Sacred Founders: Women, Men, and Gods in the Discourse of Imperial Founding, Rome through Early Byzantium

Diliana Angelova argues that from the time of Augustus through early Byzantium, a discourse of "sacred founders"-articulated in artwork, literature, imperial honors, and the built environment-helped legitimize the authority of the emperor and his family. The discourse coalesced around the central idea, bound to a myth of origins, that imperial men and women were sacred founders of the land, mirror images of the empire's divine founders. When Constantine and his formidable mother Helena esta...