The aim of this book is to approach the manifestation and evolution of the idea of Rome as an expression of Roman patriotism and as an (urban) archetype of utopia in late Roman thought in a period extending from AD 357 to 417. Within this period of about a human lifetime, the concepts of Rome and Romanitas were reshaped and used for various ideological causes. This monograph is unfolding through a selection of sources that represent the patterns and diversity of this ideological process. The theme of Rome as a personified and anthropomorphic figure and as an epitomized notion ‘applied’ on the urban landscape of the city would become part of the identity of the Romans of Rome highlighting a sense of cultural uniqueness in comparison to the inhabitants of other cities. Towards the end of the chronological limits set in this thesis various versions of Romanitas would emerge indicating new physical and spiritual potentials.

Ioannis Papadopoulos was born in Xanthi, Greece (1987). He obtained his BA in History at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (2009). In 2011 he obtained his Master in Early Medieval History at the University of Leeds. In 2018 he submitted his PhD thesis at the University of Leeds on the Idea of Rome in Late Antiquity. Currently, he is a post-doctoral researcher at the department of History of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, focusing on identity issues in Roman Greece and on traces of anti-Roman discourse in the works of the Second Sophistic. His research interests include: History and Ideas of the Second Sophistic, Late Roman and Greek Religious and Intellectual History, Utopian Thought in the Late Roman Empire, Invention of Traditions in Late Roman Paganism and Resistance to Hellenization and Romanization in the Hellenistic World.

Introduction: Between a Physical and an Imaginary City
i. Deconstructing an Idea
ii. Rome: The Global Capital on the Mental Map of the Empire
iii. Defining Romanitas
iv. Planet Augustus
v. Rome Personified: The Dea Roma Figure as an Ideogram in Late Roman Literature
vi. A Rome too Much: The Uncomfortable Relationship between Rome and Constantinople in the Fourth Century AD
vii. Conceptualization and Contextualization of Terms
viii. Methodological Approaches
I. Looking Backwards: Ordo Renascendi
II. The Adventus of Constantius
III. Between Rome and Athens: The Artificial Romanitas of Julian
IV. Between the Altar and the Court: Symmachus and Claudian in Action
V. Between Christ and a Roman Place: The Emergence of Christian Rome in Time and Space
VI. Between Jerusalem and Babylon: The Archetype of Rome in the City of God
Conclusions: From Rome to Eternity
Appendix
Table 1
Table 2
Bibliography
Index