The construction of authority in ancient Rome and Byzantium

Sarolta A. Takács

"In The Construction of Authority in Ancient Rome and Byzantium, Sarolta Takacs examines the role of the Roman emperor, who was the single most important law-giving authority in Roman society. Emperors had to embody the qualities or virtues espoused by Rome's ruling classes. Political rhetoric shaped the ancients' reality and played a part in the upkeep of their political structures. Takacs isolates a reoccurring cultural pattern, a conscious appropriation of symbols and signs (verbal and visual) belonging to the Roman Empire. She suggests that contemporary concepts of "empire" may have Roman precedents, which are reactivations or reuses of well-established ancient patterns. Showing the dialectical interactivity between the constructed past and present, Takacs also focuses on the issue of classical legacy through these virtues, which are not simply repeated or adapted cultural...

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