Loyalty and Dissidence in Roman Egypt
Loyalty and Dissidence in Roman Egypt

Author: Andrew Harker

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2008-04-17

Total Pages: 47

ISBN-13: 1139471155

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Acta Alexandrinorum are a fascinating collection of texts, dealing with relations between the Alexandrians and the Roman emperors in the first century AD. This was a turbulent time in the life of the capital city of the new province of Egypt, not least because of tensions between the Greek and Jewish sections of the population. Dr Harker's was the first in-depth study of these texts since their first edition half a century ago, and it examines them in the context of other similar contemporary literary forms, both from Roman Egypt and the wider Roman Empire. This study of the Acta Alexandrinorum, which was genuinely popular in Roman Egypt, offers a more complex perspective on provincial mentalities towards imperial Rome than that offered in the mainstream elite literature. It will be of interest to classicists and ancient historians, but also to those interested in Jewish and New Testament studies.

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt
The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt

Author: Christina Riggs

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-06-21

Total Pages: 814

ISBN-13: 0199571457

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This handbook, arranged in seven thematic sections, is unique in drawing together many different strands of research on Roman Egypt, in order to suggest both the state of knowledge in the field and the possibilities for collaborative, synthetic, and interpretive research.

Egyptian Cultural Identity in the Architecture of Roman Egypt (30 BC-AD 325)
Egyptian Cultural Identity in the Architecture of Roman Egypt (30 BC-AD 325)

Author: Youssri Ezzat Hussein Abdelwahed

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

Published: 2015-02-06

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1784910651

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume considers the relationship between architectural form and different layers of identity assertion in Roman Egypt. It stresses the sophistication of the concept of identity, and the complex yet close association between architecture and identity.

Christian Intellectuals and the Roman Empire
Christian Intellectuals and the Roman Empire

Author: Jared Secord

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2021-05-06

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 0271087641

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Early in the third century, a small group of Greek Christians began to gain prominence and legitimacy as intellectuals in the Roman Empire. Examining the relationship that these thinkers had with the broader Roman intelligentsia, Jared Secord contends that the success of Christian intellectualism during this period had very little to do with Christianity itself. With the recognition that Christian authors were deeply engaged with the norms and realities of Roman intellectual culture, Secord examines the thought of a succession of Christian literati that includes Justin Martyr, Tatian, Julius Africanus, and Origen, comparing each to a diverse selection of his non-Christian contemporaries. Reassessing Justin’s apologetic works, Secord reveals Christian views on martyrdom to be less distinctive than previously believed. He shows that Tatian’s views on Greek culture informed his reception by Christians as a heretic. Finally, he suggests that the successes experienced by Africanus and Origen in the third century emerged as consequences not of any change in attitude toward Christianity by imperial authorities but of a larger shift in intellectual culture and imperial policies under the Severan dynasty. Original and erudite, this volume demonstrates how distorting the myopic focus on Christianity as a religion has been in previous attempts to explain the growth and success of the Christian movement. It will stimulate new research in the study of early Christianity, classical studies, and Roman history.

Roman Power
Roman Power

Author: W. V. Harris

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-07-14

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1316684156

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Roman Empire was one of the largest and most enduring in world history. In his new book, distinguished historian W. V. Harris sets out to explain, within an eclectic theoretical framework, the waxing and eventual waning of Roman imperial power, together with the Roman community's internal power structures (political power, social power, gender power and economic power). Effectively integrating analysis with a compelling narrative, he traces this linkage between the external and the internal through three very long periods, and part of the originality of the book is that it almost uniquely considers both the gradual rise of the Roman Empire and its demise as an empire in the fifth and seventh centuries AD. Professor Harris contends that comparing the Romans of these diverse periods sharply illuminates both the growth and the shrinkage of Roman power as well as the Empire's extraordinary durability.

Imagining the Roman Emperor
Imagining the Roman Emperor

Author: Panayiotis Christoforou

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-07-31

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1009362518

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How was the Roman emperor viewed by his subjects? How strongly did their perception of his role shape his behaviour? Adopting a fresh approach, Panayiotis Christoforou focuses on the emperor from the perspective of his subjects across the Roman Empire. Stress lies on the imagination: the emperor was who he seemed, or was imagined, to be. Through various vignettes employing a wide range of sources, he analyses the emperor through the concerns and expectations of his subjects, which range from intercessory justice to fears of the monstrosities associated with absolute power. The book posits that mythical and fictional stories about the Roman emperor form the substance of what people thought about him, which underlines their importance for the historical and political discourse that formed around him as a figure. The emperor emerges as an ambiguous figure. Loved and hated, feared and revered, he was an object of contradiction and curiosity.

Leading the Roman Army
Leading the Roman Army

Author: Jonathan Mark Eaton

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2020-07-30

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1473855667

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Roman imperial army represented one of the main factors in the exercise of political control by the emperors. The effective political management of the army was essential for maintaining the safety and well-being of the empire as a whole. This book analyses the means by which emperors controlled their soldiers and sustained their allegiance from the battle of Actium in 31 BC, to the demise of the Severan dynasty in AD 235. Recent discoveries have revolutionized our understanding of the Roman army. This study provides an up to date synthesis of a range of evidence from archaeological, epigraphic, literary and numismatic sources on the relationship between the emperor and his soldiers. It demonstrates that this relationship was of an intensely personal nature. He was not only the commander-in-chief, but also their patron and benefactor, even after their discharge from military service. Yet the management of the army was more complex than this emperor-soldier relationship suggests. An effective army requires an adequate military hierarchy to impose discipline and command the troops on a daily basis. This was of particular relevance for the imperial army which was mainly dispersed along the frontiers of the empire, effectively in a series of separate armies. The emperor needed to ensure the loyalty of his officers by building mutually beneficial relationships with them. In this way, the imperial army became a complex network of interlocking ties of loyalty which protected the emperor from military subversion.

Slaves to Rome
Slaves to Rome

Author: Myles Lavan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-02-14

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1107311128

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This study in the language of Roman imperialism provides a provocative new perspective on the Roman imperial project. It highlights the prominence of the language of mastery and slavery in Roman descriptions of the conquest and subjection of the provinces. More broadly, it explores how Roman writers turn to paradigmatic modes of dependency familiar from everyday life - not just slavery but also clientage and childhood - in order to describe their authority over, and responsibilities to, the subject population of the provinces. It traces the relative importance of these different models for the imperial project across almost three centuries of Latin literature, from the middle of the first century BCE to the beginning of the third century CE.

Claudius Caesar
Claudius Caesar

Author: Josiah Osgood

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 0521881811

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A study of the reign of Claudius (AD 41-54), exploring what it can tell us about the developing Roman Empire.

The Social Dynamics of Roman Imperial Imagery
The Social Dynamics of Roman Imperial Imagery

Author: Amy Russell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-11-12

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1108871585

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Images relating to imperial power were produced all over the Roman Empire at every social level, and even images created at the centre were constantly remade as they were reproduced, reappropriated, and reinterpreted across the empire. This book employs the language of social dynamics, drawn from economics, sociology, and psychology, to investigate how imperial imagery was embedded in local contexts. Patrons and artists often made use of the universal visual language of empire to navigate their own local hierarchies and relationships, rather than as part of direct communication with the central authorities, and these local interactions were vital in reinforcing this language. The chapters range from large-scale monuments adorned with sculpture and epigraphy to quotidian oil lamps and lead tokens and cover the entire empire from Hispania to Egypt, and from Augustus to the third century CE.