Leading Rome from a Distance, 300 Bce-37 CE: Asserting Autocracy Through Absence

By Ralph Lange

Roman political leaders used distance from Rome as a key political tool to assert pre-eminence.

Through the case studies of Caesar's hegemony, Augustus's autocracy, and Tiberius's reign, this book examines how these figures' experiences and manipulations of absence established a multipolar focus of political life centred less on the city of Rome, and more on the idea of a single leader.

The Roman expansion over Italy and the Mediterranean put the political system under considerable stress, and eventually resulted in a dispersal of leadership and a decentralization of power. Absent generals rivalled their peers in Rome for influence and threatened to surpass them from the provinces. Roman leaders, from Sulla to Tiberius, used absence as a mechanism to act autonomously, but it came at the cost of losing influence and control at the centre. In order to hold influence while being split off from the decision-making powers of the geographical nucleus that was Rome, communication channels to mitigate necessary absences were developed during this period, such as travel, intermediate meetings, letters (propaganda writings) and a complex network of mediators, ultimately forming the circle from which the imperial court emerged. Absent leadership, as it developed throughout the Late Republic, a hitherto neglected issue, eventually became a valuable asset in the institutionalising process of the autocracy of Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1350325406
• ISBN13: 9781350325401
• Release Date: November 2024
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"