CARLOS MACHADO, URBAN SPACE AND ARISTOCRATIC POWER IN LATE ANTIQUE ROME: A.D. 270–535. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xix + 317, illus. isbn 9780198835073. £75.

Abstract

the orator navigates a scenario where he, as the emperor's condant and former teacher, has close access to his subject's private world. This is followed by Roger Rees' analysis of the interplay between two texts addressed to Theodosius, Ambrose's letter on the Callinicum riot (Ep. 74) and Pacatus' panegyric, both of which use the unusual tag libertas dicendi, 'freedom of speech'. This discussion complements the book's wider ndings of the agency of imperial representation nicely: authors with disparate agendas projecting models of emperorship onto a living ruler, conscious that they are addressing the emperor but also his subjects, and actively shaping concepts of authority. Finally, Álvaro Sánchez-Ostiz analyses how the poet Claudian situated the half-Vandal Stilicho within rhetorical stereotypes of Roman-ness in his panegyric on Stilicho's third consulship in 400. This consideration of a gure who was in close proximity to imperial power but never actually an emperor provides a tting conclusion for a volume concerned with blurred and conicting images.Imagining Emperors is an attractive book and includes well-placed colour images, most of which are of excellent quality. The introduction reads as a little rushed and under-referenced in comparison to the chapters, and some of the contributions have a few unfortunate typos. It is a relatively accessible volume. The authors do an excellent job of explaining the often complicated political context, but some of the chapters include excerpts of untranslated text. At twelve male contributions to two female, the gender balance is notably poor (see, however, the preface for a more diverse picture of the original conference and wider editorial process). Individually the chapters are thought-provoking and original. Together they form a coherent whole, offering a valuable shift in emphasis that places panegyric and the 'representational turn' at the centre of our understanding of later Roman emperorship.