Abstract
The programme focuses on existing and developing relations between actual imperial power, imperial representation, and its reception by different layers of society in a period of recurrent warfare, crisis and transition (AD 180-284), during which governance and power relations underwent important changes. The emperors had to adapt appointment policies and fiscal strategies to survive, to the detriment of traditional higher orders and local notables and to the advantage of lower level military men and bureaucrats. Did this development endanger the coinciding of high social status and the ability to exercise power in the empire? This unity had been at the core of the Roman system. Related to this development may be the considerable change in imperial representation in this period. Was there a consistent development towards institutionalisation, and sacralisation? Did emperors in this period focus more on groups they needed to survive, than on the old higher orders? Did the reception and perception of imperial representation by different layers in society reflect these changes?