The Institute’s Wihuri fellow for the year 2025-2026 is Maria Jokela, who is working on her doctoral thesis on the relationship between the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire and the prejudices that start to show up between them during Late Antiquity.
The purpose of Jokela’s research is to investigate how, in Late Antiquity, prejudices began to form between the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire and how these prejudices deepened over the centuries and ultimately led, during the Fourth Crusade, to the destruction and sack of the city of Constantinople by the Western troops. The research focuses particularly on the period between 300 and 800 CE, and its primary sources are Greek and Latin historiography.
Jokela’s research focuses on Late Antiquity, a period that has received increased scholarly attention in recent decades. However, the prejudices and stereotypes that developed between the East and the West have been the subject of relatively few studies, and it is often assumed that such attitudes only began to emerge around the 9th century. From this period, some epistolary exchanges between the pope and the emperor have been preserved, which raise, among other things, the question of whether the two sides still recognized each other as “Roman”. These letters reveal a hardening of attitudes, and, for example, linguistic competence becomes a central issue: in the West, few still knew Greek, and in the East, knowledge of Latin had significantly declined. In analyzing the sources, Jokela pays close attention to how the cities of Rome and Constantinople are represented, and to how the Roman identity evolves and transforms in relation to them.
In addition to her doctoral thesis, Jokela has also studied the history and significance of the naumachiae, the Roman spectacle of mock naval battles. However, the main goal of the year in Rome is to focus specifically on the work related to her doctoral research. During the fellowship period, Jokela will focus particularly on the analysis of Late Antiquity and Early Medieval sources, as well as on the scholarly literature available in Rome’s scientific libraries. Jokela will also travel to cities relevant to her research, such as Ravenna and Pavia.
