Smart, Anthony Emperor of Rome

How the Roman Empire Was Ruled, 30 Bce to 476

When Theoderic the Great marched into Rome as king of the Ostrogoths in 500, the citizens of Rome could have been forgiven for thinking that an emperor had returned. Everything he did, from his journey and arrival to his actions in the city itself, was an imitation of Roman expressions of imperial power. However, the role of the emperor remains complex and multifaceted, and the very powers that Theoderic sought to emulate had a complex history of their own. It was only when Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, died in 14 AD that Rome finally accepted the fact that a princeps now ruled where the Senate had once held power. Anthony Smart provides a new study of the Roman emperors from Augustus to the late 5th century AD, interwoven with studies of later medieval rulers. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with sources (e.g. coins, speeches, historical works). The second part deals with themes (such as war, peace, religious unity and emotional control). The last part deals with concrete examples of imperial power and how these personalities changed or modified the nature of imperial rule. Throughout the book, the author repeatedly returns to the following questions: What did it mean to be emperor in this world? How did they rule? Were they proactive or reactive? Is it correct to say that an emperor is what an emperor does, or is the reality more complex? And above all: Who creates the image of the emperor? The court, the senate or the people of Rome?