Description
Book SynopsisThe collective volume Gaining and Losing Imperial Favour in Late Antiquity: Representation and Reality, edited by Kamil Cyprian Choda, Maurits Sterk de Leeuw and Fabian Schulz, offers new insights into the political culture of the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., where the emperor’s favour was paramount. The articles examine how people gained, maintained, or lost imperial favour. The contributors approach this theme by studying processes of interpersonal influence and competition through the lens of modern sociological models. Taking into account both political reality and literary representation, this volume will have much to offer students of late-antique history and/or literature as well as those interested in the politics of pre-modern monarchical states.
Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements List of Figures List of Abbreviations Introduction Part 2: Competition at the Late-Antique Court: Structures and Effects 1 “The Greatest Glory Is Always Habitually Subject to Envy”—Competition and Conflict over Closeness to the Emperor at the Roman Court in the 4th Century Isabelle Künzer 2 The Importance of Being Splendid: Competition, Ceremonial, and the Semiotics of Status at the Court of the Late Roman Emperors (4th–6th Centuries) Christian Rollinger 3 The venatio in the Emperor’s Presence? The consistorium and the Military Men of the Late Roman Empire in the West Vedran Bileta Part 3: Watch Your Words: the Role of Language in Gaining or Losing Imperial Favour 4 Symmachus’ Epistolary Influence: the Rehabiliation of Nicomachus Flavianus through Recommendation Letters Bruno Marien 5 Losing the Empress’s Favour: on the Margins of John Chrysostom’s Homily 48 on Matthew Kamil Cyprian Choda 6 Buying Imperial Favour: Cyril of Alexandria’s Blessings Maurits Sterk de Leeuw Attack as the Best Defence: Resisting Unwelcome Influence 7 Kept in the Dark, Narratives of Imperial Seclusion in Late Antiquity Martijn Icks 8 Jovian, an Emperor Who Did Not Bow to Heretics and Infidels? A Critical Reading of the Petitiones Arianorum Fabian Schulz 9 Divining to Gain (or Lose) the Favour of Usurpers: the Case of Pamprepius of Panopolis (440–484) Regina Fichera Index
