Roman Perspectives: Studies in Political and Cultural History, from the First to the Fifth Century

Description

The fifteen papers in this volume discuss issues of Roman social, cultural and political history from the foundation of the Principate to the age of barbarian settlements of the west. Working imaginatively from within the diverse evidence, they show the institutional continuity of the Roman empire between its early and later periods, and reveal the roots of political behaviour in social practice. Five of the papers, including three of the most substantial, are previously unpublished; others have appeared in collections which are now difficult to find. The author has edited the whole to bring out thematic connections as well as for consistency of presentation. CONTENTS PREFACE ABBREVIATIONS 1 GIBBON AND THE LATER ROMAN EMPIRE: Causes and circumstances 2 POWER IN THE CLASSICAL WORLD A three-cornered dialogue: Thucydides, Thomas Hobbes, Tacitus 3 RONALD SYME, CONSTANTINE THE GREAT AND THE SECOND ROMAN REVOLUTION1 4 TACITUS, AND THE INAUGURATION OF TIBERIUS 5 SIX TALES OF THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER 6 A LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 7 TRAVEL, DIPLOMACY AND THE DIFFUSION OF IDEAS IN THE ROMAN MEDITERRANEAN AND NEAR EAST 8 THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF THE BORDEAUX ITINERARY 9 AMMIANUS AND THE ETERNITY OF ROME 10 THE LETTERS OF SYMMACHUS 11 FOUR FUNERALS AND A WEDDING This world and the next in Fourth-Century Rome 12 CHILDREN’S GAMES IN AUGUSTINE’S 13 ROMAN LAW AND ROMAN HISTORY 14 AMMIANUS ON ROMAN LAW AND LAWYERS 15 ROMAN LAW AND BARBARIAN IDENTITY IN THE LATE ROMAN WEST 16 INTERPRETING THE OF THE BREVIARIUM OF ALARIC 17 MACSEN, MAXIMUS, CONSTANTINE BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX