Emperor and Senators in the Reign of Constantius II
Maintaining Imperial Rule Between Rome and Constantinople in the Fourth Century AD

Explores the political importance of senators for the maintenance of imperial rule under Constantine I and his son Constantius II.

Muriel Moser (Author)

9781108481014, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 December 2018

434 pages
22.3 x 14.5 x 2.4 cm, 0.72 kg

In this book, Muriel Moser investigates the relationship between the emperors Constantine I and his son Constantius II (AD 312–361) and the senators of Constantinople and Rome. She examines and contextualizes the integration of the social elites of Rome and the Eastern provinces into the imperial system and demonstrates their increased importance for the maintenance of imperial rule in response to political fragility and fragmentation. An in-depth analysis of senatorial careers and imperial legislation is combined with a detailed assessment of the political context - shared rule, the suppression of usurpations, Constantius' use of Constantine's memory. Using a wide range of literary, epigraphic, numismatic, and legal sources, some of which are as yet unpublished, this volume produces significant new readings of the history of the senates in Rome and Constantinople, of the construction of imperial rule and of historical change in Late Antiquity.

Part I. A Unified Roman Empire (AD 312–337): 1. Constantine and the Senate of Rome
2. Constantine's eastern Roman empire
Part II. Ruling the East (AD 337–350): 3. The senatorial officials of Constantius II
4. Remembering Constantine in Antioch and Constantinople
Part III. Ruler of Rome and Constantinople (AD 350–361): 5. Crisis and innovation: between Magnentius and Gallus
6. Romanizing Constantinople: the creation of a second senate
7. A Roman triumph: Constantius II in Rome.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], European history [HBJD]