Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire

Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire PDF Author: Adrastos Omissi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198824823
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Civil war and usurpation were endemic to the later Roman Empire, with no fewer than 37 men claiming imperial power between 284 and 395 AD. This volume constructs the first comprehensive history of civil war in this period through the ways in which successive dynasties manipulated history to legitimate themselves and to discredit their predecessors.

Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire

Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire PDF Author: Adrastos Omissi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198824823
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Civil war and usurpation were endemic to the later Roman Empire, with no fewer than 37 men claiming imperial power between 284 and 395 AD. This volume constructs the first comprehensive history of civil war in this period through the ways in which successive dynasties manipulated history to legitimate themselves and to discredit their predecessors.

Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire

Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire PDF Author: Adrastos Omissi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192558277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
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

Emperors and Usurpers PDF Author: Andrew G. Scott
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190879599
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
This historical commentary examines books 79(78)-80(80) of Cassius Dio's Roman History, which cover the period from the death of Caracalla in A. D. 217. to the reign of Severus Alexander and Cassius Dio's retirement from political life in 229. Cassius Dio, a Roman Senator, provides a valuable eyewitness account of this turbulent period, which was marked by the assassination of Caracalla, the rise of Macrinus, Rome's first equestrian emperor, and his subsequent overthrow, the tempestuous, and by all accounts peculiar, reign of Elagabalus, and the continuation of the Severan dynasty under the young Severus Alexander. In addition to elucidating important passages from these books, this study assesses Cassius Dio's political life and its relationship to his literary career; his call to history and time of composition; his historical method; and his attitude toward and subsequent presentation of the later Severan dynasty. In its investigation of books 79(78)-80(80), the work assesses an important stretch of Dio's actual text, which for other parts has been preserved largely in epitome and excerpts. Finally, the work aims to fill a gap in scholarship, as no commentary on these books of Cassius Dio's history has been produced since the nineteenth century, and its publication coincides with a renewed interest in the history and historiography of the Severan period.

Emperors and Usurpers

Emperors and Usurpers PDF Author: Andrew G. Scott
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780190879624
Category : Rome
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Constantius II

Constantius II PDF Author: Peter Crawford
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473883938
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
A compelling biography of Constantine I’s heir: “Excellent analyses of a number of battles and sieges . . . a good read for anyone interested in the late Empire.” —The NYMAS Review The reign of Constantius II has been overshadowed by that of his titanic father, Constantine the Great, and his cousin and successor, the pagan Julian. But as Peter Crawford shows, Constantius deserves to be remembered as a very capable ruler in dangerous, tumultuous times. When Constantine I died in 337, twenty-year-old Constantius and his two brothers, Constans and Constantine II, all received the title of Augustus to reign as equal co-emperors. In 340, however, Constantine II was killed in a fraternal civil war with Constans. The two remaining brothers shared the Empire for the next ten years, with Constantius ruling Egypt and the Asian provinces, constantly threatened by the Sassanid Persian Empire. Constans in turn was killed by the usurper Magnentius in 350. Constantius refused to accept this fait accompli, made war on Magnentius, and defeated him at the battles of Mursa Major and Mons Seleucus, leading Magnentius to commit suicide. Constantius was now sole ruler of the Empire—but it was an empire beset by external enemies. This historical biography recounts Constantius’ life and his successful campaigns against the Germanic Alamanni along the Rhine and the Quadi and Sarmatians across the Danube, as well as his efforts against the Persians in the East, which had more mixed results—and reveals how he defended the Empire until his dying day.

Emperors and Usurpers the Transformation of the Late Roman State

Emperors and Usurpers the Transformation of the Late Roman State PDF Author: Mark Humphries
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780748611423
Category : Rome
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
'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 radical change, by the end of which the empire had fragmented.

Carausius and Allectus

Carausius and Allectus PDF Author: P J Casey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113578227X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
This extraordinary episode in the history of Roman Britain has been brilliantly pieced together by John Casey, through a painstaking - and at times detective-like - sifting of the literary, archaeological and numismatic evidence.

Emperors and Usurpers the Transformation of the Late Roman State

Emperors and Usurpers the Transformation of the Late Roman State PDF Author: Lecturer in Ancient Classics Mark Humphries
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780748611430
Category : Rome
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
'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 radical change, by the end of which the empire had fragmented.

Remembering Constantine at the Milvian Bridge

Remembering Constantine at the Milvian Bridge PDF Author: Raymond Van Dam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139499726
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Constantine's victory in 312 at the battle of the Milvian Bridge established his rule as the first Christian emperor. This book examines the creation and dissemination of the legends about that battle and its significance. Christian histories, panegyrics and an honorific arch at Rome soon commemorated his victory, and the emperor himself contributed to the myth by describing his vision of a cross in the sky before the battle. Through meticulous research into the late Roman narratives and the medieval and Byzantine legends, this book moves beyond a strictly religious perspective by emphasizing the conflicts about the periphery of the Roman empire, the nature of emperorship and the role of Rome as a capital city. Throughout late antiquity and the medieval period, memories of Constantine's victory served as a powerful paradigm for understanding rulership in a Christian society.

The Emperors of Rome

The Emperors of Rome PDF Author: Michael Peter Carey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Emperors
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description