Table of Contents

Frontmatter
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Typographical Note
PART I
I: Usurpation, Legitimacy, and the Roman Empire
I.1: Why usurpation?: the problem of the imperial succession
I.2: 'This litany of manifest usurpers and rebellious generals': why had the imperial succession become so unstable by the third century?
I.3: 'The difference between a tyrant and a king is one of deeds, not of name': how was usurpation understood in the late Roman Empire?
I.4: 'Let these things go unspoken': usurpation and modern research
II: Usurpation, Legitimacy, and Panegyric
II.1: Known unknowns, and unknown unknowns: how to use panegyric as a source
II.2: 'In which I would tell many lies': who dictated the content of panegyric?
II.3: 'And would be viewed with favour by those who knew them to be such': panegyric, audience, and influence
II.4: Propaganda and power
PART II
III: A House Divided Against Itself
IV: 'At last Roman, at last restored to the true light of Empire': Dyarchy, Tetrarchy, and the Fall of the British Empire of Carausius
IV.1: Birthing the late Roman state: dyarchs, tetrarchs, and a new language of power
IV.2: Emperors and bandits: the British Empire under Carausius and Allectus
V: Tyranny and Betrayal: Constantine, Maximian, Maxentius, and Licinius
V.1: Constantine's usurpation: Constantine, Galerius, and Maximian
V.2: The tyrannus: Maxentius and the rewards of civil war
V.3: Notable by his absence: Licinius and the rise of the Constantinian dynasty
VI: Tyranny and Blood: Constantius, Constans, Magnentius, and Vetranio
VI.1: Smiling for the cameras: the sons of Constantine, 337-50
VI.2: The son of the father: Constantius the tyrant-slayer
VII: Usurper, Propaganda, History: The Emperor Julian
VII.1: The voice of a usurper: Julian's rise to power
VII.2: Bleaching the stains: Julian's sole rule
VIII: Panegyric and Apology: The Accession of Jovian and the Usurpation of Procopius
VIII.1: The need for victory: Jovian and the demands of imperial rhetoric
VIII.2: The enemy inside: Valentinian, Valens, and Procopius
VIII.3: 'He who sought rule for himself behind the cloak of a little boy': the usurpation of Valentinian II
IX: Dismembering the House of Valentinian: The Usurpation of Theodosius and the War with Magnus Maximus
IX.1: 'And nobly he made the vote his own': the usurpation of Theodosius
IX.2: Divided loyalties: the usurpation of Magnus Maximus
X: Crisis and Transformation: Imperial Power in the Fifth Century
XI: Conclusion: Those Made Tyrants by the Victory of Others
Appendix I: The Panegyrics
Appendix II: Quantifying Usurpation: Notes to Accompany Figure I.2
Endmatter
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Adrastos Omissi grew up in Jersey, in the Channel Islands. From 2005, he studied at St John's College, Oxford, where he received his BA, MSt, and DPhil. After working for some years in the charities and green energy sector, he returned to Oxford in 2014 to take up a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Junior Research Fellowship in Classics and Ancient History at Oriel College. He then spent a brief period as Lecturer in Ancient History both at Oriel and
at Jesus College, during which time he was awarded a prestigious Humanities Division Teaching Award, before moving to the University of Glasgow in September 2017, where he is currently Lecturer in Latin
Literature. He has authored a number of articles, in both specialist and non-specialist publications, on Roman history, linguistics, and Renaissance art.

Reviews

The book aims to grapple with the question of how imperial legitimacy was constructed in the late Roman world, using the genre of panegyric as the primary lens through which to shed light on the issue. The result is an illuminating study which will be required reading for anyone wanting to understand the political dynamics of the period and the role of panegyric in it.
*Doug Lee, University of Nottingham, Classics Ireland *

This is an excellent first book. Omissi is deeply immersed in the source material and a sure guide to the scholarly landscape...A thesis rooted in a bilingual corpus of evidence that influences our picture of an entire century and problematizes our relationship with multiple ancient genres of writing - this is great history.
*James Corke-Webster, Kings College London, Greece & Rome*