Under Divine Auspices: Divine Ideology and the Visualisation of Imperial Power in the Severan Period

Description

This book explores how deities were used to communicate and negotiate imperial power under the Severan dynasty (AD 193-235). Septimius Severus connected his reign to the divine support of Liber Pater and Hercules, while Caracalla placed a particular emphasis on the gods Apollo, Aesculapius and Sarapis. Elagabalus' reign was characterised by the worship of the Emesene deity Elagabal, which resulted in a renewed emphasis on the cult of Jupiter under Severus Alexander. Numismatic evidence is reintegrated into the wider material culture of the Severan period in order to bring new insights into the use of the divine in this period, as well as the role played by the provinces in the formation and reception of this ideology. By taking a dynastic approach, this book demonstrates the dynamic nature of the imperial public image and the complex dialogue that existed between Rome and the wider Empire in this period.

Clare Rowan completed her doctorate in ancient history at Macquarie University in 2009. She has been a Junior Fellow and Research Officer at the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies and the Macquarie Gale Fellow at the British School at Rome, and is now employed on the project 'Coinage and the Dynamics of Power: the Western Mediterranean 500-100 BC' at the Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main.

'Under Divine Auspices will prove valuable not only for those interested in Severan propaganda, but for students of Roman history in general.' Julie Langford, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 'One of the strengths of [this] book is the way that coinage is interpreted within the broader cultural and visual context. It is a fluent and convincing book with a plethora of hard facts and statistics, and it is hoped that similar detailed numismatic studies of other reigns will be forthcoming. Rowan's [volume] will be very useful to scholars of the Severan period, those engaging with imperial ideology and numismatics more generally.' Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis, The Journal of Roman Studies