Who’s afraid of the dark? The night-time world of late antiquity

Romans were wary of the night. For many, it was considered a fearful time, associated with witches and the spirits of the dead. Activities at night were often seen as subversive or suspicious, crimes at night were punished more severely than those committed during the day. Juvenal warns of the dangers of night: You could be thought careless…if you go out to dinner without having made your will, he writes, as the night offers many different possible causes of death.

The discourse of fear about the night persists into late antiquity, and yet the urban nighttime world looked very different. The streets were permanently lit at night, in cities like Antioch and Constantinople, and the baths and shops stayed open late. This lecture discusses the technological developments in lighting in the period and the range of nocturnal activities happening in late antique cities. It then returns to the idea of fear of the night and explores how that emotion remained useful for late-antique writers, even though (or perhaps because) they lived in a city with a vibrant nightlife. 

The W H Allen Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Classical Association of Victoria, is delivered every year in honour of Horace William ‘Barney’ Allen (1875-1949), Vice-Master of Ormond College from 1915-1943, and the Classical Association of Victoria's first secretary.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Classical Association of Victoria (CAV), which since 1912 has operated for the propagation and well-being of Classics and Ancient World Studies in the state of Victoria.

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