The Emperor Beyond the Frontiers: A Double-Mirror as a ‘Political Discourse’

Abstract

This is a contribution about ‘an imperial discourse’ in which long-term notions of the Roman Empire in the worlds outside of that empire, and of the outside worlds from within the Roman Empire, are related to the multiple figures of the princeps. It raises diverse (Roman and alien) conceptions of the imperial power during the first five centuries of the Principate, and analyses the various messages we can find during periods of peace and war. Epigraphic, numismatic, juridical, and iconographic evidence, e.g., from the Res Gestae diui Augusti to the so-called Res Gestae diui Saporis, is used to analyse different aspects of the conception of the princeps by insiders and outsiders.1 This contribution is part of a research program which interprets the imperial identity through the various ‘forms, practices, and representations of the imperial power at Rome and in the Roman world from the beginnings to the Late Antique Empire.’ The process of construction of a discourse involving a sort of ‘double-entendre’2 (various meanings depending on diverse audiences) will be the main focus of this inquiry. It sees political discourse essentially as part of a dialogue, in which rhetoric plays a crucial role.3