Takacs - Construction of Authority.pdf - History and archaeology - michalszasz121

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THE CONSTRUCTION OF AUTHORITY IN

ANCIENT ROME AND BYZANTIUM

The Rhetoric of Empire

In The Construction of Authority in Ancient Rome and Byzantium ,Sarolta

Ta k acs examines the role of the Roman emperor, who was the single

most important law-giving authority in Roman society. Emperors

had to embody the qualities or virtues espoused by Rome’s ruling

classes. Political rhetoric shaped the ancients’ reality and played a part

in the upkeep of their political structures. Tak´acsisolatesareoccur-

ring cultural pattern, a conscious appropriation of symbols and signs

(verbal and visual) belonging to the Roman Empire. She suggests that

contemporary concepts of “empire” may have Roman precedents,

which are reactivations or reuses of well-established ancient pat-

terns. Showing the dialectical interactivity between the constructed

past and present, Takacs also focuses on the issue of classical legacy

through these virtues, which are not simply repeated or adapted cul-

tural patterns but are tools for the legitimization of political power,

authority, and even domination of one nation over another.

SAROLTA A. TAKACS is professor of history and founding dean of the

School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program at Rutgers University.

A recipient of fellowships from the Center for Hellenic Studies

(Harvard University) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

as well as grants from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the

Ford Foundation, and Fondation Hardt, she is the author of Isis and

Sarapis in the Roman World and Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons: Women in

Roman Religion.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF

AUTHORITY IN

ANCIENT ROME AND

BYZANTIUM

The Rhetoric of Empire

SAROLTA A. TAKACS

Rutgers University

Takacs - Construction of Authority.pdf