Dressing Moses

Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses is central to the conceptualization of a perfect Christian life. Especially the second part, theoria, where Gregory provides an extensive allegorical reading of the life of Moses, has been studied in great depth, in particular from the perspective of the unknowability of God, on the soul’s ascent, and questions of mysticism, but also in the context of the late antique priesthood and masculinity more generally. This chapter takes its cue of such discussions to focus instead on the first part, historia, and on a detailed analysis of Moses’ dress to argue that Gregory here wished to intervene in the manner in which elite Christian men and officeholders ought to dress; how they should display their status through clothing, especially in the context of ‘barbarian’ male fashion at a time of heightened tensions regarding the presence of Goths.