Emperors and Bishops in Late Roman Invective

An analysis of the earliest surviving invectives against a living Roman emperor and their significance for political and religious history.

Richard Flower (Author)

9781107031722, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 May 2013

312 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.63 kg

'Richard Flower's Emperors and Bishops in Late Roman Invective is a welcome contribution to this field … [It] will be of value to students of late antique history, rhetoric and Christianity.' Catherine Ware, The Journal of Roman Studies

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.

Introduction: the use of abuse
1. Praise and blame in the Roman world
2. Constructing a Christian tyrant
3. Writing auto-hagiography
4. Living up to the past
Epilogue
Appendix 1. Altercatio Heracliani cum Germinio
Appendix 2. Epistula Liberii papae ad Eusebium, Dionysium et 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.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]