The Roman Imperial
Court in the Principate
and Late Antiquity
Edited by
CAILLAN DAVENPORT AND
MEAGHAN McEVOY
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2023938867
ISBN 978–0–19–286523–6
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192865236.001.0001
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Table of Contents
List of Figures xi
Abbreviations xiii
Contributors xv
Introduction: Connecting Courts 1
Caillan Davenport and Meaghan McEvoy
PART I: RITUAL AND SPATIAL DYNAMICS
1. Great King or Civilis Princeps? Monarchical Ideals and Daily
Interaction in the Reign of Antoninus Pius 41
Christoph Michels
2. Changing the Guard: Guard Units and Roman State Ceremonial
from the First to the Fourth Century 56
Christian Rollinger
3. Cities, Palaces, and the Tetrarchic Imperial Courts 75
Verena Jaeschke and Caillan Davenport
4. The Court in Constantinople Facing the Death of the Emperor 105
Audrey Becker
PART II: INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY AT COURT
5. Was the Roman Imperial Court an ‘Emotional Community’? 121
Benjamin Kelly
6. Jurists as Courtiers from Augustus to Justinian 142
Jill Harries
7. Court Construction and Regime Change in the Mid-Fourth Century 156
Kevin Feeney
8. Sharing the Imperial Limelight: The Age of the Magister Militum 172
Meaghan McEvoy
9. Representatives and Co-Rulers: Imperial Women and the
Court in Late Antiquity 203
Anja Busch
x
PART III: THE POLITICS OF ACCESS
10. Beyond the Veil: Athanasius at the Court of Constans 221
Fabian Schulz
11. Dynamics of Power: The Nestorian Controversy, the Council
of Ephesus of 431, and the Eastern Imperial Court 240
Daniëlle Slootjes
12. Splendid Isolation: Secluded Emperors and the Spectre
of Oriental Despotism 262
Martijn Icks
13. Envisioning Audiences at the Roman Imperial Court 278
Caillan Davenport
PART IV: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES
14. The Evolution of the Roman Imperial Court in Historical Context 309
Caillan Davenport and Meaghan McEvoy
Bibliography 359
Index 401
2
Changing the Guard
Guard Units and Roman State Ceremonial from
the First to the Fourth Century
Christian Rollinger
1. Introduction
From the bearskin-wearing Queen’s Guard of the modern British monarchy to the
Pontifical Swiss Guard in their colourful early twentieth-century uniforms
and medieval halberds, guard units always were, and still are, part and parcel of
any monarchic court.¹ Their core purpose and role has changed very little over
the millennia: in addition to providing different layers of security to the sover-
eign, they are also essential elements of royal and imperial pomp and circum-
stance, to which any number of tourists witnessing the daily ritual of the
Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace will attest. As such, not only do
guards actually mount guard within and without the monarch’s palaces, they
also participate in a wide variety of ceremonial occasions intended to legitimize
the monarch in the eyes of their subjects. This includes (but is not limited to)
rituals such as coronations, weddings, or funerals, which, as formal state cere-
monies, are certainly among the most impressive pieces of royal theatre still
being staged.
The same principle applies to the guards of Roman emperors. From the very
beginning of their rule, the Caesars surrounded themselves with a number of
guards,² the most well-known of which were the Praetorians during the first three
centuries of the empire and the scholae palatinae in Late Antiquity, created at the
beginning of the fourth century as a replacement for the Praetorians. Perhaps as a
reflection of the wide array of duties that guards were asked to fulfil, however,
there was never just one single unit detached for protecting the emperor but rather
several coexisting ones, including the German bodyguard (corporis Germani
custodes) and their successors, the mounted horse guards known as the equites
¹ Cf. Mansel 1984. Contrary to popular belief, the Swiss Guards uniforms were not designed by
Michelangelo but are credited by the Guard itself to Commandant Jules Repond (1910–21).
² For the purposes of this chapter, I will refer to individual units by their distinct terminology only
when precision is required and will instead mostly use the more general descriptor ‘guard(s)’.
Christian Rollinger, Changing the Guard: Guard Units and Roman State Ceremonial from the First to the Fourth Century
In: The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity. Edited by: Caillan Davenport and Meaghan McEvoy,
Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2023. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192865236.003.0003
