This book is a collection of papers which are the result of a conference on Power and Emotions in Antiquity, which was held at the University of Adelaide in December 2008, on the occasion of the retirement of Dr. Ron Newbold. The main aim of this collection is to explore the issues of power and emotions and their relationships with the ancient world, using written sources such as personal letters, speeches, philosophical or historical writings. The book explores different aspects in which power and emotions co-existed in the Roman Imperial and Late Antique world, in the time span stretching from the High Empire of Marcus Aurelius to the post-Roman world of Gregory of Tours and the Frankish kings.

The papers in this book explore topics such as: self-addressing in the works of the emperor Marcus Aurelius; the struggle for control in the writings of St. Jerome; the consequences of the riot of the statues in 4th century Antioch; the place of rage as a virtue in the literature of the fourth century; insult and rage in the work of the historian Ammianus Marcellinus; love and grief in the letters of the Austrasian Frankish queen Brunhild; and the more global problems of power relations and identity transformations occurring in the world of late antiquity.