Constantine and the Cities: Imperial Authority and Civic Politics by Noel Lenski

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 423 and extended analysis, such as the routinization of magisterial prorogation at the very moment in which Augustus was consolidating his own magisterial powers (41–42), or the Roman “construction” of time as a “social fact” (81–84), or the relationship between the diffusion of Roman citizenship and Roman tolerance for diversity (92–93). Nor is it always clear how, precisely, the various topics are meant to relate to one another. That several observations are introduced “as an aside” (e.g., 55, 66) is symptomatic of Ando’s approach. The discursive style is also reflected in the overall structure of the book. The discussion may well be propelled by a set of underlying propositions, but the book as a whole is not organized to prove a central thesis. Instead of a comprehensive (or even representative) collection of evidence, mobilized to support a core argument, what Ando provides is a series of observations for which the texts cited can serve, at best, as illustrations. No one could reasonably expect formal, causal analysis or falsification of the sort of argument to which Ando gestures, but historians will want more evidence, systematically presented, to buttress the case. Otherwise we are left, in effect, with a bundle of assertions, not an argument. The deficit in explicit argumentation is especially acute in light of two presuppositions that frame the whole discussion. The first is the notion that a “singular linguistic and discursive system” came “to regulate human societies in every way removed from the conditions in which that system had come into being” (6). The second is that “citizenship functioned as a primary mechanism of social differentiation” in the Roman empire, at least until the universal citizenship grant of 212 (88). These propositions reflect Ando’s central concern with the problem of difference, and its management, within the Roman empire. He simply assumes, however, and implicitly asks his readers to assume, that differences between metropolitan and non-Roman societies were in fact profound (ignoring structural similarities in the demographic and economic spheres), and that they should be understood in juridical terms, and that juridical status was more important than (for example) wealth or social power in the articulation of social hierarchies in the Roman world. Alternative viewpoints are not considered, much less contested. As a result, the central claims of the book will only be compelling to those readers who are prepared to accept, a priori, that diversity in the Roman world was primarily a function of formal political organization, and that the Roman empire was maintained above all by the juridical categorization and legal regulation of discrete political communities. It goes without saying that not all readers will accept those premises. Roman Social Imaginaries does, nevertheless, flag a number of interesting and mostly overlooked issues, especially in what Ando might call the underlying “grammar” of Roman imperialist thought, and succeeds in encouraging us to pay closer attention to the cognitive dimension of Roman rule. University of California, Berkeley Carlos F. NoreÄ na Constantine and the Cities: Imperial Authority and Civic Politics. By Noel Lenski. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (“Empire and After”). 2016. Pp. ix, 404. What did Constantine believe? Noel Lenski adroitly sidesteps this conventional question by highlighting instead the multiple images of the emperor simultaneously in 424 PHOENIX circulation already during his lifetime. But his emphasis on variable perspectives does not become yet another study of the making of Constantine into a Christian emperor. Instead, the innovation of Lenski’s outstanding book is to demonstrate the relevance of the contemporary images of the emperor for the everyday governance of the empire. Lenski’s chapters emphasize the dialogue between an emperor and his subjects. Constantine projected images of himself in his titulature and the images on coins (Chapters One to Three); cities sent him petitions (Chapters Four to Seven). The emperor replied with favors or warnings (Chapters Eight to Ten); cities responded with honorific dedications or loud protests (Chapters Eleven to Fourteen). Even as all the participants followed implicit rules of decorum, the outcomes were often unexpected. Over his long reign representations of Constantine changed repeatedly. Lenski highlights four phases as revealed in portrait...