The construction of authority in ancient Rome and Byzantium : the rhetoric of empire / Sarolta A. Takács.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Takács, Sarolta A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rhetoric, Ancient.

Rome--Politics and government.

Rome.

Byzantine Empire--Politics and government.

Byzantine Empire.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiii, 167 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

The Construction of Authority in Ancient Rome & Byzantium

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In The Construction of Authority in Ancient Rome and Byzantium, Sarolta Takács examines the role of the Roman emperor, who was the single most important law-giving authority in Roman society. Emperors had to embody the qualities or virtues espoused by Rome's ruling classes. Political rhetoric shaped the ancients' reality and played a part in the upkeep of their political structures. Takács isolates a reccurring cultural pattern, a conscious appropriation of symbols and signs (verbal and visual) belonging to the Roman Empire. She shows that many contemporary concepts of 'empire' have Roman precedents, which are reactivations or reuses of well-established ancient patterns. Showing the dialectical interactivity between the constructed past and present, Takács also focuses on the issue of classical legacy through these virtues, which are not simply repeated or adapted cultural patterns, but are tools for the legitimization of political power, authority, and even domination of one nation over another.

Contents:

Ch. 1. Republican Rome's Rhetorical Pattern of Political Authority

Virtual Reality: To Win Fame and Practice Virtue

Creation of a Public Image: Rome's Virtuous Man

Virtue and Remembrance: The Tomb of the Scipiones

Variations on the Theme: Cicero's Virtuous Roman

Pater Patriae: Symbol of Authority and Embodiment of Tradition

Virtuous Father: Gaius Julius Caesar

Ch. 2. Empire of Words and Men

Augustus's Achievements: A Memory Shaped

Horace's Poem 3.2: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

Nero: What an Artist Dies with Me!

Vespasian: The Upstart from Reate

Trajan: Jupiter on Earth

Maximus: Hollywood's Ideal Roman

Ch. 3. Appropriation of a Pattern Mending the Known World Order

New World Order

Constantine, Very Wisely, Seldom Said "No"

Pagan's Last Stand

Augustine: The Christian Cicero

Claudian's On the Fourth Consulate of Honorius

Ch. 4. Power of Rhetoric

Last Roman Emperor: Justinian

First Byzantine Emperor: Heraclius

View to the West: Charlemagne

Back to the East: A Theocratic State?

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-19918-2

1-281-77586-X

9786611775865

0-511-42389-6

0-511-51181-7

0-511-42272-5

0-511-42437-X

0-511-42206-7

0-511-42338-1

OCLC:

294758962