Conclusion

This chapter recapitulates the conclusions of this book, arguing that panegyric provides a unique source through which to explore the political climate of the later Roman world, not merely because it provides a fulsome corpus of texts, but also because the influence of panegyric and the political messages it espoused were so far-reaching among contemporaries. The conclusions of individual chapters are given in summary, showing the varied strategies that were employed by panegyrists in blackening the name of the emperor’s enemies. The importance of this exercise, as a perpetual theatrical exercise, is reiterated, and the contingent nature of imperial legitimacy is again affirmed. Panegyric illuminates the processes that made some men tyrants and others emperors.

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