Usurper, Propaganda, History

This chapter opens with consideration of the emperor Julian’s Letter to the Senate and People of Athens , and explores how we can use the Letter to understand the ways in which usurpers attempted to shape popular opinion in the wake of their usurpations. It also explores the far-reaching effect that the Letter (and other, now lost, documents like it) have had on our understanding of not only Julian’s usurpation, but the whole course of his career in Gaul, thanks to the influence of Julian on three of the most important writers of the later Roman period, Ammianus Marcellinus, Libanius, and Zosimus. The chapter then explores the panegyrics delivered to Julian after he became sole ruler ( Pan. Lat. III and Libanius’ speeches, especially his Oratio XII and XIII) and examines the homogeneity of their presentations as a model for how officially sanctioned narratives were developed and communicated.

Ancient history · Art · Emperor · Genealogy · Literature · Narrative · Period (music) · Ruler · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History