Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire

by Clifford Ando

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520280168
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	08/29/2013
Series:	Classics and Contemporary Thought , #6
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	520
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.50(d)
Lexile:	1720L (what's this?)

About the Author

Clifford Ando is David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor of Classics, History, and Law at the University of Chicago. He is also Research Fellow in the Department of Classics and World Languages at the University of South Africa.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface and Acknowledgments xi

Abbreviations xv

1 Introduction: Communis Patria 1

Part 1 Ancient and Modern Contexts

2 Ideology in the Roman Empire 19

3 The Roman Achievement in Ancient Thought 49

Part 2 Consensus and Communication

4 The Communicative Actions of the Roman Government 73

Habermas and Rome

Notarized Documents and Local Archives

Local Archives and Local History

New Legislation and Individual Liability

To Read or to Hear the Law

The Distribution and Reception of Official Documents

Finding History in the Filing Cabinet

5 Consensus in Theory and Practice 131

Roman Emperors and Public Opinion

Augustus as Augustan Author

The Senate as Socius Laborum

The Imposing Façade of Senatorial Support

Local Reactions to Events in the Life of the Emperor

6 The Creation of Consensus 175

Aurum Coronarium

The Slow Journey of Eutherius

Acting Out Consensus

7 Images of Emperor and Empire 206

Decius and the Divi

Symbolic Forms in Roman Life

Who Was Thought to Control the Mints?

The Distribution of Imperial Portraits

The Power of Imperial Portraits

Imperial Portraits and the Failure of Charisma

The Arrival of Roman Portraits in a Christian Empire

The Art of Victory

Signa of Rome, Signa of Power

Concordia in Church and State

Part 3 From Imperium to Patria

8 Orbis Terrarum and Orbis Romanus 277

Augustus and Victory

Triumphator Perpetuus

Ex Sanguine Romano Triumphator

The Reception of Imperial Artwork in the Provinces

How to Appeal to a Province

The Geography of the Roman Empire

Hadrian and the Limits of Empire

9 The King Is a Body Politick … for that a Body Politique Never Dieth 336

How Did One Join the Roman Community?

The Ritual Life of the Roman Citizen

The Emperor and His Subordinates

The Faith of Fifty Million People

The Discovery of Roman Religion

The Father of the Human Race

10 Conclusion: Singulare et Unicum Imperium 406

Works Cited 413

General Index 451

Index Locorum 459

Editorial Reviews

A thoughtful and original account.

Times Literary Supplement