Emperors and Ancestors: Roman Rulers and the Constraints of Tradition

Description

Emperors and Ancestors is the first systematic analysis of the different ways in which imperial lineage was represented in the various 'media' through which images of emperors could be transmitted. Rather than focusing on individual rulers, Hekster evaluates evidence over an extended period of time and differentiates between various types of sources, such as inscriptions, sculpture, architecture, literary text, and particularly central coinage, whichforms the most convenient source material for a modern reconstruction of Roman representations over a prolonged period of time. Cover Emperors and Ancestors: Roman Rulers and the Constraints of Tradition Copyright Dedication Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures List of Tables Abbreviations Prologue ONE: Introduction to Dynastic Rule Dynastic Emperorship and Succession Roman Ancestry and Historical Precedent Concepts of Kinship Communicating Power and Representing Rule Media and Sources PART ONE: Family Ties TWO: Running in the Family Fathers on Imperial Coins in the Early Empire Innovation and Tradition: Paternal Coins in the Second and Third Centuries Trajan: The Son of Two Fathers Adopting Power Born to Rule Emperors and Their Fathers THREE: Your Mother´s Son Public Commemoration of Women before the Principate Imperial (Grand)Mothers Under the Julio-Claudians Wives or Mothers? Honour Thy (Grand)Mother: the Severans Emperors and Their Mothers FOUR: We Go Way Back Augustus or Caesar: Julio-Claudian Ancestry Nerva and The Institution of A Domus Divina The Augustan Household in Ancient Literature Non-Imperial Lineage in Imperial Times A Family at the Centre of the World PART TWO: Claiming Kinship FIVE: Some Have Ancestors Thrust Upon Them Invented Ancestry in the Early Empire Divi Marci Antonini Pii Filius The Importance of being Bastards? One or the Many Claudius Gothicus and a Tangled Lineage Invented Ancestry in the late Empire SIX: Sons of Gods and Heroes Founders of Rome: The Julian Gens and Descent From Aeneas Don´t Mention the Ancestors! Divine Claims in the Early Principate The Emperors´ Divine Comites Mars Pater? Children of Gods in the Provinces SEVEN: The Tetrarchs Parents without Wives or Mothers Non-Dynastic Succession and Dynastic Rebellion Sons of Gods? Praising the Imperial Family Tetrarchic Innovation and the Constraints of Tradition Conclusions Emperors and their Dates of Rule Gallic Empireh (260–274) Tetrarchic Rulers Imperial Stemmata Bibliographyh Index Locorum Literary Sourcesh Coins Inscriptions and Papyrih General Index