Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire / Clifford Ando.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ando, Clifford, 1969-

Series:

Classics and contemporary thought ; 6.

Classics and contemporary thought ; 6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Allegiance--Rome.

Allegiance.

Political stability--Rome.

Political stability.

Roman provinces--Administration.

Roman provinces.

Rome--History--Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D--Influence.

Rome.

Rome--Cultural policy--Influence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 494 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Roman empire remains unique. Although Rome claimed to rule the world, it did not. Rather, its uniqueness stems from the culture it created and the loyalty it inspired across an area that stretched from the Tyne to the Euphrates. Moreover, the empire created this culture with a bureaucracy smaller than that of a typical late-twentieth-century research university. In approaching this problem, Clifford Ando does not ask the ever-fashionable question, Why did the Roman empire fall? Rather, he asks, Why did the empire last so long? Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire argues that the longevity of the empire rested not on Roman military power but on a gradually realized consensus that Roman rule was justified. This consensus was itself the product of a complex conversation between the central government and its far-flung peripheries. Ando investigates the mechanisms that sustained this conversation, explores its contribution to the legitimation of Roman power, and reveals as its product the provincial absorption of the forms and content of Roman political and legal discourse. Throughout, his sophisticated and subtle reading is informed by current thinking on social formation by theorists such as Max Weber, Jürgen Habermas, and Pierre Bourdieu.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

1. Introduction: Communis Patria

2. Ideology in the Roman Empire

3. The Roman Achievement in Ancient Thought

4. The Communicative Actions of the Roman Government

5. Consensus in Theory and Practice

6. The Creation of Consensus

7. Images of Emperor and Empire

8. Orbis Terrarum and Orbis Romanus

9. The King Is a Body Politick . . . for that a Body Politique Never Dieth

10. Conclusion: Singulare et Unicum Imperium

Works Cited

General Index

Index Locorum

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 413-449) and indexes.

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

9780520923720

0520923723

9781597346726

1597346721

OCLC:

475927973