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Author: John D. Grainger Publisher: Pen and Sword History ISBN: 1526766051 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 494
Book Description
An investigation of how a man could become a Roman emperor, and the failure to create an enduring, consistent system for selecting the next emperor. John D. Grainger analyses the Roman imperial succession, demonstrating that the empire organized by Augustus was fundamentally flawed in the method it used to find emperors. Augustus’s system was a mixture of heredity, senatorial, and military influences, and these were generally antagonistic. Consequently, the Empire went through a series of crises, in which the succession to a previous, usually dead, emperor was the main issue. The infamous “Year of the Four Emperors,” AD 69, is only the most famous of these crises, which often involved bouts of bloody and destructive civil war, assassinations and purges. These were followed by a period, usually relatively short, in which the victor in the “crisis” established a new system, juggling the three basic elements identified by Augustus, but which was as fragile and short lived as its predecessor; these “consequences” of each crisis are discussed. The lucid and erudite text is supported by over 22 genealogical tables and 100 images illustrating the Emperors. Praise of The Roman Imperial Succession “For a general introduction to the question of how one becomes a Roman emperor, Grainger has provided a sound guide.” —Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Author: John D. Grainger Publisher: Pen and Sword History ISBN: 1526766051 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 494
Book Description
An investigation of how a man could become a Roman emperor, and the failure to create an enduring, consistent system for selecting the next emperor. John D. Grainger analyses the Roman imperial succession, demonstrating that the empire organized by Augustus was fundamentally flawed in the method it used to find emperors. Augustus’s system was a mixture of heredity, senatorial, and military influences, and these were generally antagonistic. Consequently, the Empire went through a series of crises, in which the succession to a previous, usually dead, emperor was the main issue. The infamous “Year of the Four Emperors,” AD 69, is only the most famous of these crises, which often involved bouts of bloody and destructive civil war, assassinations and purges. These were followed by a period, usually relatively short, in which the victor in the “crisis” established a new system, juggling the three basic elements identified by Augustus, but which was as fragile and short lived as its predecessor; these “consequences” of each crisis are discussed. The lucid and erudite text is supported by over 22 genealogical tables and 100 images illustrating the Emperors. Praise of The Roman Imperial Succession “For a general introduction to the question of how one becomes a Roman emperor, Grainger has provided a sound guide.” —Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Author: John D. Grainger Publisher: Psychology Press ISBN: 9780415349581 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 198
Book Description
John Grainger's detailed study examines a period of intrigue and conspiracy, studies how, why and by whom Domitian was killed and investigates the effects of this dynastic uncertainty and why civil war didn't occur in this time of political upheaval.
Author: Peter Michael Swan Publisher: Oxford : Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195167740 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 449
Book Description
"This commentary pays close critical attention to Dio's historical sources, methods, and assumptions as it also strives to present him as a figure in his own right. During a long life (ca. 164-after 229), Dio served as a Roman senator under seven emperors from Commodus to Severus Alexander, governed three Roman provinces, and was twice consul."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Garrett G. Fagan Publisher: ISBN: Category : Emperors Languages : en Pages : 245
Book Description
"The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the methods of succession that operated in the Julio-Claudian period, from Augustus' illness in 23 BC to the accession of Vespasian in AD 69. Attention will be paid to the succession schemes, if any, of each Emperor; methods of designation employed to mark out potential successors; the growth of military influence on the succession as seen in the interventions of the Praetorian Guard and the provincial armies; and major conspiracies and their impact on the succession. Chapter I will show that Augustus, the first Emperor, whose actions in regard to the succession set the pattern for subsequent principes to follow, did not adhere to any single rigid scheme of succession as some scholars would have us believe. By means of adoption, marriage and conferral of privileges and powers, Augustus maintained a pool of imperial princes from which possible successors could be drawn. His motivation was two-fold: a concern for the continued stability of the State, and a desire to see his family, the Julian, remain in power. Tiberius (chapter II) remained loyal to his predecessor's intentions but these were thwarted by the intervention of the Praetorian Prefect, L. Aelius Sejanus. Conspiring to establish himself as Tiberius' successor, Sejanus effectively destroyed the house of Germanicus before being himself discovered and executed. Tiberius, old and virtually paranoid, did little in his last years to indicate a successor and Gaius Caligula rose to prominence with the help of Sejanus' replacement, Macro, and with minimal support from Tiberius. The assassination of Gaius and the accession of Claudius (chapter III) was the first direct intervention in the succession by the military, in this case the Praetorian Guard. The Principate was shown to be a military autocracy, Claudius coming to power only by virtue of his military support and in the face of senatorial opposition. Once established, the Emperor returned to an Augustan-style succession scheme, elevating two men as possible replacements for his natural son, Britannicus. His marriage to Agrippina resulted in the eclipse of Britannicus in favour of her natural son whom Claudius was persuaded to adopt and elevate. This was the Emperor Nero who succeeded Claudius peacefully. Chapter IV will show how Nero, feeling insecure on the throne, annihilated all his rivals from within the dynasty and so weakened its position, for those rivals were also the very people who could have provided the childless Emperor with a possible successor. Finally, a movement in the provinces led to Nero's downfall and death, and the collapse of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. With the succession thrown wide open, the army commanders struggled for power in a year of civil war which concluded when Vespasian emerged victorious to found the Flavian dynasty. We will conclude that the question of the succession was not effectively solved by the Julio-Claudians who developed ad hoc methods to indicate successors. The military, always the true basis for the Emperor's power, gradually began to realise their potential and when the dynasty collapsed army commanders fought it out to determine the next Emperor. The succession remained a source of intrigue and violence throughout our period and beyond.
Author: Stephen Williams Publisher: Psychology Press ISBN: 9780415918275 Category : Diocletian, Emperor of Rome, 245-313 Languages : en Pages : 382
Book Description
This collection of essays and reviews represents the most significant and comprehensive writing on Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors. Miola's edited work also features a comprehensive critical history, coupled with a full bibliography and photographs of major productions of the play from around the world. In the collection, there are five previously unpublished essays. The topics covered in these new essays are women in the play, the play's debt to contemporary theater, its critical and performance histories in Germany and Japan, the metrical variety of the play, and the distinctly modern perspective on the play as containing dark and disturbing elements. To compliment these new essays, the collection features significant scholarship and commentary on The Comedy of Errors that is published in obscure and difficulty accessible journals, newspapers, and other sources. This collection brings together these essays for the first time.
Author: Fik Meijer Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 113438405X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
This fresh and engaging book looks at each of the Roman emperors from Julius Caesar in 44BC to Romulus Augustulus in AD 476, illuminating not only the manner of their deaths but what their final days tell us about their lives. We also hear how the most powerful position in the history of the Western world held a permanent appeal, despite its perils, with eager candidates constantly coming forward to seize the throne. Very few of the Roman emperors died a natural death. The insane Caligula was murdered after leaving the theatre; Caracalla while he was relieving himself. Caesar was stabbed twenty three times and Otho was dragged into the Tiber with a flesh-hook. However great an emperor's power, danger was ever present. Emperors Don't Die in Bed provides a clear history of the imperial succession as well as a compelling depiction of the intrigue and drama of Roman imperial politics.
Author: Duncan B Campbell Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1472810392 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 127
Book Description
In this book Duncan Campbell explores the course of the wars that ensued as successive emperors sought to extend the empire, from Claudius' conquest of Britannia, Domitian's campaigns on the Rhine and the Danube, through Trajan's Dacian Wars and Parthian War, to Marcus Aurelius' Marcomannic Wars, as well as the Jewish Wars. The period covered in this book ends with the consolidation of the Roman frontiers along the Rhine and Danube. This book provides a summary of the strengths, limitations and evolving character of the Roman army during the first two centuries AD, as well as those of the forces of Rome's enemies across the Rhine and Danube in Germany and Romania, and in the East, in the form of the Parthian empire of Iraq/Iran. Fully illustrated with photographs depicting the emperors, their armies and enemies, and the remains of Roman fortifications and public buildings, plus informative full-colour maps, this is the epic story of the wars waged by a succession of emperors during the period in which Imperial Rome reached its zenith.
Author: Johannes Wienand Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0190201746 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 553
Book Description
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Contested Monarchy reappraises the wide-ranging and lasting transformation of the Roman monarchy between the Principate and Late Antiquity. The book takes as its focus the century from Diocletian to Theodosius I (284-395), a period during which the stability of monarchical rule depended heavily on the emperor's mobility, on collegial or dynastic rule, and on the military resolution of internal political crises. At the same time, profound religious changes modified the premises of political interaction and symbolic communication between the emperor and his subjects, and administrative and military readjustments changed the institutional foundations of the Roman monarchy. This volume concentrates on the measures taken by emperors of this period to cope with the changing framework of their rule. The collection examines monarchy along three distinct yet intertwined fields: Administering the Empire, Performing the Monarchy, and Balancing Religious Change. Each field possesses its own historiography and methodology, and accordingly has usually been treated separately. This volume's multifaceted approach builds on recent scholarship and trends to examine imperial rule in a more integrated fashion. With new work from a wide range of international scholars, Contested Monarchy offers a fresh survey of the role of the Roman monarchy in a period of significant and enduring change.
Author: Michael Kulikowski Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674659619 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 417
Book Description
Michael Kulikowski takes readers into the political heart of imperial Rome, beginning with the reign of Hadrian, who visited the farthest reaches of his domain and created stable frontiers, to the decades after Constantine the Great, who overhauled the government, introduced a new state religion, and founded a second Rome.
Author: Charles River Charles River Editors Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781979635592 Category : Languages : en Pages : 82
Book Description
*Includes pictures *Highlights the reigns of each emperor and how Nero's reign set the chain of events in motion *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents The 12 months known in history as the Year of the Four Emperors was a pivotal chapter in the long epoch of the Roman Empire. It marked the tumultuous end of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and the advent of a year of civil war, renewal and realignment, the result of which was the establishment of a new era and the founding of a new (and arguably more rational and responsible) imperial dynasty. The controversial year began with the decline of the Julio-Claudian dynasty under the rule of Emperor Nero. Nero was the last ruler of a dynasty founded by Julius Caesar, who was perhaps the most famous Roman emperor that never was. The Julio-Claudian succession included such names as Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and of course Nero, names that resonate with great power throughout the chronicles of Roman history, in many cases thanks to the violence, madness, misrule and decadence that seemed to take root at the center of imperial Rome at the dawn of the common era. In 54 CE, at the age of 16, Nero ascended to the imperial throne, and for the most part his arrival was well received. Among his early achievements was the granting of certain basic rights to slaves, the strengthening of the senate, a reduction in taxes and the general encouragement of modesty and restraint. He was initially attentive to the military, the central pillar of imperial power, and indeed, it was during his reign that the British resistance was broken in the aftermath of the rebellion of the Iceni Queen Boadicea, which in 61 CE resulted in a signature Roman victory. However, with the passage of time, the darker side of Nero's nature gradually began to manifest, and his cruelty and instability began to erode his early popularity. On July 18, 64 CE, Rome burned, with 3 of its 14 precincts destroyed and 7 others critically damaged. Although Nero responded to the disaster responsibly, by providing what assistance he could to those affected, rumors nonetheless circulated that he had been responsible for the fire, or at the very least had stood by and allowed it to consume those parts of Rome that he desired for the grandiose public works and building projects with which he was credited. In response to this, he blamed Christians for the fire, beginning the signature persecution of Roman Christians that has been so widely recorded in Roman history. Nero was eventually declared a public enemy, and finding himself without support, he committed suicide on June 9, 68 CE, the first Roman emperor to do so. Having left no heir, Nero's death plunged the empire into confusion and chaos, bringing to an end the Julio-Claudian lineage while at the same time offering no clear rule of succession. This presented the opportunity for influential individuals in the empire, and in particular provincial governors who also commanded large military garrisons, to express and further their own ambitions to power. The result was a period of instability and civil war as several pretenders to the throne, among them the emperors Galba, Otho and Vitellius, gained and lost power, until finally the emperor Vespasian seized and retained the imperial principate. Vespasian imposed order and discipline on a chaotic empire and founded the Flavian Dynasty, which survived until CE 96, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian himself (69-79), and his two sons Titus (79-81) and Domitian (81-96). The Year of the Four Emperors: The History of the Civil War to Succeed Nero as Emperor of Rome chronicles one of the most important years in the history of the Roman Empire. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Year of the Four Emperors like never before.