Evil Lords: Theories and Representations of Tyranny from Antiquity to the Renaissance Nikos Panou

Evil Lords: Theories and Representations of Tyranny from Antiquity to the Renaissance – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780199394852,0199394857

Product details:

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199394857
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199394852
• Author: Nikos Panou; Hester Schadee

Evil Lords uses the prism of bad rule or tyranny to enhance our understanding of political discourse from the ancient world to the Renaissance, elucidating premodern notions of sovereignty as well as the relation between ethics and politics, the individual and society, power, and propaganda. Eleven chapters present case studies exploring Hebrew, Graeco-Roman, Byzantine, early, high and late medieval, and Renaissance conceptions and representations of bad or tyrannical government. Since bad rule is always a perversion of the norm, its shifting conceptualizations shed light on historically specific assessments of what constitutes acceptable and legitimate political behavior. Meanwhile, political debate also reflects specific power structures, authorial intent, and audience expectations. Each of the essays, therefore, examines bad rule and its agents within the ideological frameworks and societal patterns of the respective periods, thereby painting a picture of historical and intellectual change. Despite these often profound variations, however, the volume also shows that it is meaningful to think of a Western tradition of tyranny in the premodern world that derived from shared roots in Classical and biblical thought and was further defined by ongoing cross-fertilization spanning two millennia. Thus, Evil Lords offers scholars and students of Western political theory, history, and literature a critical framework through which to revisit the longue durée of premodern political reflection.

Table contents:

Chapter 1: The Discourse of Tyranny and the Greek Roots of the Bad King Nino Luraghi

Chapter 2: ‘A king like the other nations’: the Foreignness of Tyranny in the Hebrew Bible Jennie Grillo

Chapter 3: Discourse of Kingship in Late Republican Invective Yelena Baraz

Chapter 4: Imperial Madness in Ancient Rome Aloys Winterling

Chapter 5: Contradictory Stereotypes: ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Roman’ Rulers and the Shaping of Merovingian Kingship Helmut Reimitz

Chapter 6: Tyrannos basileus: Imperial Legitimacy and Usurpation in Early Byzantium John Haldon and Nikos Panou

Chapter 7: Evil Lords and the Devil: Tyrants and Tyranny in Carolingian Texts Sumi Shimahara

People also search:

representations of evil

evil lords

evil lords overlord

evil lord of the rings

devil representation

devil lord of the flies

demon lords of the abyss