The article deals with the problem of transformation of the political ideology in the Late Roman Empire and in the postimperial world, in the barbarian kingdoms that appeared during the period of decline and fall of the West Roman Empire and existed in the Mediterranean region. The main source for our work is the poem Satisfactio, written in Carthage at the end of the 5th century by the Roman rhetor and lawyer Dracontius, and republished in an abridged version in the 7th century in Toledo by the bishop of this city, Eugene. Based on this material, we examine the question of how the image of an ideal ruler had been evolving in the Late Empire, as well as in the Vandal and Visigothic kingdoms.

We know that the gentry appreciated frst of all practical knowledge and education; they had no particular interest in ancient history and culture. In this article, the author tries to analyze what ffteenth century gentry thought about those, – who belonged to their social group, but who dared to read Greek and Roman philosophers, to buy books and to do other impractical things. The main sources are the Paston letters. The ‘main character' is William Worcester — a member of the gentry, a famous antiquary, a bibliophile, and author of Itinerarium, Annales Rerum Anglicarum and other works. The results of the analysis are as follows. William of Worcester's example shows that for ffteenth century gentry reading ancient authors and French books could be quite a “worshipful” hobby, however, an exact measure of interest did not exist. The boundaries of the permitted varied depending on the fnancial viability of the “scholar” and on his social rank. The confdant of a magnate could represent himself as a refned intellectual who treasured books above all earthly blessings; a person deprived of such support had to demonstrate pragmatism.

In this article, using as material commentaries on Pliny the Elder's Historia naturalis by Marcantonio Sabellico (1436–1506), Stephanus Aquaeus (? — ca. 1537) and Jacobus Dalecampius (ca. 1513–1588), I discuss the perception of Pliny's work, and the changes in the opinions and approaches of humanist scholars during the 15th–16th century. The humanist authors not only worked on the textual problems of the “Natural History”, but also tried to discuss and comment specifcally on Pliny's zoological knowledge. I also discuss the status of the commentaries on Pliny's encyclopedic work during this period, as well as the development of the scholarly principles of a humanist edition.

The article analyzes James Mill's views on the imperial policy of Great Britain in the frst quarter of the 19th century and his perception of the ancient experience of colonization. His ideas are examined in relation to the intellectual and political life of the UK at the end of the 18th — the frst quarter of the 19th century. This was the period when a radical reform movement arose that adopted the ideas of Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham and David Ricardo. An appeal to the history of Greece and Rome became an important argument in the debates about the future organization of the British Empire and in the relations between the metropolis and its colonies

The purpose of the article is to study the images of antiquity and the reception of the classical heritage in the scholarly studies of François Guizot (1787–1874) — a famous French historian of the Restoration period and a leading politician during the July Monarchy. His approach is characterized by the idea of an inextricable link, of the continuity between the old and the new France, ancient Gaul and France of the nineteenth century. For him, between the classical heritage was the matrix of modern French civilization and of European civilization as a whole. At the same time, on the basis of Guizot's works, one may trace, on the one hand, a certain diminution of interest in the classical intellectual heritage and some disappointment in it, and, on the other, the growing attention to the boundary between antiquity and the Middle Ages. The present article is devoted to the study of these urgent issues.

The article analyses the views of the eminent French and international public activist of the 19th century, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, and considers his contribution to the development of the international Olympic movement. De Coubertin's activities are placed within a wider context of bloc confrontations of the last third of the 19th century; in particular, the article shows the infuence of the international situation on the evolution of the French baron's views. Considerable attention is paid to identifying the key ideas of de Coubertin concerning the future development of the Olympic movement. Pierre de Coubertin can be called a follower of the ideas of 14th–15th century Italian humanists. Throughout his life, this French aristocrat believed in progress, in the vast potential and possibilities of man. The fundamental aim of the humanist Coubertin was to achieve mutual understanding between nations through sport competitions and education.

The article offers a new reconstruction of the plot of the lost lay of the Battle of Finnsburg, based on a comparative analysis of the poetic language of the surviving fragment of 48 lines and an episode in Beowulf (lines 1068–1158). Regarding the epic word as simultaneously combining a whole spectrum of meanings simultaneously perceived by the audience enables the author to suggest a new interpretation of the poetic vocabulary and phraseology, traditionally causing dispute among scholars.
The fragment of the poem called by the editors the ‘Battle of Finnsburg' presents the only extant sample of the most archaic narrativeform — the short heroic lay, going back to a Common Germanic past and composed for oral performance. It is an oral performance which is described in Beowulf in the episode of a scope singing the lay of the Battle of Finnsburg at a feast celebrating the hero's victory over Grendel. Apart from the main theme and a few shared characters the two texts have less in common than is usually admitted. In contrast to that episode, the action in the Fragment is developed through speeches, comprising almost half of the extant text. Whereas the fragment is centred on the description of the battle, the episode contains an allusive summary of its consequences. The spectrum of characters is reduced in the episode to two main fgures (Hildeburh and Hengest). The episode is related in the 3rd person as if by an ‘objective' narrator; speeches are absent; summarising, descriptive, explanatory lines are introduced. In the context of literary epic an oral heroic lay becomes detached, retrospective and literary

The article analyzes the image of the city of Rome, as it appears in the letters of Pope Gregory the Great (590–604). Gregory did a great deal to make Rome prosper and transformed it into one of the main spiritual centers of the Christian West. This was achieved thanks to the Pope's relentless care about beautifying the city, about repairing the churches and founding monasteries, all of were testimony to the triumph of the Christian faith. Another, very important factor was the veneration of the relics of the saints, chiefy the apostles Peter and Paul. Gregory established a genuine cult of their worship, thereby turning Rome into a center of pilgrimage

The paper focuses on several episodes from Estoria de España by Alfonso X el Sabio that describe the founding of several Spanish towns (Sevilla, La Coruña, Cádiz). Comparison of these descriptions with corresponding passages in earlier Latin chronicles lets us uncover the purposes and intention of including such “legends” in the text, as well as show the peculiarities of narrative technique and reworking of material by the chroniclers of Alfonso el Sabio. We show how important it was for the Wise King to trace the continuity of ancient civilization in Spain — by emphasizing the connection of Carthage and Cartagena, for example. Or, similarly, by pointing out the particular role of Hercules in Spanish history. The selection of material involved not only choosing and translating ancient writings, but also, to a signifcant degree, was supplemented with folkloric elements that made enjoyable the entire narrative

The article considers the personal experience and perception by Russian historians, such as M. M. Kovalevsky, A. N. Savin, and N. I. Kareev, of the causes, events and atmosphere of the First World War. The change in the attitude of the academic community to Germany and the Germans is analyzed, and the activities of such organizations as the “Anglo-Russian Friendship Society” and assistance to Russian citizens who'd been caught in captivity are discussed. The article deals with the problem of the infuence of war on the academic society, the transformation of relations between intellectuals depending on their nationality. The personal experience of historians who survived captivity in Germany or Austria-Hungary, the diffculties experienced by Russians on the way to Russia through a warring Europe, all this forced intellectuals to see a new relationship of the warring countries, which was refected in their public speeches and sociopolitical position. The author seeks to show that the so-called” war of professors “ contributed to the development of nationalist traits in Russian historical science.

The study attempts to outline the perspectives of creating a collective biography of the Eastern European “lost generation”. Based on the historical material of the events of 1914–1923, it aims at identifying some typological features in the biographies of its representatives that would help explain the existence (or absence) of a collective identity. The main attention is paid to the collective experience of the war by a group of young people of predominantly Jewish origin who came from the middle and upper social strata of the Hungarian part of the Habsburg empire. It analyzes their transnational experience during the war and captivity as a part of their secondary socialization and how it determined their reintegration. For many of them this process had started already in Soviet Russia when they joined the Red Army or remained in the country after Civil War. Their resocialization in the post-war period was marked by the experience of return, when they had to choose a country of residence and the associated problems of adaptation and communication (language, culture, traditions) as well as profession in new post-war conditions.

The article investigates transformation of spiritualist rituals that functioned in the 20th century in a heterogeneous social environment: in popular urban culture, in peasant and Cossack communities. The data comes from various sources: diaries, memoirs, autobiographical prose of participants in spiritualist sessions, periodical publications, folklore and ethnographic works, feld research materials from various regions. Spiritualist rituals (conversation with a spirit through table-turning or a circle with letters) are usually used in urban and rural culture as New Year or occasional divination; they become a kind of family tradition. Analysis of the “technical side” of these rites makes it possible to clarify the genesis of some peasant fortune-telling, to reveal the diversity of folk variants of spiritualist divination, to show their “shifts” towards children's “call for spirits”. It appears that rural spiritualist fortune-telling is more variable than urban ones, possibly because of its interaction with various living forms of calendarical, love and occasional divination. Beliefs concerning the magical power of written words and signs, as well as the traditional ways of “communication with spirits” (demons of space) could also be the factors which infuence the adaptation of urban spiritual rites to the peasant tradition.

Neklyudov, S. Yu. (2016). Temy i variatsii [Themes and variations]. Moscow: Indrik. 520 p., ill. (In Russian)

The article reviews the content of the reports and the discussions presented within the framework of the colloquium “Heritage of Antiquity in European History, Politics and Culture: Middle Ages, Modern History, Contemporary History”, which took place on September 13, 2017. The special role of Antiquity in the European history is emphasized, because it was the source of many important images and metaphors used during the following epochs. Specifc examples and models of translation and reception of the heritage of Antiquity are presented, with special attention paid to the national histories of Spain, France and Great Britain.