Political culture in the age of Constantine (A.D. 284-324)

This dissertation focuses on political culture and, as its representatives, a series of speeches dated to period in late Roman history that the English historian Edward Gibbon labelled a "new empire" because of the far reaching changes wrought by the emperors Diocletian (A.D. 284-305), Constantine (306-337), and their colleagues. I argue that a transformation of the Roman empire's socio-political hierarchy lent the classical literary-rhetorical tradition great social power in this period so that coevals could use it to justify, or anchor, changes particularly effectively. This process helps explain how the upheavals of the preceding century led to the transformation which led Gibbon to brand the period a "new empire."

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