Enemies of the Later Roman Order – A Study of the Phenomenon of Language Aggression in the Theodosian Code, Post–Theodosian Novels, and the S

In 1966, Ramsay MacMullen published an important book on the enemies of the Roman order. It lists the social groups that had stood in actual opposition to the order reigning in the Roman Empire from the first up to the fifth century AD: senatorial opposition, philosophers, magicians, astrologers, rebellious inhabitants of cities, country brigands, even anachoretic hermits migrating outside the boundaries of the Roman community. At first glance, this varied assortment of figures appears to be collected at random. In fact, however, all these characters as assembled by MacMullen share one feature: their intense reluctance to conform to some aspect of the Roman order, which was constituted and defended by the Roman Empire. This book states the question of the enemies in exactly the opposite way. The question it asks of the sources is: Who did the rulers of the later Roman Empire, the guarantors of the Roman order, treat as enemies'? It searches for answers to this question in the documents issued at the behest of the emperors themselves, products of the Imperial bureaux, and therefore - in particular - Imperial laws.The criterion on which it seeks and categorizes the enemies of the emperor-lawgiver is not the sanctions administered by said laws but the language in which these enemies are described. It considers the use of condemnatory language toward a given group - the language suitable for the phenomenon described, beginning from antiquity, as invective. -- adapted from the introduction