Imperial succession crisis and its memory under the early Roman Empire

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13392
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 03040:History of Europe and America-related
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Fukuyama Yuko 早稲田大学, 国際学術院, 准教授 (40633425)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 古代ローマ / 皇帝 / 記憶 / 歴史叙述

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aimed to analyze how the "crisis" in the early Roman Empire, that is, the imperial succession crisis and the civil war, were described in historical narratives and how these events became a part of ancient Romans' collective memory. The analysis and comparison of contemporary epigraphical documents and the historical narratives (Suetonius, Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and Herodian) allowed to find the creation of the regular pattern for the recognition of "crisis" and its implantation in historical narratives, and also the transformation of the image of "crisis" for Romans in the late second century and the early third century. This result led to the reexamination of the social, religious, and political changes which happened during this period and of the image of the "crisis" in the Roman Empire.

Free Research Field

古代ローマ史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

現代の社会においても、戦争や内乱だけでなく、経済問題や社会問題も含め様々な「危機」が存在している。このような「危機」は後にどのように記憶され、歴史の一部となっていったのだろうか。この疑問を検討する一例として、本研究は古代ローマの皇帝に関連する混乱についての記憶が同時代の碑文史料や少し後に書かれた歴史書でどのように描写され、「歴史化」されているかを検討することから、過去についての集合的記憶が形成される過程を明らかにした。