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Lexis | Num. 39 (n.s.) – Dicembre 2021 – Fasc. 2

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Research Article

Drawing Imperial Lines: Sovereignty and Tacitus’ Germanicus

Richard Alston    University of London, UK    

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abstract

This essay focuses on Germanicus’ performance of sovereign power in Tacitus’ Annales 1-2. That power is seen in the differentiation of citizen from non-citizen and Roman territory from non-Roman territory. Roman violence in Germany contrasts with Germanicus in the East. There he recognised a shared history and community. Sovereign power required a recognition of the sovereign by the citizen and of the citizen by the sovereign. An individual’s membership and a territory’s place within the Roman Empire depended not on innate characteristics but political negotiation. Ancient political geographies gave primacy to the political rather than the territorial in determining citizenship.

Published
Dec. 20, 2021
Accepted
Sept. 25, 2021
Submitted
Feb. 24, 2021
Language
EN

Keywords: Germania • Germanicus • Mutinies • Annales • Violence • Citizenship • Tacitus • Sovereignty

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Lexis/2724-1564/2021/02/006

Copyright: © 2021 Richard Alston. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.