This book provides a systematic analysis of the different ways in which Roman imperial lineage was represented in the various ‘media’ through which images of emperors could be transmitted. Rather than focusing on individual rulers of the Roman Empire, it evaluates evidence over an extended period of time and differentiates between various types of sources, such as inscriptions, sculpture, architecture, literary text, and particularly central coinage, which forms the most convenient source material for a modern reconstruction of Roman representations of power over a prolonged period of time. Th ... More

This book provides a systematic analysis of the different ways in which Roman imperial lineage was represented in the various ‘media’ through which images of emperors could be transmitted. Rather than focusing on individual rulers of the Roman Empire, it evaluates evidence over an extended period of time and differentiates between various types of sources, such as inscriptions, sculpture, architecture, literary text, and particularly central coinage, which forms the most convenient source material for a modern reconstruction of Roman representations of power over a prolonged period of time. The book explores how the different media in use sent out different messages, and emphasizes the importance of local notions and traditions in the choice of local representations of imperial ancestry, revealing that there was no monopoly on image-forming by the Roman centre and far less interaction between central and local imagery than is commonly held. Imperial ancestry is shown to have been defined through various parallel developments in Rome and in the provinces, with some messages resonating outside the centre but only when they were made explicit and fitted local practice and the discourse of the medium being used. The widely differentiating local expectations of how a ruler should present himself, and standardization over time of the images and languages that could be employed in the ‘media’ at imperial disposal, posed serious constraints to the construction of Roman imperial ideology. Roman emperorship was therefore a constant process of construction within genres of communication, representation, and public symbolism.