Emperors and Bishops in Late Roman Invective

Richard Flower

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781107031722
• eBook ISBN:
  9781107331150
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Emperors and Bishops in Late Roman Invective
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter One Praise and blame in the Roman world
• Chapter Two Constructing a Christian tyrant
• Chapter Three Writing auto-hagiography
• Chapter Four Living up to the past
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1: Altercatio Heracliani cum Germinio
• Appendix 2: Epistula Liberii papae ad Eusebium, Dionysiumet Luciferum in exsilio constitutos
• Appendix 3: Epistula Luciferi, Pancratii et Hilarii
• Appendix 4: Letters of Eusebius of Vercelli
• Appendix 5: Hilary of Poitiers, Contra Auxentium
• Bibliography
• Index