Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey (Women in Antiquity)

Sabina Augusta (ca. 85-ca. 137), wife of the emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-38), accumulated more public honors in Rome and the provinces than any imperial woman had enjoyed since the first empress, Augustus' wife Livia. Indeed, Sabina is the first woman whose image features on a regular and continuous series of coins minted at Rome. She was the most travelled and visible empress to date. Hadrian also deified his wife upon her death. In synthesizing the textual and massive material evidence for the empress, T. Corey Brennan traces the development of Sabina's partnership with her husband and shows the vital importance of the empress for Hadrian's own aspirations. Furthermore, the book argues that Hadrian meant for Sabina to play a key role in promoting the public character of his rule, and details how the emperor's exaltation of his wife served to enhance his own claims to divinity. Yet the sparse literary sources on Sabina instead put the worst light on the dynamics of her marriage. Brennan fully explores the various, and overwhelmingly negative, notions this empress stirred up in historiography, from antiquity through the modern era; and against the material record proposes a new and nuanced understanding of her formal role. This biographical study sheds new light not just on its subject but also more widely on Hadrian-including the vexed question of that emperor's relationship with his apparent lover Antinoös-and indeed Rome's imperial women as a group.

History

Brennan, T. Corey

Ancient Civilizations

Oxford University Press

Brennan's book surveys the history of the Roman praetorship, which was one of the most enduring Roman political institutions, occupying the practical center of Roman Republican administrative life for over three centuries. The study addresses political, social, military and legal history, as well as Roman religion. Volume I begins with a survey of Roman (and modern) views on the development of legitimate power--from the kings, through the early chief magistrates, and down through the creation and early years of the praetorship. Volume II discusses how the introduction in 122 of C. Gracchus' provincia repetundarum pushed the old city-state system to its functional limits.

The Praetorship in the Roman Republic: Volume 1: Origins to 122 BC

The Praetorship in the Roman Republic, Vol. 2

Brennan's book surveys the history of the Roman praetorship, which was one of the most enduring Roman political institutions, occupying the practical center of Roman Republican administrative life for over three centuries. The study addresses political, social, military and legal history, as well as Roman religion. Volume I begins with a survey of Roman (and modern) views on the development of legitimate power--from the kings, through the early chief magistrates, and down through the creation and early years of the praetorship. Volume II discusses how the introduction in 122 of C. Gracchus' provincia repetundarum pushed the old city-state system to its functional limits.

The Praetorship in the Roman Republic

Review\n"Without question, it is a very solid piece of scholarship, crafted by an author who knows his way well around (mostly) nonliterary sources... As it stands, Sabina Augusta is probably the best monograph on Sabina one could hope for." -- Classical Philology\n"Working from 200 words of textual references, sculptural representations, and other sources, [Brennan] effects a remarkable reconstruction of an iconic empress." --Harvard Magazine\n"Brennan is to be commended for producing a clearly written and accessible book that thoroughly documents these changes in the representation of Sabina." --Bryn Mawr Classical Review\n"A broad view, copious details and illustrations, and lively presentation mark Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey. Overcoming the ancient disinterest in women that extended even to Hadrian's wife Sabina and other most imperial women, Brennan's exploration of Sabina enjoyably and memorably elucidates Roman imperial power and its effects in Italy and the provinces. The book appealingly presents its subjects as humans, sensitively treating the outstanding coinage, evocative sculpture, and enigmatic literary and other sources for the Hadrianic period. Sabina will be a major contribution to Roman social history, especially the history of Roman women." --Mary T. Boatwright, Duke University\n"A meticulously researched and detailed study that probes the surviving evidence (especially inscriptions, coins and sculpture, not least as a counterbalance to the hostile literary sources) about the emperor Hadrian's wife Sabina and, in the process, reveals much about the nature of Roman imperial power in the second century AD. It will be required reading for anyone interested in the reign of the enigmatic emperor Hadrian and, more generally, in the evolving strategies that Roman emperors devised to solidify their rule." --Jonathan Edmondson, York University\nSabina Augusta (ca. 85-ca. 137), wife of the emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-38), accumulated more public honors in Rome and the provinces than any imperial woman had enjoyed since the first empress, Augustus' wife Livia. Indeed, Sabina is the first woman whose image features on a regular and continuous series of coins minted at Rome. She was the most travelled and visible empress to date. Hadrian also deified his wife upon her death.\nIn synthesizing the textual and massive material evidence for the empress, T. Corey Brennan traces the development of Sabina's partnership with her husband and shows the vital importance of the empress for Hadrian's own aspirations. Furthermore, the book argues that Hadrian meant for Sabina to play a key role in promoting the public character of his rule, and details how the emperor's exaltation of his wife served to enhance his own claims to divinity. Yet the sparse literary sources on Sabina instead put the worst light on the dynamics of her marriage.\nBrennan fully explores the various, and overwhelmingly negative, notions this empress stirred up in historiography, from antiquity through the modern era; and against the material record proposes a new and nuanced understanding of her formal role. This biographical study sheds new light not just on its subject but also more widely on Hadrian-including the vexed question of that emperor's relationship with his apparent lover Antinoös-and indeed Rome's imperial women as a group.

"Fascism" is a word ubiquitous in our contemporary political discourse, but few know about its roots in the ancient past or its long, strange evolution to the present.\nIn ancient Rome, the fasces were a bundle of wooden rods bound with a leather cord, in which an axe was placed--in essence, a mobile kit for corporal or capital punishment. Attendants typically carried fasces before Rome's higher officials, to induce feelings of respect and fear for the relevant authority. This highly performative Roman institution had a lifespan of almost two millennia, and made a deep impression on subsequent eras, from the Byzantine period to the present.\nStarting in the Renaissance, we find revivals and reinterpretations of the ancient fasces, accelerating especially after 1789, the first year of the United States' Constitution and the opening volley of the French Revolution. But it was Benito Mussolini, who, beginning in 1919, propagated the fasces on an unprecedented scale. Oddly, today the emblem has grown largely unfamiliar, which in turn has offered an opening to contemporary extremist groups.\nIn The Fasces, T. Corey Brennan offers the first global history of the nature, development, and competing meanings of this stark symbol, from antiquity to the twenty-first century. The word "fascism" has universal awareness in contemporary political discourse, which thus makes this, the first book to trace the full arc of the fasces' almost 3,000-year history, essential reading for all who wish to understand how the past informs the present.

The Fasces: A History of Ancient Rome's Most Dangerous Political Symbol

Americas

Imperial Institutions in Ancient Rome and Early China: A Comparative Analysis

Literature & Fiction

Loewe, Michael

Nylan, Michael

World Literature

Bloomsbury Academic

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brennan, T. Corey. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brennan, T. Corey

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brennan, T. Corey. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey (Women in Antiquity)

The Praetorship in the Roman Republic: Volume 1: Origins to 122 BC

The Praetorship in the Roman Republic, Vol. 2

The Praetorship in the Roman Republic

Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey (Women in Antiquity)

The Fasces: A History of Ancient Rome's Most Dangerous Political Symbol

Imperial Institutions in Ancient Rome and Early China: A Comparative Analysis