A Restless City: Edessa and Urban Actors in the Syriac Acts of the Second Council of Ephesus

The Syriac Acts of the Second Council of Ephesus offer an opportunity to look at the evolution of urban structures in the middle of the fifth century at the edge of the Roman Empire. Observing a city in a state of unrest comes with both advantages and pitfalls. While upheaval creates a chance for otherwise hard to spot structures and classes to be clarified, the record of such an upheaval is never an objective description. Mindful of these caveats, this article puts various actors present in the Acts into conversation in order to reconstruct an image of Edessa as an urban system. Thus an attempt is made to reconstruct the structures of governance and political participation as well as the interface between religious and secular authority at this time of change. Various instruments of such participation, such as acclamations and oaths, are reassessed. Ultimately, new light is cast on the role of various monastics in the practice of governance of a Late Antique metropolis in times of unrest.