IMC 2026: Sessions
Session 710: The Happiest Times?: The Five Good Emperors in Late Antique Reception
Tuesday 7 July 2026, 14:15-15:45
| Organiser: | Marthe Becker, Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaft, Philosophie und Theologie, Universität Bielefeld |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Roland Steinacher, Institut für Alte Geschichte und Altorientalistik, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck |
| Paper 710-a | On a Good Emperor and Another New God: Hadrian and Antinous in Early Christian Apologetics (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Learning (The Classical Inheritance) |
| Paper 710-b | Optimus Princeps versus Princeps Christianus: Reflections on the Fictitious Origin of Theodosius I from Trajan (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Learning (The Classical Inheritance) |
| Paper 710-c | Reflecting on the 'Happiest Times': Depictions of Antonine Emperors in the Symposium by Emperor Julian, 361 (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Pagan Religions |
| Paper 710-d | The 'Perfect' Emperor?: On a Date with the Portrait of Antoninus Pius in the Historia Augusta (Language: English) Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Learning (The Classical Inheritance) |
| Abstract | Edward Gibbon famously described the reign of the so-called adoptive emperors as “most happy and prosperous”.[1] But recollections may vary. In this session, we will investigate how these 'happiest' times were received in the late antique and early medieval periods. This is an understudied aspect of late antique and early medieval historiography and how its authors narrated their Roman past. How did memories of the imperial past serve as anchors for later writers? We will demonstrate how, for some authors, Gibbon's assertion may have been accurate, while for others, the happiest of times were far from it. The session will explore the portrayal of Antinous and Hadrian in Christian apologetic writing, the Antonines in Julian's Symposium, and Antoninus Pius in the Historia Augusta, while also tracing the connection between Theodosius and Trajan. [1] Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol 1, 3 The Constitution In The Age Of The Antonines, II. |