Ancient Near Eastern forms of monarchy getting oversimplified every freakin' time:pic.twitter.com/W3oVTXN77K
Näytä tämä ketju
-
Even including Egypt, most ANE kings did not have pretensions of divinity. Especially - say it with me now -
Achaemenid Great Kings Weren't Living Gods.
And yes, I literally have my in-person classes chant that back to me to make the point.Näytä tämä ketju
Moreover, legitimacy is more complex than declaring that you either 1) a god, or 2) chosen by the gods! You have to convince somebody of that, which brings us right back to "complex systems of generating royal legitimacy through judicial, religious and military activity..."
-
-
Just checked your post on the imperial cult explaining that only dead emperors became gods I was about to joke that Roman emperors didn't count because technically they weren't kings, but technically they weren't gods either!
-
There's a funny bit in Suetonius' Life of Vespasian which makes this point neatly, that Vespasian (the emperor) as he was dying, joked "Alas, I seem to be becoming a god!" (Suet. Vesp. 23.4). Vespasian was known for his sense of humor.
Keskustelun loppu
Uusi keskustelu -
-
-
How much of this is just simple Orientalism at work?
-
Quite a lot, but not all of it. Often students express this view of kingship through equally garbled understandings of what the phrase 'Divine right of kings' signifies.
- Näytä vastaukset
Uusi keskustelu -
-
-
Of course not. Sometimes legitimacy is derived by declaring yourself the 4th cousin of the last guy (who was secretly a priest serving cosmic disorder the whole time). And reconquering most of the empire, but that's the boring part.
Kiitos. Käytämme tätä aikajanasi parantamiseen. KumoaKumoa
-
-
-
I think CGP Grey’s Rules for Rulers video is good on the dynamics. No man rules alone . . .https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs
-
So, I'd say that video (and the book it is based on) are good for *some* of the dynamics. The main missing component there are norms - but that is a really big, important component!
- Näytä vastaukset
Uusi keskustelu -
Lataaminen näyttää kestävän hetken.
Twitter saattaa olla ruuhkautunut tai ongelma on muuten hetkellinen. Yritä uudelleen tai käy Twitterin tilasivulla saadaksesi lisätietoja.