{"product_id":"the-importance-of-being-gorgeous-gender-and-christian-imperial-rule-in-late-antiquity-volume-66-9780520413344","title":"The Importance of Being Gorgeous: Gender and Christian Imperial Rule in Late Antiquity Volume 66","description":"\u003cb\u003eA free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In this book, Susanna Elm radically changes our understanding of imperial rule in the later Roman Empire. As she shows, the so-called eastern decadence of the Emperor Theodosius and his successors was in fact a calculated revolution in masculinity and the representation of imperial power. Here, the emperor's hard yet soft, mature yet youthfully gorgeous beauty was central. Because the Theodosian emperors were divine--gods one could see--so was their beauty: their manliness was the face and body of God. The emperors' gorgeousness, their sparkling regalia, how they wished their bodies to be seen by their elite subjects--who authored the texts on which Elm's analysis is based--were as important as laws, taxes, and armies. Their \u003ci\u003evir\u003c\/i\u003e-ness strategically deployed male same-sex erotic desire to enhance the unity of the realm in times of tension, incorporate the signifying potency of child emperors, and create a flexible yet stable model of Christian sovereignty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSusanna Elm\u003c\/b\u003e, FBA, is Sidney H. Ehrman Chair and Distinguished Professor of History and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and author of \u003ci\u003eSons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of California Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51967061950738,"sku":"9780520413344","price":38.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_861f2db4-8185-44c1-912c-511994eb118e.jpg?v=1768923525","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-importance-of-being-gorgeous-gender-and-christian-imperial-rule-in-late-antiquity-volume-66-9780520413344","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}