In search of Auctoritas et Maiestas – the Flavian Dynasty and Religions
Vespasian and his sons were forced to create their own style of politics, and, in search of auctoritas and maiestas, they could not neglect the realm of religion. We should bear in mind that in the Roman world, religion was an integral and indispensable component of social and po- litical life. For these reasons, these representatives of the Roman Imperial Dynasty, just like their predecessors and successors, successfully used different forms of activity surpassing the narrow interpretation of the domain of religio, including massive building programmes, monetary policy or even poetry, to express devotion and respect for mores maiorum as well as to confi rm the legal- ity of their power by presenting the divine approval of their political strength. It seems legitimate to acknowledge that the Flavian era did not bring revolutionary changes in traditional religion. This clearly shows that the new dynasty was perfectly aware that one of the aspects of a well-functioning Rome was preservation of the ancestors' customs and a belief in divine protection which could ensure safety, strength and belief in the unity of the Empire.
Reversed epiphanies: roman emperors deserted by gods
According to Suetonius, the emperor Galba was twice visited by the goddess Fortuna in his dreams. At the second occasion, she withdrew her support, preceding Galba’s fall. This type of epiphany is rare for Roman emperors, but not unique. The emperor Domitian, too, was visited in his dream by his favourite goddess Minerva, who stated that she was about to abandon him. This article aims to place the passages discussing these dreams in a wider context of Roman ways of dealing with emperors and gods. It will argue that the closer the link between emperor and god was, the more important it became for the god to voluntarily withdraw before an emperor could be dethroned. In doing so, the article draws a parallel to the Roman notion of evocatio in order to understand these ‘reversed epiphanies’ in which gods appear solely to state that they are leaving.
Representing Agrippina: Constructions of Female Power in the Early Roman Empire [Co-editor of the book by Judith Ginsburg]
Agrippina the Younger ranks as one of the most powerful women in the history of the Roman empire. Judith Ginsburg's book provides a fresh look at both the literary and material representations of Agrippina. Her incisive study exposes both the contrivances of the commissioned artists whose idealized portraits served to buttress the image of the regime and the contrasting designs of the historians whose rhetorical stereotypes and negative depictions aimed to undermine it.