Toward a new interpretation of Imperial Rome -- Paradoxical structures. "State," "society," and political integration ; Friendship and patron-client relations ; "public" and "private" -- Two cases in point. A court without "state." The aula Caesaris ; Meaningful madness : the Emperor Caligula -- Academic approaches. Theodor Mommsen's theory of "Dyarchia" ; Christian Meier's "Crisis without alternative" in Ancient Rome

"Politics and Society in Imperial Rome offers fresh new interpretations of Rome's imperial era. The essays begin by replicating the paradoxes that were founded in the historical reality of Imperial Rome. Two case studies are then examined in the book's second section: the imperial court and political actions taken during Caligula's reign. Bold academic approaches of the classical historians Theodor Mommsen and Christian Meier are then explored in the book's final section. Original and thought-provoking, Politics and Society in Imperial Rome shines a bright new light on the complexities and contradictions of the glory that was Imperial Rome."--Jacket