Ekaterina Nechaeva: Emigration across the Roman-Persian Border: Religious Dissidence and Identity.

Religious dissidence and following persecutions were often at the origin of mobility, both forced and voluntary. While such mobility was mostly happening internally, we are aware of some cases of individual and group long-term movements across the border of the Roman and Persian empires. Late Roman narrative sources and, in particular, Syriac hagiographical accounts provide information on such ‘religious emigration’ in both directions between the two states. The paper will present several case studies, offering analysis of causes prompting the movement, modes of crossing the border, and possibilities of sustaining the religious identity on new territories.