Layers of loyalty in Latin panegyric, AD 289-307

"Discussion of the potential and tension inherent in the culture of imperial praesentia introduces the study's main approach. In each of five substantial chapters, the date, place, and circumstances of delivery are considered in order to identify the challenges facing the orator. Close analysis of style and content reveals how diplomatic combinations of established and original literary tropes, treatise recommendations, figured expressions of imperial relationships, and adaptations of contemporary numismatic and artistic iconography articulate very specific ambitions and agenda. The orators are shown to be sophisticated, informed, and confident: their speeches are encoded expressions of local preoccupations."--Jacket.