Status Updates From Imperial Ideology and Provi...

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"surrendered their notions of social order to the constructive and deconstructive powers of provincial discourse"

“If success in warfare had remained essential to legitimate the candidacy of would-be emperors, neither Roman nor provincial would have been likely to recognize his stake in their shared community.” (277) only by ending expansion did it become possible to create a United community

Roman government went out of its way to put the laws and other official correspondence with the provinces in reach of provincials, displaying them publicly and certifying them to create a historical record of provincial-Roman relations that legitimized the empire through textual record-keeping

Interesting to consider the ways post colonial studies might treat this topic (66-67). Ando argues that in the ancient world the appeal of social order (and the Roman Empire’s connection to divinity) allowed conquered populations to embrace their conquerors and see themselves as part of the empire - one community. But why is the ancient world any different from the early modern in this front?

RQ: why did the Roman Empire last so long? More precisely, why didn’t the provinces rebel? A: political, religious, and ideological rituals and propaganda (not citizenship) created a provincial culture that emphasized consensus and loyalty to the Roman state - unity within the empire as beneficiaries and participants of imperial might and divine favor.