Contested Monarchy: Integrating the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century Ad

ISBN-13: 9780199768998 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 552 str.

Johannes Wienand

Opis

Contested Monarchy reappraises the wide-ranging and lasting transformation of the Roman monarchy between the Principate and Late Antiquity. The book takes as its focus the century from Diocletian to Theodosius I (284-395), a period during which the stability of monarchical rule depended heavily on the emperor's mobility, on collegial or dynastic rule, and on the military resolution of internal political crises. At the same time, profound religious changes modified the premises of political interaction and symbolic communication between the emperor and his subjects, and administrative and military readjustments changed the institutional foundations of the Roman monarchy. This volume concentrates on the measures taken by emperors of this period to cope with the changing framework of their rule. The collection examines monarchy along three distinct yet intertwined fields: Administering the Empire, Performing the Monarchy, and Balancing Religious Change. Each field possesses its own historiography and methodology, and accordingly has usually been treated separately. This volume's multifaceted approach builds on recent scholarship and trends to examine imperial rule in a more integrated fashion. With new work from a wide range of international scholars, Contested Monarchy offers a fresh survey of the role of the Roman monarchy in a period of significant and enduring change.

Recenzje

This is a book that deepens our sense of the complexity, and unexpectedness, of the late Roman Empire. It is a landmark.

O autorze

Dr. Johannes Wienand is Assistant Professor of Ancient History and Classics at Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany.