Books by Christian Rollinger
Zugl. Habilitationsschrift, Universität Trier 2021.
Vom späten 4. bis zum 7. Jahrhundert war ... more Zugl. Habilitationsschrift, Universität Trier 2021.
Vom späten 4. bis zum 7. Jahrhundert war das oströmische Kaisertum in Konstantinopel immobilisiert. Die ständige Anwesenheit der Kaiser machte Veränderungen ihres Kommunikationsverhaltens unvermeidlich. Ihre lokale Gebundenheit befeuerte die Bedeutung und Entwicklung der rituellen Ausgestaltung von Herrschaft, die zuvor schon eine zunehmende Rolle gespielt hatte. In Konstantinopel konnten sich die Kaiser der performativen Kommunikation mit Gruppen des Reichs, die ihre Herrschaft stützten und auf deren Akzeptanz sie angewiesen waren, nämlich nicht entziehen. Das Medium dieser Kommunikation waren die höfischen Zeremonien.
Christian Rollinger untersucht das Hofzeremoniell der Spätantike als eine Bündelung sinn- und machtkonstituierender Rituale, in denen sich die wesentlichen Ideologeme des spätantiken Kaisertums spiegelten und die ihnen Inhalt und Leben verliehen. Zeremoniell und Herrschaft waren untrennbar miteinander verbunden. Der Autor zeigt durch eine systematische und umfassende Untersuchung, dass Zeremoniell nicht allein Ausdruck, sondern auch Gestaltung, nicht nur autoritative monarchische Repräsentation, sondern ebenso performative Konstruktion des spätantiken Kaisertums war.
Edited Books by Christian Rollinger
Situated in the context of the broader developments of scholarship on late antique and byzantine ... more 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. The volume not only addresses questions of gendered rhetoric and agency and throws into relief general dynamics in the exercise of imperial power.
https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781802075939
The 'Tetrarchy', the modern name assigned to the period of Roman history that started with the em... more The 'Tetrarchy', the modern name assigned to the period of Roman history that started with the emperor Diocletian and ended with Constantine I, has been a much-studied and much-debated field of the Roman Empire. Debate, however, has focused primarily on whether it was a true 'system' of government, or rather a collection of ad-hoc measures undertaken to stabilise the empire after the troubled period of the 3rd century CE. The papers collected here aim to go beyond this question and to present an innovative approach to a fascinating period of Roman history by understanding the Tetrarchy not as a system of government, but primarily as a political language. Their focus thus lies on the language and ideology of the imperial college and court, on the performance of power in imperial ceremonies, the representation of the emperors and their enemies in the provinces of the Roman world, as well as on the afterlife of Tetrarchic power in the Constantinian period.
From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in his... more From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in historical times and particularly in the ancient world. With successful series such as “Assassin’s Creed” or “Civilization” selling millions of copies, video games rival even television and cinema in their role in shaping younger audiences’ perceptions of the past. In this medium of games of different genres, classical antiquity has always loomed large and titles like “Rome: Total War” or “Age of Empires” have become household names. Yet classical scholarship, though embracing other popular media as areas of research, has so far largely ignored video games as a vehicle of Classical Receptions. This collection of essays aims to change that. Dedicated to the study of receptions, remediations, and representations of Classical Antiquity across all electronic gaming platforms and genres, it presents both classicists and a general audience with cutting-edge research in Classics and Classical Receptions, Game Studies and ArchaeoGaming. In doing so, it adopts different perspectives and combines papers from scholars, gamers, game developers and historical consultants to deliver the first state of the art impression of both the wide array of ‘ancient’ video games, as well as the challenges and rewards of this new and exciting field.
During the last decade, the field of ancient history and classics has witnessed a slow but steady... more During the last decade, the field of ancient history and classics has witnessed a slow but steady increase of publications applying to Greco-Roman history the concepts of social network analysis (SNA), a methodology originally developed in sociology but gradually picked up by other disciplines as well (including the Humanities and History). While initially mainly introducing the concept of networks and connectivity in a metaphorical sense, recent research increasingly turned to the more quantitative aspects of network analysis. It is therefore quite remarkable that few attempts have been made to apply the tools of formal network analysis to a research topic ideally suited for this particular approach, viz. Greco-Roman politics. Literary sources, inscriptions and papyri offer a wealth of information on municipal and imperial elites, careers, selection procedures, and most importantly, the ties of family, marriage, friendship, patronage, and bribery that connected them. As the case studies in this special, guest-edited issue of The Journal of Historical Network Research shows, SNA promises to offer new perspectives on a research field mainly dominated by more traditional prosopographical studies and at the same time provide a powerful tool for analyzing and visualizing social and political connections in ancient societies.
Papers (in press) by Christian Rollinger
sowie der Trierer Museen Die Anzahl von Darstellungen und Diskussionen historischer Themen in Blo... more sowie der Trierer Museen Die Anzahl von Darstellungen und Diskussionen historischer Themen in Blogtexten ist seit Jahrzehnten stark steigend. Das Medium ‹Blog›1 hat sich über alle Fachepochen hinweg als ein ebenso zugängliches wie wichtiges Instrument der allgemeinen Wissensvermittlung und der Wissenschaftskommunikation etabliert.2 Ein äußeres Anzeichen dieses ‹Aufstiegs› ist z. B., dass Blogs sowie Bloggertreffen bei den vergangenen Historikerta
Recent scholarship, under the influence of anthropological researchers such as Clifford Geertz an... more Recent scholarship, under the influence of anthropological researchers such as Clifford Geertz and Catherine Bell, has transformed our understanding of the importance of ceremonies in political contexts, supplementing the seemingly endless ‘turns’ of historical scholarship with a new cultural and an even newer performative turn. In the German-speaking academy, the term Kulturgeschichte des Politischen has been coined to describe the ongoing interest in how political systems, ideologies and ceremonials interact with each other and how they influence a lived political reality in different polities. Late Roman accession ceremonies, in this view, were ritual occasions that not only showed that the empire had a new emperor, but which, in a very real sense, made that emperor by performing a consensus omnium that was the base of his future rule.
Überlegungen zur dem 1862 südlich der spätantiken Kaiserthermen in Trier beim Ausheben einer Gerb... more Überlegungen zur dem 1862 südlich der spätantiken Kaiserthermen in Trier beim Ausheben einer Gerbereigrube gefundenen Glasschalenfragment mit Zirkusdarstellung und ein Vorschlag zur ikonographischen Deutung.
Papers (published) by Christian Rollinger
Gifts exchanged between ambassadors and rulers of polities were a staple of ancient diplomacy. Ho... more Gifts exchanged between ambassadors and rulers of polities were a staple of ancient diplomacy. However, no gift is innocent, and they could be hotly contest- ed, their depiction in discourse varying considerably, and depending on contempo- rary political contexts. In ancient sources, interpretations and judgements of gifts vary wildly and depending on who gave what to whom and on which occasion. This chapter presents a contained case study to show the contrast between official dis- course, and the interpretations and remonstrations of contemporaries, by examin- ing the case of Avar-Roman relations in the 6th century, which surviving accounts describe as either a rational diplomatic strategy or a debasement of imperial pres- tige. This ‘corruption’ of the state is parallelized with the decay and ‘corruption’ of the imperial body of Justinian himself, who was well into his eighth decade when the Avars appeared on the scene.
In AD 603, in the presence of the Persian shāhanshāh Ḵosrow II Parviz, a Roman emperor was crown... more In AD 603, in the presence of the Persian shāhanshāh Ḵosrow II Parviz, a Roman emperor was crowned by a Nestorian patriarch in a church in majority miaphysite Edessa, a metropolis of the northern Mesopotamian limes.
Or was he? More or less every single aspect of the events in Edessa are disputable or subject to considerable doubt: for one, the date and chronology of these early years of the ‘last great war of antiquity’, as it has been called, which was to last until 630 and see the Roman empire teeter on the very brink of collapse, are notoriously uncertain. There are other open questions: was the Nestorian patriarch, the catholicos of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and head of the Eastern (Persian) Church really involved? Did the coronation happen in Edessa or someplace else, perhaps in Ctesiphon? And, above all, was it really Theodosios, who would have been by then the last surviving son of emperor Maurice (r. 582-602), who was crowned or was it an impostor? Surprisingly, the affair of ‘Pseudo-Theodosios’ has so far attracted little scholarly attention. my primary aim is to make the case that the Theodosios who appeared in Edessa in 603, and was acclaimed and crowned emperor there, was in fact the son of Maurice. To make my case, I will first present a reconstructed version of events and attempt to make sense of the different accounts of the events in Edessa. My secondary aim in this chapter is to reconstruct both the uses that Ḵosrow made of Theodosius, and the official Roman reaction to his presence. Both sides, Romans and Persians, waged campaigns of dis- and misinformation during all stages of the war and Theodosios was a significant part of that. I will show that the Roman reaction to news of Theodosios’ reappearance, as traceable in our extant (contemporary and later) Roman sources, which consistently deny his identity and claim to the throne, was the ‘real fake news’ during the years after 602.
Chapter embargoed by publisher, DM for offprint.
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Books by Christian Rollinger
Vom späten 4. bis zum 7. Jahrhundert war das oströmische Kaisertum in Konstantinopel immobilisiert. Die ständige Anwesenheit der Kaiser machte Veränderungen ihres Kommunikationsverhaltens unvermeidlich. Ihre lokale Gebundenheit befeuerte die Bedeutung und Entwicklung der rituellen Ausgestaltung von Herrschaft, die zuvor schon eine zunehmende Rolle gespielt hatte. In Konstantinopel konnten sich die Kaiser der performativen Kommunikation mit Gruppen des Reichs, die ihre Herrschaft stützten und auf deren Akzeptanz sie angewiesen waren, nämlich nicht entziehen. Das Medium dieser Kommunikation waren die höfischen Zeremonien.
Christian Rollinger untersucht das Hofzeremoniell der Spätantike als eine Bündelung sinn- und machtkonstituierender Rituale, in denen sich die wesentlichen Ideologeme des spätantiken Kaisertums spiegelten und die ihnen Inhalt und Leben verliehen. Zeremoniell und Herrschaft waren untrennbar miteinander verbunden. Der Autor zeigt durch eine systematische und umfassende Untersuchung, dass Zeremoniell nicht allein Ausdruck, sondern auch Gestaltung, nicht nur autoritative monarchische Repräsentation, sondern ebenso performative Konstruktion des spätantiken Kaisertums war.
Edited Books by Christian Rollinger
https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781802075939
Papers (in press) by Christian Rollinger
Papers (published) by Christian Rollinger
Or was he? More or less every single aspect of the events in Edessa are disputable or subject to considerable doubt: for one, the date and chronology of these early years of the ‘last great war of antiquity’, as it has been called, which was to last until 630 and see the Roman empire teeter on the very brink of collapse, are notoriously uncertain. There are other open questions: was the Nestorian patriarch, the catholicos of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and head of the Eastern (Persian) Church really involved? Did the coronation happen in Edessa or someplace else, perhaps in Ctesiphon? And, above all, was it really Theodosios, who would have been by then the last surviving son of emperor Maurice (r. 582-602), who was crowned or was it an impostor? Surprisingly, the affair of ‘Pseudo-Theodosios’ has so far attracted little scholarly attention. my primary aim is to make the case that the Theodosios who appeared in Edessa in 603, and was acclaimed and crowned emperor there, was in fact the son of Maurice. To make my case, I will first present a reconstructed version of events and attempt to make sense of the different accounts of the events in Edessa. My secondary aim in this chapter is to reconstruct both the uses that Ḵosrow made of Theodosius, and the official Roman reaction to his presence. Both sides, Romans and Persians, waged campaigns of dis- and misinformation during all stages of the war and Theodosios was a significant part of that. I will show that the Roman reaction to news of Theodosios’ reappearance, as traceable in our extant (contemporary and later) Roman sources, which consistently deny his identity and claim to the throne, was the ‘real fake news’ during the years after 602.
Vom späten 4. bis zum 7. Jahrhundert war das oströmische Kaisertum in Konstantinopel immobilisiert. Die ständige Anwesenheit der Kaiser machte Veränderungen ihres Kommunikationsverhaltens unvermeidlich. Ihre lokale Gebundenheit befeuerte die Bedeutung und Entwicklung der rituellen Ausgestaltung von Herrschaft, die zuvor schon eine zunehmende Rolle gespielt hatte. In Konstantinopel konnten sich die Kaiser der performativen Kommunikation mit Gruppen des Reichs, die ihre Herrschaft stützten und auf deren Akzeptanz sie angewiesen waren, nämlich nicht entziehen. Das Medium dieser Kommunikation waren die höfischen Zeremonien.
Christian Rollinger untersucht das Hofzeremoniell der Spätantike als eine Bündelung sinn- und machtkonstituierender Rituale, in denen sich die wesentlichen Ideologeme des spätantiken Kaisertums spiegelten und die ihnen Inhalt und Leben verliehen. Zeremoniell und Herrschaft waren untrennbar miteinander verbunden. Der Autor zeigt durch eine systematische und umfassende Untersuchung, dass Zeremoniell nicht allein Ausdruck, sondern auch Gestaltung, nicht nur autoritative monarchische Repräsentation, sondern ebenso performative Konstruktion des spätantiken Kaisertums war.
https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781802075939
Or was he? More or less every single aspect of the events in Edessa are disputable or subject to considerable doubt: for one, the date and chronology of these early years of the ‘last great war of antiquity’, as it has been called, which was to last until 630 and see the Roman empire teeter on the very brink of collapse, are notoriously uncertain. There are other open questions: was the Nestorian patriarch, the catholicos of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and head of the Eastern (Persian) Church really involved? Did the coronation happen in Edessa or someplace else, perhaps in Ctesiphon? And, above all, was it really Theodosios, who would have been by then the last surviving son of emperor Maurice (r. 582-602), who was crowned or was it an impostor? Surprisingly, the affair of ‘Pseudo-Theodosios’ has so far attracted little scholarly attention. my primary aim is to make the case that the Theodosios who appeared in Edessa in 603, and was acclaimed and crowned emperor there, was in fact the son of Maurice. To make my case, I will first present a reconstructed version of events and attempt to make sense of the different accounts of the events in Edessa. My secondary aim in this chapter is to reconstruct both the uses that Ḵosrow made of Theodosius, and the official Roman reaction to his presence. Both sides, Romans and Persians, waged campaigns of dis- and misinformation during all stages of the war and Theodosios was a significant part of that. I will show that the Roman reaction to news of Theodosios’ reappearance, as traceable in our extant (contemporary and later) Roman sources, which consistently deny his identity and claim to the throne, was the ‘real fake news’ during the years after 602.
Guard units served to underscore and visually represent imperial authority and through their participation in court ceremonial, Guards were a reflection of imperial rule and could be employed by emperors to project specific symbolic messages or even political programmes.
Chapter embargoed by publisher; DM for PDF.
Ähnlich verhält es sich auch mit der Frage nach der symbolischen und performativen Repräsentation der aristokratischen Oberschicht der Römischen Republik, für deren maritime Bezüge die Wissenschaft sich zu interessieren eben erst im Begriff ist. In ihrer für die Beschäftigung gerade mit Sextus Pompeius wichtigen Arbeit hat Kathryn Welch jüngst zu Recht die enormen Dimensionen des Seekriegs in den römischen Bürgerkriegen betont und sich in diesem Kontext auch der eben genannten Frage angenähert, nämlich welche Bedeutung maritime Erfolge in der politischen Repräsentation der Oberschicht der ausgehenden Republik hatten. Allerdings blieb, wie ein Rezensent bemerkte, die Beschäftigung mit dem Thema vorrangig an die Person des Sextus gebunden, ohne dabei „das systemische Potential der Frage auszuloten“. Eben um eine solche systemische Betrachtung soll es hier gehen. Zwar wäre es vermessen zu behaupten, ein kurzes Kapitel könne diesem Thema in seiner vollen Breite gerecht werden, doch lassen sich zumindest zentrale Aspekte anreißen, um so einen ersten Schritt in diese Richtung zu gehen.
Papers is embargoed by publisher; PM me if interested.
This is the gap that the Journal of Historical Network Research is keen to fill. Its aim is to publish outstanding and original contributions which apply the theories and methodologies of social network analysis to historical research, to help advance the epistemological and theoretical understanding of social network analysis in the historical, social and political sciences, and to promote empirical research on historical social interactions. The journal aims to promote the interplay between different areas of historical research (in the broadest sense), social and political sciences, and different research traditions and disciplines, while strengthening the dialogue between network research and “traditional” historical research. The journal will serve as a meeting place for the traditional hermeneutics of historical research and its concomitant emphasis on contextualisation and historical source criticism (as present in traditional academic historical journals) on the one hand, and the theory-heavy and/or sometimes overly technical discussion of methodological and technological issues (which predominates in publications focused on “pure” or sociological network research) on the other. All contents are made available free of charge to readers and authors following Open Access principles.
The next call for papers is just around the corner, and we look forward to preparing Issue #2.
The Editors
(Christian Rollinger, Robert Gramsch-Stehfest, Martin Stark, Marten Düring)
Überlegungen zu Konzept und Praxis der amicitia bei Cicero
Che cosa è un amico?
Riflessioni sugli aspetti teorici e pratici dell’amicitia in Cicerone
Marburg, 18. – 19. Mai 2017
Organisationskomittee und Herausgabe der Berichte
Consiglio organizzatore e curatela degli atti
Giovanna GALIMBERTI BIFFINO, Ermanno MALASPINA, Gregor VOGT-SPIRA
Wissenschaftlicher Beirat – Consiglio scientifico
Perrine GALAND, David KONSTAN, Jürgen LEONHARDT, Meinolf VIELBERG
SOMMARIO
Atti del convegno – Actes du colloque “Was ist ein amicus?” 227
P. ROUSSELOT, Official greetings 229
M. REITH, Bericht zu der internationalen Tagung 231
S. CITRONI MARCHETTI, Cicerone alla ricerca dell’amicizia: dalla domus alla res publica 235
M. VIELBERG, Alte Freunde im Gespräch: Anspruch und Wirklichkeit der amicitia bei Cicero 261
D. KONSTAN, Cicero’s Two Loves 291
A. GANTER, Patronus und amicus. Ciceros Tränen als Grundlage sozialer Integration 307
E. KÖSTNER, Falsche Freunde: der captator als dystopischer Gegenentwurf des idealen amicus 325
C. ROLLINGER, Beyond Laelius. The Orthopraxy of Friendship in the Late Republic 343
R. SCHWITTER, Der tröstende Freund – Epistolares Rollenbild und kommunikative Verhaltensweise in Ciceros Epistulae ad familiares
369
S. VORONTSOV, Amicitia and caritas in the 7th Century: Isidore of Seville and His Sources 395
Recensioni – Comptes rendus 413
P. KONTONASIOS, Rhetoric of Cicero’s contiones (G. VASSILIADES) 415
S. MASO, Grasp and Dissent: Cicero and Epicurean Philosophy (A. ORLANDO) 421
C. SCHEIDEGGER LÄMMLE, Werkpolitik in der Antike (F. BOLDRER) 426
R. R. MARCHESE, Uno sguardo che vede. L’idea di rispetto (D. KONSTAN) 433
A. ROLLE, Dall’Oriente a Roma. Cibele, Iside e Serapide (F. LAZZERINI) 441
APULEIO, De Platone et eius dogmate, a c. di E. DAL CHIELE (F. PICCIONI) 445
Bollettino bibliografico – Bulletin bibliographique (a cura di A. A. RASCHIERI) 451
Abstracts – Key Words 457