1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910811679403321

Autore

Ando Clifford <1969->

Titolo

Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman empire / / Clifford Ando

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2000

ISBN

0-520-92372-3

1-59734-672-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxi, 494 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Classics and contemporary thought ; ; 6

Disciplina

937/.06

Soggetti

Allegiance - Rome

Political stability - Rome

Roman provinces - Administration

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

Rome Cultural policy Influence

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

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

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.