The Emperor Domitian

Brian Jones0415042291, 9780415042291, 0415101956, 9780415101950, 9780203036259

Domitian, Emperor of Rome AD 81–96, has traditionally been portrayed as a tyrant and his later years on the throne as a ‘reign of terror’, with his death bringing a restoration of liberty and inaugurating the glorious rule of the ‘five good emperors’. It is lesswell known that he was an able, meticulous administrator, a reformer of the economy, with a building programme designed to ensure that Rome not only was the capital of the world but looked it as well.Brian Jones’s biography of the emperor, the first ever in English and the first in any language for nearly a century, offers a balanced interpretation of the life of Domitian. In taking into account recent scholarship and new epigraphic and archaeological discoveries, The Emperor Domitian proposes that Domitian was a ruthless but efficient autocrat with a sound foreign policy, and rejects the traditional view that dismisses him as a vicious tyrant. His harshness was felt by a comparatively minute, but highly vocal section of the population, who included those who wrote the history of his reign.Brian Jones argues that his relationship with the court rather than with the senate is central to understanding his policies and in explaining his reputation. The book further challenges many of the assumptions concerning Domitian’s connection with the persecutionof the early Christians.Domitian remains one of the most important and intriguing of the Roman rulers. Roman historians will have to take account of this new biography which in part represents a rehabilitation of Domitian.

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Table of contents :
Book Cover……Page 1
Title……Page 4
Contents……Page 5
Preface……Page 8
List of abbreviations……Page 10
EARLY CAREER……Page 14
COURT I……Page 35
COURT II……Page 63
ADMINISTRATION I……Page 85
ADMINISTRATION II……Page 112
WAR I……Page 139
WAR II……Page 157
ARISTOCRACY I……Page 173
ARISTOCRACY II……Page 193
CONCLUSION……Page 206
Notes……Page 212
Bibliography……Page 251
Persons index……Page 269
Author index……Page 286
General index……Page 294