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The Emperor in the Changing Roman World (c. 50 BC – AD 565)
Olivier Hekster
Published online:

23 November 2022

Print publication:

08 December 2022
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For centuries, Roman emperors ruled a vast empire. Yet, at least officially, the emperor did not exist. No one knew exactly what titles he possessed, how he could be portrayed, what exactly he had to do, or how the succession was organised. Everyone knew, however, that the emperor held ultimate power over the empire. There were also expectations about what he should do and be, although these varied throughout the empire and also evolved over time. How did these expectations develop and change? To what degree could an emperor deviate from prevailing norms? And what role did major developments in Roman society – such as the rise of Christianity or the choice of Constantinople as the new capital – play in the ways in which emperors could exercise their rule? This ambitious and engaging book describes the surprising stability of the Roman Empire over more than six centuries of history.

Chapter 8 - Law and philosophy after 50 bce
René Brouwer, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
Book:

Law and Philosophy in the Late Roman Republic

Published online:

29 April 2021

Print publication:

03 June 2021, pp 126-133
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Summary

This chapter rounds off the volume in two ways. It deals with, first, the more sporadic interaction between jurists and philosophers in the early imperial period, and second, with the influence of the late Republican interaction on law and philosophy as they are both practised today.

14 - The western empire, 1125–1197
- By Benjamin Arnold
Edited by David Luscombe, University of Sheffield, Jonathan Riley-Smith, University of Cambridge
Book:

The New Cambridge Medieval History

Published online:

28 March 2008

Print publication:

14 October 2004, pp 384-421
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Summary

The elections of 1125 and 1138 had provided cliques with opportunities to display and perhaps to abuse their power, even though kings do not appear to have feared the electoral procedure as such. Imperium or Imperial rule was the personal right of governance and justice which the king exercised in his three kingdoms. Imperium signified a geographical space called the Roman empire, occasionally rendered inaccurately as 'the German empire' by the imperial chancery simply because that reflected the realities of rule. To take examples from Germany, Lothar III, Conrad III and Frederick Barbarossa in turn referred to the authority of the imperium. Since the 1030s the western empire had consisted geographically of three kingdoms: Germany, called 'the Roman kingdom' to establish consistency with the title king of the Romans, Italy called 'the kingdom of Lombardy', its designation when conquered by Otto the Great, and Burgundy, whose southern portion bordering the Mediterranea.