The importance of being gorgeous : gender and Christian imperial rule in late antiquity / Susanna Elm.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Elm, Susanna, author.

Series:

Transformation of the classical heritage ; 66.

Transformation of the classical heritage ; LXVI

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Masculinity--Religious aspects--Christianity--History--To 1500.

Masculinity.

Emperors--Rome--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Emperors.

Masculinity--Political aspects.

Rome--History--Theodosians, 379-455.

Rome.

Physical Description:

xii, 320 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2026]

Summary:

"In this book, Susanna Elm radically changes our understanding of imperial rule in the later Roman Empire. As she shows, the so-called eastern decadence of the Emperor Theodosius and his successors was in fact a calculated revolution in masculinity and the representation of imperial power. Here, the emperor's hard yet soft, mature yet youthfully gorgeous beauty was central. Because the Theodosian emperors were divine--gods one could see--so was their beauty: their manliness was the face and body of God. The emperors' gorgeousness, their sparkling regalia, how they wished their bodies to be seen by their elite subjects--who authored the texts on which Elm's analysis is based--were as important as laws, taxes, and armies. Their vir-ness strategically deployed male same-sex erotic desire to enhance the unity of the realm in times of tension, incorporate the signifying potency of child emperors, and create a flexible yet stable model of Christian sovereignty"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Part I. Forever young : Theodosius and Honorius in the 380s and 390s.

Civil war triumphs and delicate men : Pacatus's Panegyric for Theodosius

The importance of being splendid : beauty, desire, and child-emperor rule

Top boys : the life of Heliogabalus in the Historia Augusta

Epic warriors and imperial father (figure)s : Claudian's Panegyrics for the consulships of Honorius and Stilicho

Love of mankind : Theodosius in Constantinople

Part II. Soft power : Arcadius and Eutropius in Constantinople, 399.

Eutropius the consul, Eutropius the eunuch : Claudian's palimpsest Against Eutropius

Eutropius the Scythian, Arcadius the Jellyfish : Synesius's On kingship

The adornment of the altar : John Chrysostom on the fallen Eutropius

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-302) and index.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND cc https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Other Format:

Online version: Elm, Susanna. Importance of being gorgeous

ISBN:

9780520425675

0520425677

9780520413344

0520413342

OCLC:

1528648683