Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire

Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 369
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780198824824
ISBN-13 : 0198824823
Rating : 4/5 (823 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire by : Adrastos Omissi

Download or read book Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire written by Adrastos Omissi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the great maxims of history is that it is written by the victors, and nowhere does this find greater support than in the later Roman Empire. Between 284 and 395 AD, no fewer than 37 men claimed imperial power, though today we recognize barely half of these men as 'legitimate' rulers and more than two thirds died at their subjects' hands. Once established in power, a new ruler needed to publicly legitimate himself and to discredit his predecessor: overt criticism of the new regime became high treason, with historians supressing their accounts for fear of reprisals and the very names of defeated emperors chiselled from public inscriptions and deleted from official records. In a period of such chaos, how can we ever hope to record in any fair or objective way the history of the Roman state? Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire is the first history of civil war in the later Roman Empire to be written in English and aims to address this question by focusing on the various ways in which successive imperial dynasties attempted to legitimate themselves and to counter the threat of almost perpetual internal challenge to their rule. Panegyric in particular emerges as a crucial tool for understanding the rapidly changing political world of the third and fourth centuries, providing direct evidence of how, in the wake of civil wars, emperors attempted to publish their legitimacy and to delegitimize their enemies. The ceremony and oratory surrounding imperial courts too was of great significance: used aggressively to dramatize and constantly recall the events of recent civil wars, the narratives produced by the court in this context also went on to have enormous influence on the messages and narratives found within contemporary historical texts. In its exploration of the ways in which successive imperial courts sought to communicate with their subjects, this volume offers a thoroughly original reworking of late Roman domestic politics, and demonstrates not only how history could be erased, rewritten, and repurposed, but also how civil war, and indeed usurpation, became endemic to the later Empire.


Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire Related Books

Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire
Language: en
Pages: 369
Authors: Adrastos Omissi
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

One of the great maxims of history is that it is written by the victors, and nowhere does this find greater support than in the later Roman Empire. Between 284
Emperors and Usurpers the Transformation of the Late Roman State
Language: en
Pages: 320
Authors: Lecturer in Ancient Classics Mark Humphries
Categories: Rome
Type: BOOK - Published: 2007-01-01 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'Emperors and Usurpers' is a history of the Roman period from the accession of Valentinian in 364 to the death of Marcian in 457, a period of turbulence and rad
Contested Monarchy
Language: en
Pages: 553
Authors: Johannes Wienand
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015 - Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Contested Monarchy offers a fresh survey of the role of the Roman monarch in a period of significant and enduring change.
The Transformation of Frontiers
Language: en
Pages: 307
Authors: Walter Pohl
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-10-01 - Publisher: BRILL

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The definition and notion of frontiers changed in the process of the transformation of the Roman world. This volume goes beyond topography to explore the meanin
Emperors and Usurpers the Transformation of the Late Roman State
Language: en
Pages: 320
Authors: Mark Humphries
Categories: Rome
Type: BOOK - Published: 2007-02 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'Emperors and Usurpers' is a history of the Roman period from the accession of Valentinian in 364 to the death of Marcian in 457, a period of turbulence and rad