Greeting the Roman Emperor

This is the first comprehensive study of the imperial admission, a daily ritual in which the elite greeted the emperor. It covers the period from Augustus to the fifth century and thus breaks down traditional periodisation in order to explore the admission in the longue durée. Mads Ortving Lindholmer reconstructs the details and development of this ritual and adopts an anthropological approach to reveal its centrality to the construction and performance of imperial power and legitimacy as well as to elite hierarchy. He also explores how a variety of writers challenged or supported the self-presentation of the emperor in the admission by creating literary representations of this ritual. Overall, the book provides new insights into the daily workings of imperial power and sheds new light on the long-term development of the Roman Empire.