Tradition and Power in the Roman Empire: Proceedings of the Fifteenth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Nijmegen, 18-20 May 2022)

This volume focuses on the interface between tradition and the shifting configuration of power structures in the Roman Empire. By examining various time periods and locales, its contributions show the Empire as a world filed with a wide variety of cultural, political, social, and religious traditions. These traditions were constantly played upon in the processes of negotiation and (re)definition that made the empire into a superstructure whose coherence was embedded in its diversity. Contents Figures and Maps Notes on Contributors Introduction Part 1 Tradition in the Formation of the Augustan Empire Chapter 1 A Divine Right to Rule? The Gods as Legitimators of Power Chapter 2 Closing a Highway to Heaven Discontinuities in the Divinisation of Human Beings in Roman Times Chapter 3 Women’s Mediation and Peace Diplomacy Augustan Women through the Looking Glass Chapter 4 Republican Traditions, Imperial Innovations The Representation of the Military Prowess of Augustus’ Family Chapter 5 Augustus and Traditional Structures in Egypt Grand Policies or Ad Hoc Measures? Chapter 6 Between Tradition and Innovation Place Names and the Geography of Power in Late Republican and Early Imperial Hispania Chapter 7 Paving the Route of Hercules The Via Augusta and the Via Iulia Augusta and the Appropriation of Roadbound Traditions in the Augustan Age Part 2 Tradition and Power in the First and Second Century CE Chapter 8 Municipal Elections in the Roman West during the Principate The Strength of Tradition Chapter 9 Plotina and the (Re)Invention of the Tradition of Womanhood Chapter 10 Hadrian: Imperator Nomothetes – Ancient Laws for the Empire Chapter 11 Between Tradition and Change The Imitatio Principis in the Imperial East Part 3 Tradition and Power in the Third and Fourth Century CE Chapter 12 Tradition and Innovation in the Rescript Practice of the Emperor Caracalla Chapter 13 The Emperor Gallienus and the Senators Tradition, Change, and Perception Chapter 14 The Role of Tradition for the Negotiation and Legitimisation of Imperial Rule in the Gallic and Palmyrene Empires Chapter 15 Stylites on Pillars versus Sanctuaries on Summits The Conquest of Traditional Cult Sites by Christian Ascetics in Northern Syria Part 4 The longue durée of Tradition and Power in Roman Discourse Chapter 16 Mos Maiorum and Res Novae How Roman Politics Have Conceived Tradition, Transformation, and Innovation, from the Second Century BCE to the Fourth Century CE Chapter 17 Justinian, the Senate, and the Consuls A Rhetorical Memory of the Old Constitution Index of Persons and Places General Index The focus of this volume is on the interface between tradition and power in the Roman Empire. By including the age of Augustus and later imperial periods, it shows the continuous importance of tradition in ruling the Roman Empire.