyzikos," in Dreams, Memory, and Imagination in Byzantium, Browen Neil and Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides, eds., Leiden: Brill. 136-159
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Research Interests: Gender Studies, Sex and Gender, Plato, Gender History, Masculinity Studies, and 16 morePhysiognomy, Gender and Sexuality, Gender, Emperor Julian, Masculinity, Masculinities, Studies On Men And Masculinity, Late Roman Empire, Roman Empire, Constructions of masculinity, Masculinity and Gender Studies, Iamblichus, Hegemonic Masculinity, Later Roman Empire, Roman senate, and Codex Theodosianus
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Roman History, Late Antique and Byzantine History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Neoplatonism and late antique philosophy, and 13 moreSexuality, Gender and Sexuality, Early Christianity, History of Sexuality, Slavoj Žižek, Late Antiquity, Slavoj Zizek, Iamblichus of Chalcis, Neoplatonism, Iamblichus, Obscenity, Sexual Deviant Behaviour, and Arnobius of Sicca
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Research Interests: History, Gender Studies, Gender History, Narrative, Gender and Sexuality, and 18 moreCritical Psychology, Discourse, Politics, Gender, Emperor Julian, Intertextuality, Late Antiquity, Sexual Identity, Homosexuality, Queer, Gay, Lesbian, Script, Lgbtq, Bisexual, Partnership and Frienship, Same-sex desire, and Public Policy
Research Interests: American Literature, History, Gender Studies, Gender History, Narrative, and 17 moreGender and Sexuality, Critical Psychology, Discourse, Politics, American Drama, Sexual Identity, Twentieth-Century American Literature, Homosexuality, Eugene O'Neill, Queer, Gay, Lesbian, Script, Lgbtq, Bisexual, American Literature Eugene O'Neill, and Public Policy
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Masterson, Mark. “Status, Pay and Pleasure in the De Architectura of Vitruvius” (American Journal of Philology 125.3 [2004]: 387-416).
