Food as Metaphor for Good and Evil in Biographies of the Later Roman Emperors

Authors

  • Michael Beer University of Exeter Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ppc.29142

Keywords:

Scriptores Historiae Augustae (SHA), late Roman biographical writing, metaphor, food and morality, eating habits, Roman emperors

Abstract

The article argues that there is a strong emphasis in many of the biographies of the SHA (Scriptores Historiae Augustae) on eating habits as an indication either of moral steadfastness or of dissoluteness and decadence. The author(s) seem to take a particularly strong interest in all matters pertaining to food.

Author Biography

  • Michael Beer, University of Exeter

    Michael Beer has completed a doctoral dissertation on the role of dietary restriction in the construction of identity in the Graeco-Roman world at the University of Exeter. A book, provisionally entitled Taste or 
    Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity, is in preparation at Prospect Books. He teaches in Exeter.

References

Baldwin, B. (1983) Suetonius, Amsterdam.

Evans, E.C. ‘Roman Descriptions of Personal Appearance in History and Biography’ in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 46 (1935), pp. 43–84.

Frey, M. (1989) Untersuchungen zur Religion und zur Religionspolitik des Kaisers Elagabal, Stuttgart.

Kettenhofen, E. (1979) ‘Die Syrische Augustae in der historische Überlieferung: ein Beitrag zum Problem der Oriëntalisierung’, 333 in Antiquitas, Reihe 3, bd. 24.

Millar, F. (1964) A Study of Cassius Dio, Oxford.

Norena, C.F. (2001) ‘The Communication of the Emperor’s Virtues’, 146–168 in The Journal of Roman Studies (2001), Vol. 91.

Syme, R. (1968) Ammianus and the Historia Augustae, Oxford. Wallace-Hadrill, A. (1983) Suetonius, 1983.

White, P. (1967) ‘The Authorship of the Historia Augusta’, 115–133 in The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 57, No. 1/2.

Published

2009-02-28

Issue

PPC 87 (2009)

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Beer, Michael. 2009. “Food As Metaphor for Good and Evil in Biographies of the Later Roman Emperors”. Petits Propos Culinaires, February, 89-102. https://doi.org/10.1558/ppc.29142.