Hidden Bibliographic Details
| ISBN: | 9781107333444
110733344X
9781107336766
1107336767
1139382756
9781139382755
9781107031722
1107031729
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| Notes: | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Print version record.
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| Summary: | This innovative study illuminates the role of polemical literature in the political life of the Roman empire by examining the earliest surviving invectives directed against a living emperor. Written by three bishops (Athanasius of Alexandria, Hilary of Poitiers, Lucifer of Cagliari), these texts attacked Constantius II (337-61) for his vicious and tyrannical behaviour, as well as his heretical religious beliefs. This book explores the strategies employed by these authors to present themselves as fearless champions of liberty and guardians of faith, as they sought to bolster their authority at a time when they were out of step with the prevailing imperial view of Christian orthodoxy. Furthermore, by analysing this unique collection of writings alongside late antique panegyrics and ceremonial, it also rehabilitates anti-imperial polemic as a serious political activity and explores the ways in which it functioned within the complex web of presentations and perceptions that underpinned late Roman power relationships.
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| Other form: | Print version: Flower, Richard, 1980- Emperors and bishops in late Roman invective. New York : Cambridge University Press, 2013 9781107031722
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