PD Dr. Christian Rollinger

Reader in Ancient History


Trier University
Department of History (FB III) 
BZ 25
54286 Trier
Tel.: +49 (0) 651/ 201-2268
E-Mail: rollinguni-trierde

Orcid / Academia / Researchgate / Bluesky



Zeremoniell und Herrschaft in der Spätantike. Die Rituale des Kaiserhofs in Konstantinopel (2024)

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The study examines the court ceremonial of Late Antiquity as a collection of rituals constituting meaning and power, in which the essential ideologemes of late antique emperorship were reflected and which gave them substance and life. Ceremony and rulership were inseparably linked. Through a systematic and comprehensive investigation, the author demonstrates that ceremonial was not merely an expression but also a shaping force—not only an authoritative monarchical representation, but also a performative construction of late antique emperorship.

Empresses-in-Waiting. Female Power and Performance at the Late Roman Court (mit N. Viermann) (2024)

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This volume explores the political agency, religious authority, and influence of imperial and near-imperial women within the Late Roman imperial court, which is understood as a complex spatial, social, and cultural system, the centre of patronage networks, and an arena for elite competition. The studies explore female performance and representation in literary and visual media as well as in court ceremonial, and discuss the opportunities and constraints of female power within a male dominated court environment, thus throwing into relief gendered dynamics in the exercise of imperial power.

The Tetrarchy as Ideology. Reconfigurations and Representations of an Imperial Power (2023)

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The 'Tetrarchy' has been a much-studied and much-debated field of the Roman Empire. Debate, however, has focused primarily on whether it was a true 'system' of government, or rather a collection of ad-hoc measures undertaken to stabilise the empire after the troubled period of the 3rd century CE. The papers collected here aim to go beyond this question and to present an innovative approach to a fascinating period of Roman history by understanding the Tetrarchy not as a system of government, but primarily as a political language.