A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In this book, Susanna Elm radically changes our understanding of imperial rule in the later Roman Empire. As she shows, the so-called eastern decadence of the Emperor Theodosius and his successors was in fact a calculated revolution in masculinity and the representation of imperial power. Here, the emperor's hard yet soft, mature yet youthfully gorgeous beauty was central. Because the Theodosian emperors were divine—gods one could see—so was their beauty: their manliness was the face and body of God. The emperors' gorgeousness, their sparkling regalia, how they wished their bodies to be seen by their elite subjects—who authored the texts on which Elm's analysis is based—were as important as laws, taxes, and armies. Their
vir-ness strategically deployed male same-sex erotic desire to enhance the unity of the realm in times of tension, incorporate the signifying potency of child emperors, and create a flexible yet stable model of Christian sovereignty.
Susanna Elm, FBA, is Sidney H. Ehrman Chair and Distinguished Professor of History and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome.
"This is a wonderful, sophisticated book that, like all others written by Susanna Elm, combines a sensitive reading of ancient source materials with intense creativity, to produce a study of imperial representation focused particularly on manliness. Elm develops new ways to understand late antique panegyrics, poems, sermons, and laws, while never losing sight of the rulers, strivers, and other people who shaped late Roman life. This is a humanistic triumph, in the fullest sense."—Edward Watts, author of The Romans: A 2,000-Year History
"With erudition and élan, Elm enters the thicket of complex issues surrounding Roman imperial power, gender performativity, and the late antique child emperor. She emerges with a powerful new interpretation of ancient masculinity and, what is more, a compelling new story of what beauty meant in the ancient world."—Catherine Michael Chin, author of Life: The Natural History of an Early Christian Universe
338 pp.6 x 9Illus: 19 color figures, 1 b/w figure
9780520413344$34.95|£30.00Paper
Nov 2025