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Contested Monarchy reappraises the wide-ranging and lasting transformation of the Roman monarchy between the Principate and Late Antiquity. The book takes as its focus the century from Diocletian to Theodosius I (284-395), a period during which the stability of monarchical rule depended heavily on the emperor's mobility, on collegial or dynastic rule, and on the military resolution of internal political crises. At the same time, profound religious changes modified the premises of political interaction and symbolic communication between the emperor and his subjects, and administrative and military readjustments changed the institutional foundations of the Roman monarchy. This volume concentrates on the measures taken by emperors of this period to cope with the changing framework of their rule. The collection examines monarchy along three distinct yet intertwined fields: Administering the Empire, Performing the Monarchy, and Balancing Religious Change. Each field possesses its own historiography and methodology, and accordingly has usually been treated separately. This volume's multifaceted approach builds on recent scholarship and trends to examine imperial rule in a more integrated fashion. With new work from a wide range of international scholars, Contested Monarchy offers a fresh survey of the role of the Roman monarchy in a period of significant and enduring change.

Dr. Johannes Wienand is Assistant Professor of Ancient History and Classics at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf in Germany.

List of Abbreviations
Contributors
Map of the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century
Introduction
1. The Cloak of Power: Dressing and Undressing the King
Johannes Wienand
Part One Administering the Empire
2. Domesticating the Senatorial Elite: Universal Monarchy and Transregional Aristocracy in the Fourth Century
John Weisweiler
3. The Inflation of Rank and Privilege: Regulating Precedence in the Fourth Century AD
John Noël Dillon
4. Ostentatious Legislation: Law and Dynastic Change, AD 364-365
Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner
5. Emperors and Generals in the Fourth Century
Doug Lee
6. Gaul and the Roman Emperors of the Fourth Century
Joachim Szidat
7. Regional Dynasties and Imperial Court
Michael Kulikowski
Part Two Performing the Monarchy
8. Emperors, Usurpers, and the City of Rome: Performing Power from Diocletian to Theodosius
Mark Humphries
9. O tandem felix civili, Roma, victoria! Civil War Triumphs From Honorius to Constantine and Back
Johannes Wienand
10. Coping with the Tyrant's Faction: Civil War Amnesties and Christian Discourses in the Fourth Century AD
Hartmut Leppin
11. Pliny and Pacatus: Past and Present in Imperial Panegyric
Christopher Kelly
12. Born to be Emperor: The Principle of Succession and the Roman Monarchy
Henning Börm
13. Performing Justice: The Penal Code of Constantine the Great
Christian Reitzenstein-Ronning
Part Three Balancing Religious Change
14. Speaking of Power: Christian Redefinition of the Imperial Role in the Fourth Century
Harold Drake
15. Constantine, Rome, and the Christians
Bruno Bleckmann
16. Constantine and the Tyche of Constantinople
Noel Lenski
17. A Vain Quest for Unity: Creeds and Political (Dis)Integration in the Reign of Constantius II
Steffen Diefenbach
18. The Challenge of Religious Violence: Imperial Ideology and Policy in the Fourth Century
Johannes Hahn
19. The Famous 'Altar of Victory Controversy' in Rome: The Impact of Christianity at the End of the Fourth Century
Rita Lizzi Testa
Epilogue

20. The Empire's Golden Shade: Icons of Sovereignty in an Age of Transition
Johannes Wienand
Bibliography
General Index
Index Locorum