Gaining and Losing Imperial Favour in Late Antiquity

Kamil Cyprian Choda is preparing his Ph.D. in Ancient History at the University of Tübingen. He investigates how 5th-century Christian historiography represented the influence exercised on the emperors by churchmen.Maurits Sterk de Leeuw is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Ancient History at the University of Tübingen. He is preparing a thesis on the political role of monks in late-antique Constantinople.Fabian Schulz, Ph.D. (2010), is a Classicist and Ancient Historian, who, after working at the Free University of Berlin and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, joined the University of Tübingen as a senior researcher.Contributors are: Vedran Bileta, Kamil Cyprian Choda, Regina Fichera, Martijn Icks, Isabelle Künzer, Maurits Sterk de Leeuw, Bruno Marien,Christian Rollinger, Fabian Schulz.

• ContentsAcknowledgementsList of FiguresList of AbbreviationsIntroductionPart 2: Competition at the Late-Antique Court: Structures and Effects1 “The Greatest Glory Is Always Habitually Subject to Envy”—Competition and Conflict over Closeness to the Emperor at the Roman Court in the 4th CenturyIsabelle Künzer2 The Importance of Being Splendid: Competition, Ceremonial, and the Semiotics of Status at the Court of the Late Roman Emperors (4th–6th Centuries)Christian Rollinger3 The venatio in the Emperor’s Presence? The consistorium and the Military Men of the Late Roman Empire in the WestVedran BiletaPart 3: Watch Your Words: the Role of Language in Gaining or Losing Imperial Favour4 Symmachus’ Epistolary Influence: the Rehabiliation of Nicomachus Flavianus through Recommendation LettersBruno Marien5 Losing the Empress’s Favour: on the Margins of John Chrysostom’s Homily 48 on MatthewKamil Cyprian Choda6 Buying Imperial Favour: Cyril of Alexandria’s BlessingsMaurits Sterk de LeeuwAttack as the Best Defence: Resisting Unwelcome Influence7 Kept in the Dark, Narratives of Imperial Seclusion in Late AntiquityMartijn Icks8 Jovian, an Emperor Who Did Not Bow to Heretics and Infidels? A Critical Reading of the Petitiones ArianorumFabian Schulz9 Divining to Gain (or Lose) the Favour of Usurpers: the Case of Pamprepius of Panopolis (440–484)Regina FicheraIndex