The focus of attention will be the claims which were directed to the emperor, who in late antiquity could be judged in the terms of the justification narrative of the pagan Empire, that of the Old Testament and also in terms of the concept of the Holy Man (Dvornik, Brown). This led to a change in the behavior of the emperor but also in the power structure, since henceforth representatives of Christianity were regarded as competent to judge the behavior of the Emperor in virtue of their spiritual authority (Rapp). Insufficient attention has been paid to the relation between these personal forms of authority and the authority of texts in which norms were transmitted; thus in late antiquity, for example in Ambrose and John Chrysostom, norms were often derived from the Old Testament and in part applied directly to the contemporary world. Since the developments in the East and in the West of the Roman Empire followed different paths, the development of the Christian justification narrative under different social conditions can be subjected to a comparative study. Special attention will be given to the role of imperial women which changed dramatically in late antiquity. The research will be pursued in close cooperation with a parallel project of the International Research Training Group Political communication from Antiquity to the 20th Century.
