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Narratives of the Roman Empire
How to Make Rome with Words and Rituals
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Edited by:
Fernando Lozano
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
Since Republican times, Rome has fostered ideological constructs aimed at justifying its conquest and domination of the Mediterranean. This process gathered steam in the imperial age, as the contributions of the conquered regions gradually assimilated into the empire.
Words and rituals represented the empire not as the Roman domination of conquered nations, but as a community capable of integrating the provincials. This was not merely an ideological construct: the new community was indeed a result of the integration of different peoples and their political, cultural and religious traditions.
This idea of empire was present at very different levels: documents directly emanating from the emperors and all kinds of literature. Rites also contributed to shaping imperial discourse, laying firm ideological foundations for the symbolic construction of the community and disseminating the imperial discourse among its members.
Words and rituals contributed to creating new mindsets that progressively supplemented the old political and social mores and customs with a new ‘narrative of empire’, and vice versa: narratives contributed to shaping the very idea of empire.
Words and rituals represented the empire not as the Roman domination of conquered nations, but as a community capable of integrating the provincials. This was not merely an ideological construct: the new community was indeed a result of the integration of different peoples and their political, cultural and religious traditions.
This idea of empire was present at very different levels: documents directly emanating from the emperors and all kinds of literature. Rites also contributed to shaping imperial discourse, laying firm ideological foundations for the symbolic construction of the community and disseminating the imperial discourse among its members.
Words and rituals contributed to creating new mindsets that progressively supplemented the old political and social mores and customs with a new ‘narrative of empire’, and vice versa: narratives contributed to shaping the very idea of empire.
Author / Editor information
Fernando Lozano, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain; Juan Manuel Cortés Copete, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain; Elena Muñiz Grijalvo, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain.
Topics
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Frontmatter
I -
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Foreword
V -
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Contents
VII -
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List of Figures
XI -
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Introduction: How to Make Rome? Words, Narratives and Rituals in the Shaping of the Roman Empire
1 - Part I: The Performative Power of Words: Imperial Power, Law and Political Ritual
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The Words of the Senate in Empire-Building and Its Interaction with Local Communities: Discourse and Performance
11 -
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An Empire of Letters and the Power of Presence: Rethinking the Constitutive Performances of Imperial Power and Law
29 -
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Units of Rule in Roman Legislation
47 -
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Staging the Prince’s Words: Performativity and Political Ritual in the First Three Centuries of the Principate
59 -
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Words of the Lord: The ethne and Hadrianus Augustus Restitutor
87 -
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The Leagues and the Territorial Administration of the Roman Empire by Means of Imperial Letters
111 - Part II: Empire-Building in the Literary Sources: Rhetoric, Sophist and Historiography
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The Message of the Second Sophistic (from Dio of Prusa and Plutarch)
127 -
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Aelius Aristides’ Speech Regarding Rome: Epideictic Rhetoric and Ideological Negotiation
137 -
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Subabsurda Roma: A View of the Roman Imperial State Through the Lens of the Historia Augusta
153 -
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Narratives of Failure: The Botched Campaigns Against Hatra in Roman Historiography
175 - Part III: The Performative Power of Rituals: Traditional Religion, Imperial Rituals and New Religious Discourses on the Empire
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Animal Sacrifice as Normative Cult Practice in the Roman Empire
199 -
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Rituals that Built the Empire: sunthusia oikoumenes
213 -
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Greek Games for a Roman Emperor: Augustus and the Power of Greek Festivals
227 -
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The Construction of Imperial Narratives Through Virtues
245 -
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Imperial Cult Narratives: The Case of Hispania
263 -
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Words and Rituals for the Dead: Hadrian Among Hellenic Heroes
281 - Part IV: Empire-Building in a Provincial Setting: Local Discourses and Imperial Dynamisms
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Placing Epiros in the Emperor’s Narrative: Local Initiative and Provincial Discourse at the Time of Hadrian
301 -
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Hadrian’s Policy in Jerusalem and Underlying Imperial Discourses
319 -
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Imperial Power and the Cities: The Hadrianic Narrative of Italica
339 -
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List of Contributors
351 -
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Index of Literary Sources
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Index of Epigraphic Sources
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Index Personae
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Index of Places
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 15, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9783111707020
Hardcover published on:
December 15, 2025
Hardcover ISBN:
9783111706931
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
9
Main content:
376
Illustrations:
17
Coloured Illustrations:
11
Tables:
2
Audience(s) for this book
Ancient Historians, Classicists, Roman Archaeologists
Safety & product resources
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Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
