Review: The Soldier's Life: Martial Virtue and Manly Romanitas in the Early Byzantine Empire, by Michael Edward Stewart

Abstract

Michael Edward Stewart, The Soldier's Life: Martial Virtue and Manly Romanitas in the Early Byzantine Empire . Romanitas. Leeds: Kismet Press, 2016. Pp. xviii + 385, 11 black and white figures. ISBN: 97809956717. $35.00. Stewart's monograph is an attempt to nuance the broad scholarly consensus that the triumph of Christianity almost completely revised Roman culture and cultural values along Christian lines. His specific topic is the enduring importance of conceptions of masculinity defined by military service or prowess from the late fourth through the seventh centuries C.E. Although sensitive to the ways in which Christianity affected the development of Roman culture, Stewart contends that the story of Roman masculinity, especially the public masculinity communicated in literature and imperial iconography, was one of continuity rather than change. Stewart's first chapter, the introduction, argues for the connection between Romanitas , political legitimacy, and conceptions of masculinity. It includes a discussion of the terminology, both modern and ancient, that the author employs, as well as an outline of the monograph. The work begins in earnest in chapter 2, “The Study of Men as a Gender,” in which Stewart argues that the rhetorically exaggerated men who appear in the pages of ancient sources, in particular secular historiography, can be used to reconstruct popular attitudes towards masculinity. The chapter also includes brief discussions of scholarship on intertextuality and genre, before concluding with a survey of recent scholarly work on ancient masculinity. Hereafter, the chapters proceed in a roughly chronological order. Chapter 3, “ Vita Militaris : The Soldier's Life,” demonstrates the longstanding connection between military service and authentic masculinity in Roman thought before turning to …