Imperial ceremony was a vital form of self-expression for late antique society. Sabine MacCormack examines the ceremonies of imperial arrivals, funerals, and coronations from the late third to the late sixth centuries A.D., as manifest in the official literature and art of the time. Her study offers us new insights into the exercise of power and into the social, political, and cultural significance of religious change during the Christianization of the Roman world.

Sabine G. MacCormack is Professor of History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

"An important and imaginative piece of scholarship that sets out new directions for the study of late antiquity. Central to that period were the role of the emperor and the struggle between paganism and Christianity, and MacCormack skillfully traces changes in fundamental attitudes from the time of the Tetrarchy to the reign of Heraclius."—Timothy E. Gregory, American Historical Review

"A major achievement. . . . This is a pioneering work in placing visual art and panegyric so firmly in the centre of things in understanding the culture of late antiquity. . . . To have brought together so thoughtfully so much disparate and in many cases original material will make it essential for any understanding of the interaction of religion and society in the late Roman Empire."—Averil Cameron, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"A work of much learning, written with an impressive command of the ancient sources and a sensitivity to the political, cultural, and religious overtones of the material, this is not [just] a literary, but a social and religious history. It also draws widely on artistic representations as well as coins to complement the analysis of the literary texts. Other than its obvious importance for students of political and social history in antiquity, there is much in this book for students of the Christian liturgy."—Robert L. Wilken, Religious Studies Review

"A learned and innovative book. . . . Art and Ceremony makes a valuable contribution to an important new area in the history of ancient civilization."—Michael McCormick, American Journal of Philology

"This is a book which will become essential reading for specialists of its subject, and which could provide intellectual stimulation to a considerably wider readership."—W. Liebeschuetz, History