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When analyzing the character of monarchic regimes and their strategies for creating obedience and acceptance, the focus usually lies on the ruler ideology and the self-representation of the individual monarch. However, the contributions to the present volume try to approach the matter from the angle of the - real or merely anticipated - criticism against the background of which monarchic legitimization was expressed: what conditions, what elements, and what strategies were characteristic of a critical discussion of monocracy in antiquity, and to what extent was the relationship between ruler ideology and antimonarchic sentiment marked by mutual dependence? What significance did the eternal background noise possess which as a contre-discourse compelled rulers in Egypt, Persia, Judea, Greece and Rome to justify themselves again and again?

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"This attractively produced volume contains extremely useful and stimulating essays in the form of a general introduction followed by 12 case studies." Richard Westall Ancient West & East 16, 2017

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Börm, Henning
Henning Börm ist Privatdozent für Alte Geschichte an der Universität Konstanz. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte bilden die griechische Polis im Hellenismus, die römische Geschichte in Prinzipat und Spätantike, antike Bürgerkriege sowie die Beziehungen zwischen der Mittelmeerwelt und dem Sasanidenreich.

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