Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Ancient History
Episode: Michael E. Stewart, “The Soldier’s Life: Martial Virtues and Manly Romanitas In the Early Byzantine Empire” (Kismet Press, 2016)
Description: The prowess of the Roman empire was imbued with courage and militarism. Symbolised by the combative male soldier, Michael Edward Stewart‘s tool of historical enquiry is masculinity. In his book, The Soldier’s Life: Martial Virtues and Manly Romanitas in the Early Byzantine Empire (Kismet Press, 2016), Stewart explores whether theological constructions of manhood as ascetic and pacifist changed the contours of manly Romanitas. From the martial metaphors of Synesius of Cyrene, to the third gender of Eunuchs, to the paganism of Emperor Julian to the piety of Theodosius I – The Soldier’s Life reminds us that gender has been con...