Rebecca Usherwood will be speaking at the Rodopis Classics Postgradute Seminar to be held in Rome (Italy) on Thursday 17 May.
Title: The Good Usurper? Constantius II and the ghost of Magnentius Rebecca Usherwood
Abstract: Magnentius was only one of several usurpers who seized power in opposition to the Constantinian dynasty in the 350s. But while ancient sources are generally dismissive about the nature and impact of the others, Magnentius stands apart: ruling not for weeks or months but three and a half years, and with his influence spreading across all of Gaul, Spain, Italy and Africa. Though an overwhelmingly negative picture of him survives in ancient sources as a nameless, transgressive figure of barbaric origins, traces of an alternative history linger. Ten years after his death, the emperor Julian remarked how “much that he achieved had the appearance of merit” (Caesars 316.A), and Zosimus, writing at the turn of the sixth century, still felt the need to contradict this persisting tradition that Magnentius had been a positive and popular ruler.
This paper will use epigraphic and numismatic evidence to assess how Magnentius styled himself as emperor, and then how Constantius II deconstructed this legitimacy after his downfall in 353, warping and destroying Magnentius’ political memory to reassert his own control over the western empire. How far did Constantius go in erasing Magnentius from the west? How does Magnentius’ popular reputation persist? Ultimately we will see how the spectre of Magnentius and what he represented hung in the west for far longer than his short rule,and how he persisted as a figure which blurred the lines between what constituted legitimate and illegitimate imperial power in the fourth century.
Posted on Tuesday 15th May 2012