Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire - Civil War, Panegyric, and the Construction of Legitimacy

Civil war and usurpation were endemic to the later Roman Empire, with no fewer than 37 men claiming imperial power between 284 and 395 AD. This volume constructs the first comprehensive history of civil war in this period through the ways in which successive dynasties manipulated history to legitimate themselves and to discredit their predecessors.

About the author

Adrastos Omissi grew up in Jersey, in the Channel Islands. From 2005, he studied at St John's College, Oxford, where he received his BA, MSt, and DPhil. After working for some years in the charities and green energy sector, he returned to Oxford in 2014 to take up a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Junior Research Fellowship in Classics and Ancient History at Oriel College. He then spent a brief period as Lecturer in Ancient History both at Oriel and at Jesus College, during which time he was awarded a prestigious Humanities Division Teaching Award, before moving to the University of Glasgow in September 2017, where he is currently Lecturer in Latin Literature. He has authored a number of articles, in both specialist and non-specialist publications, on Roman history, linguistics, and Renaissance art.

Summary

Civil war and usurpation were endemic to the later Roman Empire, with no fewer than 37 men claiming imperial power between 284 and 395 AD. This volume constructs the first comprehensive history of civil war in this period through the ways in which successive dynasties manipulated history to legitimate themselves and to discredit their predecessors.

Additional text

This is an excellent first book. Omissi is deeply immersed in the source material and a sure guide to the scholarly landscape...A thesis rooted in a bilingual corpus of evidence that influences our picture of an entire century and problematizes our relationship with multiple ancient genres of writing - this is great history.

Product details

• Authors: Adrastos Omissi, Adrastos (Lecturer in Latin Literature Omissi
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2018
• EAN: 9780198824824
• ISBN: 978-0-19-882482-4
• No. of pages: 370
• Series: Oxford Studies in Byzantium; Oxford Studies in Byzantium
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Essays, feuilletons, literary criticism, interviews; Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; Antike, Rom, Griechenland, HISTORY / Ancient / Rome, Latin, HISTORY / Military / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, military history, HISTORY / Ancient / Greece, HISTORY / Historiography, History - General History, HISTORY / Military / Ancient, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Speeches, Historiography, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Ancient Rome, Ancient History, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Ancient (Classical) Greek, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, BCE to c 500 CE, Speeches, Ancient warfare, BCE period – Protohistory