Princeps a Diis Electus
Author: J. Rufus Fears
Publisher:
Published: 1977
Total Pages: 390
ISBN-13:
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The Byzantine Republic
Author: Anthony Kaldellis
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2015-02-02
Total Pages: 309
ISBN-13: 0674967402
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAlthough Byzantium is known to history as the Eastern Roman Empire, scholars have long claimed that this Greek Christian theocracy bore little resemblance to Rome. Here, in a revolutionary model of Byzantine politics and society, Anthony Kaldellis reconnects Byzantium to its Roman roots, arguing that from the fifth to the twelfth centuries CE the Eastern Roman Empire was essentially a republic, with power exercised on behalf of the people and sometimes by them too. The Byzantine Republic recovers for the historical record a less autocratic, more populist Byzantium whose Greek-speaking citizens considered themselves as fully Roman as their Latin-speaking “ancestors.” Kaldellis shows that the idea of Byzantium as a rigid imperial theocracy is a misleading construct of Western historians since the Enlightenment. With court proclamations often draped in Christian rhetoric, the notion of divine kingship emerged as a way to disguise the inherent vulnerability of each regime. The legitimacy of the emperors was not predicated on an absolute right to the throne but on the popularity of individual emperors, whose grip on power was tenuous despite the stability of the imperial institution itself. Kaldellis examines the overlooked Byzantine concept of the polity, along with the complex relationship of emperors to the law and the ways they bolstered their popular acceptance and avoided challenges. The rebellions that periodically rocked the empire were not aberrations, he shows, but an essential part of the functioning of the republican monarchy.
Ancient Greece and Rome
Author: Keith Hopwood
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 1995
Total Pages: 472
ISBN-13: 9780719024016
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSir Thomas Fairfax, not Oliver Cromwell, was creator and commander of Parliament's New Model Army from 1645 to1650. Although Fairfax emerged as England's most successful commander of the 1640s, this book challenges the orthodoxy that he was purely a military figure, showing how he was not apolitical or disinterested in politics. The book combines narrative and thematic approaches to explore the wider issues of popular allegiance, puritan religion, concepts of honour, image, reputation, memory, gender, literature, and Fairfax's relationship with Cromwell. 'Black Tom' delivers a groundbreaking examination of the transformative experience of the English revolution from the viewpoint of one of its leading, yet most neglected, participants. It is the first modern academic study of Fairfax, making it essential reading for university students as well as historians of the seventeenth century. Its accessible style will appeal to a wider audience of those interested in the civil wars and interregnum more generally.
Emperors and Ancestors
Author: Olivier Hekster
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2015-03-19
Total Pages: 428
ISBN-13: 0191056553
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAncestry played a continuous role in the construction and portrayal of Roman emperorship in the first three centuries AD. Emperors and Ancestors is the first systematic analysis of the different ways in which imperial lineage was represented in the various 'media' through which images of emperors could be transmitted. Looking beyond individual rulers, Hekster evaluates evidence over an extended period of time and differentiates between various types of sources, such as inscriptions, sculpture, architecture, literary text, and particularly central coinage, which forms the most convenient source material for a modern reconstruction of Roman representations over a prolonged period of time. The volume explores how the different media in use sent out different messages. The importance of local notions and traditions in the choice of local representations of imperial ancestry are emphasized, revealing that there was no monopoly on image-forming by the Roman centre and far less interaction between central and local imagery than is commonly held. Imperial ancestry is defined through various parallel developments at Rome and in the provinces. Some messages resonated outside the centre but only when they were made explicit and fitted local practice and the discourse of the medium. The construction of imperial ancestry was constrained by the local expectations of how a ruler should present himself, and standardization over time of the images and languages that could be employed in the 'media' at imperial disposal. Roman emperorship is therefore shown to be a constant process of construction within genres of communication, representation, and public symbolism.
Studies in Stoicism
Author: P. A. Brunt
Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)
Published: 2013-03-28
Total Pages: 529
ISBN-13: 0199695857
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis important volume fulfills one of Peter Brunt's (1917 - 2005) last wishes: a collection of his most important papers in the area of scholarship that had occupied him in his earliest years of research, and which largely absorbed his attention after his retirement from the Camden Chair of Roman History at Oxford University in 1982. Brunt was interested primarily in Stoicism in the Roman period, and his chief concern was the practical influence of its ethical teaching on political and social life. Although his investigations were historical, they required a complete mastery of the Stoic texts and doctrine. Basing his work almost entirely on the ancient sources, Brunt provides the most complete account and comparison available today not only of the ideas of the Roman Stoic moralists, but also of the political philosophy of the Greek founders of the Stoa. He believed that the ideas of the Stoics of the Roman period were essentially continuous with the thinking of the founders, and he did not accept that the concern with practical everyday morality in later Stoicism was a new development. Studies in Stoicism contains six unpublished and seven republished essays, the latter incorporating additions and changes which Brunt wished to be made. The papers have been integrated and arranged in roughly chronological order and by subject matter, with an accessible lecture to the Oxford Philological Society serving as Brunt's own introduction.
Conquerors and Slaves
Author: Keith Hopkins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1981-01-31
Total Pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9780521281812
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe enormous size of the Roman empire and the length of time it endured call for an understanding of the institutions which sustained it. In this book, Keith Hopkins, who is both classicist and sociologist, uses various sociological concepts and methods to gain new insights into how traditional Roman institutions changed as the Romans acquired their empire. He examines the chain reactions resulting from increased wealth; various aspects of slavery, especially manumission and the cost of freedom; the curious phenomenon of the political power wielded by eunuchs at court; and in the final chapter he discusses the Roman emperor's divinity and the circulation of untrue stories, which were a currency of the political system. Professor Hopkins has developed an exciting approach to social questions in antiquity and his book should be of interest to all students of ancient history and of historical sociology.
Eternal Victory
Author: Michael McCormick
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1990-06-29
Total Pages: 476
ISBN-13: 9780521386593
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Roman triumph's resurgence is documented from the Tetrarchy through the end of the Macedonian dynasty in Byzantium and to Charlemagne's successors in the early medieval West.
The Mythic Voice of Statius
Author: William J. Dominik
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 1994
Total Pages: 228
ISBN-13: 9789004099722
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis critical study of Statius' "Thebaid" focuses on the central theme of power how it is exercised on the supernatural and human levels, the consequences of its pursuit and abuse in terms of the human condition, and the question of its contemporary relevance.
The Mythic Voice of Statius
Author: William J. Dominik
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 1994-10-01
Total Pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9004329412
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis is the first thematic study of Statius' Thebaid to be published in monograph form in English in the past twenty years. It examines in detail the thematic design and intent of the Thebaid and considers the question of its contemporary relevance. The book focuses on the central theme of power — how it is exercised on the supernatural and human levels and the consequences of its pursuit and abuse in terms of the human condition. An ensuing discussion explores the political undercurrents of the epic. This discussion is in four main parts: (1) 'Use and Abuse of Supernatural Power'; (2) 'Pursuit and Abuse of Monarchal Power'; (3) 'Consequences of the Abuse of Power'; and (4) 'Political Relevance to Contemporary Rome'. The views expressed represent a fundamental departure from previous studies and constitute a critical reassessment of the Thebaid. The provision of translations makes the book accessible to the Latinless reader.
Policing the Roman Empire
Author: Christopher J. Fuhrmann
Publisher: OUP USA
Published: 2012-01-12
Total Pages: 355
ISBN-13: 0199737843
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDrawing on a wide variety of source material from art archaeology, administrative documents, Egyptian papyri, laws Jewish and Christian religious texts and ancient narratives this book provides a comprehensive overview of Roman imperial policing practices.
