Looking for Representations of Emperors in Late Antique Popular Culture

Abstract

Abstract Rather than looking at the emperor from the viewpoint of the elites of the Roman empire, this chapter focuses on the image of the emperor in popular culture, focusing on late antiquity in particular. It looks first at visual images of emperors across a range of media (ranging from painted panels to dessert moulds) and examines their varied roles in visual and material culture. Next discussion turns to the diverse stories told about emperors in texts from across and beyond the Roman empire, including the lively Syriac traditions about (and against) Julian. The final section considers carnival as the richest context of all for the reception of the imperial image in popular culture, taking in abusive poetry, subversive mine, and the assault of imperial portraits. Well-known stories, texts, and images are in this way combined with less familiar material to provide new insights into a much wider range of responses to imperial power and its representation.