Skip to Main Content

Empresses-in-Waiting: Female Power and Performance at the Late Roman Court

Online ISBN:
9781802072051
Print ISBN:
9781802075939
Publisher:
Liverpool University Press
Book

Empresses-in-Waiting: Female Power and Performance at the Late Roman Court

Christian Rollinger (ed.),
Christian Rollinger
(ed.)

Reader in Ancient History

Trier University
Find on
Nadeine Viermann (ed.)
Nadeine Viermann
(ed.)

Assistant Professor in History of Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium

University of Durham
Find on
Published online:
23 January 2025
Published in print:
1 August 2024
Online ISBN:
9781802072051
Print ISBN:
9781802075939
Publisher:
Liverpool University Press

Abstract

Empresses-in-Waiting comprises case studies of late antique empresses, female members of imperial dynasties, and female members of the highest nobility of the late Roman empire, ranging from the fourth to the seventh centuries AD. Situated in the context of the broader developments of scholarship on late antique and byzantine empresses, this volume explores the political agency, religious authority, and influence of imperial and near-imperial women within the Late Roman imperial court, which is understood as a complex spatial, social, and cultural system, the centre of patronage networks, and an arena for elite competition. The studies explore female performance and representation in literary and visual media as well as in court ceremonial, and discuss the opportunities and constraints of female power within a male dominated court environment and the broader realms of imperial activity. By focusing on imperial women, the volume not only addresses questions of gendered rhetoric and agency but throws into relief general dynamics in the exercise of imperial power during a period in which the classical Mediterranean world at large, as well as the Roman monarchy, underwent crucial transformations.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close