Selected Roman emperors and usurpers -- Introduction: Fides, the army and the emperor; The ancient sources; Modern perspectives -- Dawn of the warrior emperor -- Advertising military success -- Praemia militiae -- The emperor, the law and disciplina militaris -- Rituals of identity -- Symbols of power.
Summary:
"With The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235-395 Mark Hebblewhite offers the first study solely dedicated to examining the nature of the relationship between the emperor and his army in the politically and militarily volatile later Roman Empire. Bringing together a wide range of available literary, epigraphic and numismatic evidence he demonstrates that emperors of the period considered the army to be the key institution they had to mollify in order to retain power and consequently employed a range of strategies to keep the troops loyal to their cause. Key to these efforts were imperial attempts to project the emperor as a worthy general (imperator)and a generous provider of military pay and benefits. Also important were the honorific and symbolic gestures each emperor made to the army in order to convince them that they and the empire could only prosper under his rule"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.