1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910821940703321

Autore

Takacs Sarolta A

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge ; ; New York, : Cambridge University Press, 2009

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

Descrizione fisica

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

Disciplina

320.937

Soggetti

Rhetoric, Ancient

Byzantine Empire Politics and government

Rome Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

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

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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?

Sommario/riassunto

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.