Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
In Praise of Constantius: Greek Panegyric in Late Antiquity

In Praise of Constantius: Greek Panegyric in Late Antiquity

Ross, Alan J.

Hardcover

Series: Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity

AnthropologyGreek History

ISBN10: 0197827543
ISBN13: 9780197827543
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Oct 30 2025
Pages: 360
Weight: 1.37
Height: 1.34 Width: 6.50 Depth: 9.32
Language: English
In Praise of Constantius offers historical and literary analysis of eight Greek panegyrics composed by Libanius, Themistius, and Julian in the 340s and 350s CE, and addressed to Constantius II and his wife, the empress Eusebia. Its central concerns are the role that the composition, performance, and dissemination of imperial panegyric played in establishing the careers of the three most prominent Greek pagans of the fourth century; and their development of Greek epideictic literature in an era beyond the Second Sophistic.

The book deftly exposes the rich intertextual dynamics between these eight speeches, other contemporary works, and canonical works of Greek political literature. It revises standard interpretations of panegyric's communicative function, and treats the orator less as a vector for others' messaging and instead as an active agent in political discourse in pursuit of his own ends. The volume substantially re-writes the early careers of each of its subjects, emphasizing their precarity and the utilization of performed paideia in managing moments of personal and political upheaval.

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