Erika Manders | Radboud University Nijmegen (original) (raw)

Books by Erika Manders

Current scholarship on Roman imperial representation addresses both the ways in which individual ... more Current scholarship on Roman imperial representation addresses both the ways in which individual rulers presented themselves to their subjects and how particular aspects of imperial representation developed over time. This book combines these two approaches. It examines the diachronic development of the representation of Roman imperial power as a whole in one medium over a longer period of time. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of coin types issued between A.D. 193 and 284, patterns in the representation of third-century Roman emperors on imperial coinage are made visible. The result is a new perspective on the development of imperial ideology in times of crisis.

Papers by Erika Manders

Klio 104 (2), 2022

Trajan’s status as a model emperor is perhaps most famously expressed in Eutropius’ catchphrase “... more Trajan’s status as a model emperor is perhaps most famously expressed
in Eutropius’ catchphrase “More fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan” (Eutr. Brev. 8.5.3). Modern scholarship has similarly stressed Trajan’s exemplary status, assuming that Trajan’s virtues were already a point of departure by which to measure second- and third-century emperors. This article challenges that notion; it argues that Trajan’s status as a model emperor was a late-antique literary construct. Trajan only entered the repertoire of exemplary emperors during the course of the fourth century to become the model emperor in the very late fourth- and early-fifth century. This development depended on the historical context and ideological demands, as well as on the availability of the then-existing material discussing and depicting the historical Trajan.

JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, 2015

Klio, 2019

This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be pres... more This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be presented as legitimate in a society that had never seen this political constellation before. What were the different modes of presenting Tetrarchic rule and how did they help in making the new system acceptable? The article argues that new power structures needed to be formulated in familiar terms, not only for the rulers to legitimate their position, but also for the ruled to understand such new systems. As a result, imperial messages during the Tetrarchic period were strongly influenced by traditional modes of representation from earlier periods. Traditions which were inherent in specific media and locations were determining factors for the way in which a new political system could be presented. The result was a much less coherent ideological Tetrarchic message than is often assumed. The image of group identity was regularly lost in a more complex and messy mode of formulating power. The new and innovative aspects of a collegiate rule by four emperors was less important than linking the power of those rulers to what was traditionally expected of the portrayal of Roman emperorship.

Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis, 2020

Growing generals: the military representation of the child-emperors Gratian and Honorius on coins... more Growing generals: the military representation of the child-emperors Gratian and Honorius on coins and in panegyricBetween 367 and 455 the Roman empire witnessed a series of children being elevated to the imperial throne. Meaghan McEvoy (2010; 2013) has convincingly shown that in the successive reigns of these child-emperors the imperial office was transformed from being active and military to being far more passive and ceremonial. Powerful generals were to take over the emperor’s military functions, while the young ruler came to fulfil an increasingly religious and ceremonial role. This article looks into the early phase of this transformation by investigating how the need for military leadership was dealt with in the cases of the child-emperors Gratian (r. 367-383) and Honorius (r. 393-423). A substantial amount of contemporary source material has survived from their reigns in the form of panegyrics and coinage. A systematic analysis of these sources relating to the various stages ...

Klio 101 (https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/klio.2019.101.issue-2/klio-2019-0042/klio-2019-0042.xml), 2019

This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be pres... more This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be presented as legitimate in a society that had never seen this political constellation before. What were the different modes of presenting Tetrarchic rule and how did they help in making the new system acceptable? The article argues that new power structures needed to be formulated in familiar terms, not only for the rulers to legitimate their position, but also for the ruled to understand such new systems. As a result, imperial messages during the Tetrarchic period were strongly influenced by traditional modes of representation from earlier periods. Traditions which were inherent in specific media and locations were determining factors for the way in which a new political system could be presented. The result was a much less coherent ideological Tetrarchic message than is often assumed. The image of group identity was regularly lost in a more complex and messy mode of formulating power. The new and innovative aspects of a collegiate rule by four emperors was less important than linking the power of those rulers to what was traditionally expected of the portrayal of Roman emperorship.

C.A. Cvetkovic and P. Gemeinhardt (eds.), Episcopal Networks in Late Antiquity. Connection and Communication across Boundaries, 2019

Within the discipline of ancient history, diverse types of sources, such as coins, inscriptions, ... more Within the discipline of ancient history, diverse types of sources, such as coins, inscriptions, portraits and texts, are often combined to create a coherent image of a particular ruler. A good example of how such a process works is the way in which reconstructions by modern scholars of the emperor Nero tend to look for a clearly defined ‘Neronian image’, by bringing together various types of primary evidence without paying sufficient attention to these sources’ medial contexts. This article argues that such a reconstruction does not do justice to the complex and multi-layered image of the last Julio-Claudian. By focusing on one particular aspect of Neronian imagery, the propagation of this emperor’s ancestry, we will argue that different types of sources, stemming from varying contexts and addressing different groups, cannot unproblematically be combined. Through an investigation of the ancestral messages spread by imperial and provincial coins, epigraphical evidence and portraiture, it becomes clear that systematic analysis of ancient media,their various contexts and inconsistencies is needed before combining them. Such an analysis reveals patterns within the different sources and shows that, in creating imperial images, rulers were constrained by both medial and local traditions. Modern studies of ancient images should therefore take these medial and geographical variety into account in order to do justice to the the multi-faceted phenomenon of imperial representation.

Jaarboek voor Munt- en Penningkunde 101, 2014

Journal of Interdisciplinary History Summer 2014, Vol. 45, No. 1: 25–37.

Analysis of the coinage during Nero's reign as Roman emperor reveals a much less uniform image of... more Analysis of the coinage during Nero's reign as Roman emperor reveals a much less uniform image of Nero than is usually depicted in historical literature. The case of Nero exemplifies the importance of an interdisciplinary methodological framework. A “pick and mix” numismatic methodology devised in support of a Neronian ideology gleaned via literary evidence may lead to a superficially convincing image of the emperor, but it will not do justice to the complexities surrounding his reign.

Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 126.3, 2013

Jaarboek voor Munt- en Penningkunde 98, 2011

Epigraphic evidence from different regions within the Roman Empire in the third century testifies... more Epigraphic evidence from different regions within the Roman Empire in the third century testifies to an increasing awareness of the Empire as a whole, which was perceived to have been under threat. Simultaneously, other inscriptions show the continuing importance of the emperor as a figurehead within this Empire. The rapid changeover of individual emperors and the consequently diminished power of individual emperors seem to have had little impact on the central positions that emperors occupied in the eyes of their subject. In fact, the increased absence of emperors from Rome for much of the period – and more importantly their presence at the local level – seems to have boosted the number of requests from the provinces to the emperor. At the same time, an analysis of third-century imperial coinage may also indicate a changing portrayal of the relationship between the emperor and the city of Rome. This article tries to place a discussion about the (perceived) identity of emperor and empire in the third century in terms of the relation between empire, emperor, and the city which gave its name to the realm.

Drafts by Erika Manders

Call for a numismatic course with a 5ects load at the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome in collab... more Call for a numismatic course with a 5ects load at the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome in collaboration with OIKOS, DAI Rome, the Radboud University Nijmegen and the John Felice Rome Center of Loyola University Chicago (September 2019). The course is open for MA-, RMA students and PhD candidates in (Ancient) History, Art History, Classics and Archaeology from the KNIR partner universities (UvA, VU, UL, UU, RU and RUG) as well as from German universities. The course is part of the OIKOS education program for PhD students. No specific knowledge of Greek or Latin language is required.

Current scholarship on Roman imperial representation addresses both the ways in which individual ... more Current scholarship on Roman imperial representation addresses both the ways in which individual rulers presented themselves to their subjects and how particular aspects of imperial representation developed over time. This book combines these two approaches. It examines the diachronic development of the representation of Roman imperial power as a whole in one medium over a longer period of time. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of coin types issued between A.D. 193 and 284, patterns in the representation of third-century Roman emperors on imperial coinage are made visible. The result is a new perspective on the development of imperial ideology in times of crisis.

Klio 104 (2), 2022

Trajan’s status as a model emperor is perhaps most famously expressed in Eutropius’ catchphrase “... more Trajan’s status as a model emperor is perhaps most famously expressed
in Eutropius’ catchphrase “More fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan” (Eutr. Brev. 8.5.3). Modern scholarship has similarly stressed Trajan’s exemplary status, assuming that Trajan’s virtues were already a point of departure by which to measure second- and third-century emperors. This article challenges that notion; it argues that Trajan’s status as a model emperor was a late-antique literary construct. Trajan only entered the repertoire of exemplary emperors during the course of the fourth century to become the model emperor in the very late fourth- and early-fifth century. This development depended on the historical context and ideological demands, as well as on the availability of the then-existing material discussing and depicting the historical Trajan.

JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, 2015

Klio, 2019

This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be pres... more This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be presented as legitimate in a society that had never seen this political constellation before. What were the different modes of presenting Tetrarchic rule and how did they help in making the new system acceptable? The article argues that new power structures needed to be formulated in familiar terms, not only for the rulers to legitimate their position, but also for the ruled to understand such new systems. As a result, imperial messages during the Tetrarchic period were strongly influenced by traditional modes of representation from earlier periods. Traditions which were inherent in specific media and locations were determining factors for the way in which a new political system could be presented. The result was a much less coherent ideological Tetrarchic message than is often assumed. The image of group identity was regularly lost in a more complex and messy mode of formulating power. The new and innovative aspects of a collegiate rule by four emperors was less important than linking the power of those rulers to what was traditionally expected of the portrayal of Roman emperorship.

Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis, 2020

Growing generals: the military representation of the child-emperors Gratian and Honorius on coins... more Growing generals: the military representation of the child-emperors Gratian and Honorius on coins and in panegyricBetween 367 and 455 the Roman empire witnessed a series of children being elevated to the imperial throne. Meaghan McEvoy (2010; 2013) has convincingly shown that in the successive reigns of these child-emperors the imperial office was transformed from being active and military to being far more passive and ceremonial. Powerful generals were to take over the emperor’s military functions, while the young ruler came to fulfil an increasingly religious and ceremonial role. This article looks into the early phase of this transformation by investigating how the need for military leadership was dealt with in the cases of the child-emperors Gratian (r. 367-383) and Honorius (r. 393-423). A substantial amount of contemporary source material has survived from their reigns in the form of panegyrics and coinage. A systematic analysis of these sources relating to the various stages ...

Klio 101 (https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/klio.2019.101.issue-2/klio-2019-0042/klio-2019-0042.xml), 2019

This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be pres... more This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be presented as legitimate in a society that had never seen this political constellation before. What were the different modes of presenting Tetrarchic rule and how did they help in making the new system acceptable? The article argues that new power structures needed to be formulated in familiar terms, not only for the rulers to legitimate their position, but also for the ruled to understand such new systems. As a result, imperial messages during the Tetrarchic period were strongly influenced by traditional modes of representation from earlier periods. Traditions which were inherent in specific media and locations were determining factors for the way in which a new political system could be presented. The result was a much less coherent ideological Tetrarchic message than is often assumed. The image of group identity was regularly lost in a more complex and messy mode of formulating power. The new and innovative aspects of a collegiate rule by four emperors was less important than linking the power of those rulers to what was traditionally expected of the portrayal of Roman emperorship.

C.A. Cvetkovic and P. Gemeinhardt (eds.), Episcopal Networks in Late Antiquity. Connection and Communication across Boundaries, 2019

Within the discipline of ancient history, diverse types of sources, such as coins, inscriptions, ... more Within the discipline of ancient history, diverse types of sources, such as coins, inscriptions, portraits and texts, are often combined to create a coherent image of a particular ruler. A good example of how such a process works is the way in which reconstructions by modern scholars of the emperor Nero tend to look for a clearly defined ‘Neronian image’, by bringing together various types of primary evidence without paying sufficient attention to these sources’ medial contexts. This article argues that such a reconstruction does not do justice to the complex and multi-layered image of the last Julio-Claudian. By focusing on one particular aspect of Neronian imagery, the propagation of this emperor’s ancestry, we will argue that different types of sources, stemming from varying contexts and addressing different groups, cannot unproblematically be combined. Through an investigation of the ancestral messages spread by imperial and provincial coins, epigraphical evidence and portraiture, it becomes clear that systematic analysis of ancient media,their various contexts and inconsistencies is needed before combining them. Such an analysis reveals patterns within the different sources and shows that, in creating imperial images, rulers were constrained by both medial and local traditions. Modern studies of ancient images should therefore take these medial and geographical variety into account in order to do justice to the the multi-faceted phenomenon of imperial representation.

Jaarboek voor Munt- en Penningkunde 101, 2014

Journal of Interdisciplinary History Summer 2014, Vol. 45, No. 1: 25–37.

Analysis of the coinage during Nero's reign as Roman emperor reveals a much less uniform image of... more Analysis of the coinage during Nero's reign as Roman emperor reveals a much less uniform image of Nero than is usually depicted in historical literature. The case of Nero exemplifies the importance of an interdisciplinary methodological framework. A “pick and mix” numismatic methodology devised in support of a Neronian ideology gleaned via literary evidence may lead to a superficially convincing image of the emperor, but it will not do justice to the complexities surrounding his reign.

Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 126.3, 2013

Jaarboek voor Munt- en Penningkunde 98, 2011

Epigraphic evidence from different regions within the Roman Empire in the third century testifies... more Epigraphic evidence from different regions within the Roman Empire in the third century testifies to an increasing awareness of the Empire as a whole, which was perceived to have been under threat. Simultaneously, other inscriptions show the continuing importance of the emperor as a figurehead within this Empire. The rapid changeover of individual emperors and the consequently diminished power of individual emperors seem to have had little impact on the central positions that emperors occupied in the eyes of their subject. In fact, the increased absence of emperors from Rome for much of the period – and more importantly their presence at the local level – seems to have boosted the number of requests from the provinces to the emperor. At the same time, an analysis of third-century imperial coinage may also indicate a changing portrayal of the relationship between the emperor and the city of Rome. This article tries to place a discussion about the (perceived) identity of emperor and empire in the third century in terms of the relation between empire, emperor, and the city which gave its name to the realm.

Call for a numismatic course with a 5ects load at the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome in collab... more Call for a numismatic course with a 5ects load at the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome in collaboration with OIKOS, DAI Rome, the Radboud University Nijmegen and the John Felice Rome Center of Loyola University Chicago (September 2019). The course is open for MA-, RMA students and PhD candidates in (Ancient) History, Art History, Classics and Archaeology from the KNIR partner universities (UvA, VU, UL, UU, RU and RUG) as well as from German universities. The course is part of the OIKOS education program for PhD students. No specific knowledge of Greek or Latin language is required.

Klio, 2019

This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be pres... more This article seeks to address the question how the Tetrarchic system of four rulers could be presented as legitimate in a society that had never seen this political constellation before. What were the different modes of presenting Tetrarchic rule and how did they help in making the new system acceptable? The article argues that new power structures needed to be formulated in familiar terms, not only for the rulers to legitimate their position, but also for the ruled to understand such new systems. As a result, imperial messages during the Tetrarchic period were strongly influenced by traditional modes of representation from earlier periods. Traditions which were inherent in specific media and locations were determining factors for the way in which a new political system could be presented. The result was a much less coherent ideological Tetrarchic message than is often assumed. The image of group identity was regularly lost in a more complex and messy mode of formulating power. The new and innovative aspects of a collegiate rule by four emperors was less important than linking the power of those rulers to what was traditionally expected of the portrayal of Roman emperorship.

Trajan's status as a model emperor is perhaps most famously expressed in Eutropius' catchphrase "... more Trajan's status as a model emperor is perhaps most famously expressed in Eutropius' catchphrase "More fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan" (Eutr. Brev. 8.5.3). Modern scholarship has similarly stressed Trajan's exemplary status, assuming that Trajan's virtues were already a point of departure by which to measure second-and third-century emperors. This article challenges that notion; it argues that Trajan's status as a model emperor was a late-antique literary construct. Trajan only entered the repertoire of exemplary emperors during the course of the fourth century to become the model emperor in the very latefourth-and early-fifth century. This development depended on the historical context and ideological demands, as well as on the availability of the then-existing material discussing and depicting the historical Trajan.

This volume focuses on the interface between tradition and the shifting configuration of power st... more This volume focuses on the interface between tradition and the shifting configuration of power structures in the Roman Empire. By examining various time periods and locales, its contributions show the Empire as a world filed with a wide variety of cultural, political, social, and religious traditions. These traditions were constantly played upon in the processes of negotiation and (re)definition that made the empire into a superstructure whose coherence was embedded in its diversity.