School of Humanities | Sgoil nan Daonnachdan

Dr Adrastos Omissi

  • Senior Lecturer (Classics)

Research interests

I am a specialist in the later Roman Empire (3rd-5th centuries AD), and my research has focussed on three key themes: the late Empire's civil wars, the corpus of late Roman panegyric, and the question of collective memory and of attempts to control or prohibit memorialisation (the so called damnatio memoriae).

My book Emperors and Usurpers: Civil war, panegyric, and the construction of legitimacy in the Later Roman Empire (Oxford Studies in Byzantium. Oxford: 2018), unites these three interests and constitutes an exploration of the civil wars of the Roman Empire, from the accession of the emperor Diocletian (284) until the death of the emperor Theodosius (395). The book approaches this work with an eye on the question of memory and memorialisation, and takes as its starting point the considerable problem that all Roman civil wars are described in sources written by the victors. Embracing this problem, rather than attempting to overcome it, the book explores how victorious regimes sought to blacken their defeated enemies and to control the way that the past was remembered and commemorated. I use panegyric as my primary source and not only provide the first comprehensive account of the late Empire's civil wars, but advance a detailed thesis for how legitimacy and imperial authority were conceived in the Roman Empire.

My interest in panegyric has also led me to co-edit a volume on panegyric in the later Roman Empire, Panegyric from Diocletian to Honorius (Liverpool University Press, 2020). This book, a collection of articles from an international body of leading scholars in the field of panegyric studies, unites this rather disparate field through its comparative approach, bringing together scholars working on every author and collection within the corpus of late Roman panegyric and exploring what was distinct about the medium in this period.

For the future, my work will explore the role of civil war in the unravelling of Roman imperial power in the western Mediterranean.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014
Number of items: 22.

2026

Lindholmer, Mads and Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2026) Mapping the end of the West Roman Empire: challenges, potentials, and future directions. Classical Quarterly, (Accepted for Publication)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2026) Division of Empire: The Reign of the Sons of Constantine. William Lewis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. Pp. 240. ISBN: 9780197745144. Journal of Late Antiquity, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2026) Constantine and Licinius in the 'Origo Constantini imperatoris': the authentic core of a historically incompetent source? Occidente Oriente. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Tardoantichi, (Accepted for Publication)

2025

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 and Lindholmer, Mads (2025) Creating a new map of the fall of the West Roman Empire, from the third to the fifth centuries AD. Orbis Terrarum, 23,

2024

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2024) Anthony Kaldellis – Marion Kruse, The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361–630. Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press 2023. xviii+205 pp. – ISBN 978-1-009-29694-6. Byzantine Review, 6, pp. 159-167. (doi: 10.17879/byzrev-2024-5549)[Book Review]

2023

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2023) Late Roman Italy in Latin Panegyric: From the Panegyrici Latini to Ennodius (289–507). In: Wijnendaele, Jeroen W. P. (ed.) Late Roman Italy: Imperium to Regnum. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, pp. 454-474. ISBN 9781399518024

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2023) Hamstrung horses: dating Constantine’s departure from the court of Galerius. Journal of Late Antiquity, 16(1), pp. 4-26.

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2023) The enemies of the tetrarchs: Barbarians, rebels, and usurpers in the ideology of Diocletian’s tetrarchy. In: Carla-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian (eds.) The Tetrarchy as Ideology: Reconfigurations and Representations of an Imperial Power. Series: Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien (64). Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart, pp. 247-266. ISBN 9783515134002

2022

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2022) Simon Swain (ed. and tr.): Themistius and Valens. Orations 6–13. Plekos, 24, pp. 435-442. [Book Review]

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2022) Two letters of the usurper Magnus Maximus (Collectio Avellana 39 and 40). Classical Quarterly, 72(1), pp. 391-415. (doi: 10.1017/S000983882200043X)

2021

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2021) Catherine Ware (ed. and tr.): A Literary Commentary on Panegyrici Latini VI(7). An Oration Delivered before the Emperor Constantine in Trier, ca. AD 310. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021. X, 396 p. £ 100.00/$ 130.00. ISBN: 978-1-107-12369-4. Plekos, 23, pp. 297-304. [Book Review]

2020

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2020) Depth, what is it good for? The problem of the many ranks. Ancient Warfare, XIV(1), pp. 52-55.

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 and Ross, Alan J. (Eds.) (2020) Imperial Panegyric from Diocletian to Honorius. Series: Translated texts for historians. Liverpool University Press: Liverpool. ISBN 9781789621105

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2020) Civil war and the late Roman panegyrical corpus. In: Omissi, Adrastos and Ross, Alan J. (eds.) Imperial Panegyric from Diocletian to Honorius. Series: Translated texts for historians. Liverpool University Press: Liverpool. ISBN 9781789621105

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 and Ross, Alan J. (2020) Imperial panegyric from Diocletian to Theodosius. In: Omissi, Adrastos and Ross, Alan J. (eds.) Imperial Panegyric from Diocletian to Honorius. Series: Translated texts for historians. Liverpool University Press: Liverpool. ISBN 9781789621105

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2020) Rhetoric and power: how imperial panegyric allowed civilian elites to access power in the fourth century. In: Manders, Erica and Slootjes, Daniëlle (eds.) Leadership, Ideology and Crowds in the Roman Empire of the 4th Century AD. Series: Heidelberger Althoistorische Beiträge und Epigraphische Studien (62). Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart. ISBN 9783515124041

2018

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2018) Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire: Civil War, Panegyric, and the Construction of Legitimacy. Series: Oxford studies in Byzantium. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 9780198824824 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198824824.001.0001)

2016

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2016) Damnatio memoriae or creatio memoriae? Memory sanctions as creative processes in the Fourth Century AD. Cambridge Classical Journal, 62, pp. 170-199. (doi: 10.1017/S1750270516000038)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2016) The cap of liberty: Roman slavery, cultural memory, and magic mushrooms. Folklore, 127(3), pp. 270-285. (doi: 10.1080/0015587X.2016.1155371)

2015

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2015) Johannes Wienand (ed.): Contested Monarchy. Sehepunkte, 15(11), [Book Review]

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2015) Art as history by the first historian of art: Giorgio Vasari’s Ritratto di sei poeti toscani. Oxford Historian, 13, pp. 34-37.

2014

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2014) Caput imperii, caput imperatoris: the display and mutilation of the bodies of emperors, in Rome and beyond; 296-416. In: Lau, Maximilian, Franchi, Caterina, Di Rodi, Morgan and Frankopan, Peter (eds.) Landscapes of Power: Selected Papers from the XV Oxford University Byzantine Society International Graduate Conference. Series: Byzantine and neohellenic studies (10). Peter Lang: Oxford ; New York. ISBN 9783034317511 (doi: 10.3726/978-3-0353-0566-1)

This list was generated on Thu Sep 17 08:26:22 2026 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Book Reviews | Edited Books
Number of items: 22.

Articles

Lindholmer, Mads and Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2026) Mapping the end of the West Roman Empire: challenges, potentials, and future directions. Classical Quarterly, (Accepted for Publication)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2026) Constantine and Licinius in the 'Origo Constantini imperatoris': the authentic core of a historically incompetent source? Occidente Oriente. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Tardoantichi, (Accepted for Publication)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 and Lindholmer, Mads (2025) Creating a new map of the fall of the West Roman Empire, from the third to the fifth centuries AD. Orbis Terrarum, 23,

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2023) Hamstrung horses: dating Constantine’s departure from the court of Galerius. Journal of Late Antiquity, 16(1), pp. 4-26.

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2022) Two letters of the usurper Magnus Maximus (Collectio Avellana 39 and 40). Classical Quarterly, 72(1), pp. 391-415. (doi: 10.1017/S000983882200043X)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2020) Depth, what is it good for? The problem of the many ranks. Ancient Warfare, XIV(1), pp. 52-55.

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2016) Damnatio memoriae or creatio memoriae? Memory sanctions as creative processes in the Fourth Century AD. Cambridge Classical Journal, 62, pp. 170-199. (doi: 10.1017/S1750270516000038)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2016) The cap of liberty: Roman slavery, cultural memory, and magic mushrooms. Folklore, 127(3), pp. 270-285. (doi: 10.1080/0015587X.2016.1155371)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2015) Art as history by the first historian of art: Giorgio Vasari’s Ritratto di sei poeti toscani. Oxford Historian, 13, pp. 34-37.

Books

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2018) Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire: Civil War, Panegyric, and the Construction of Legitimacy. Series: Oxford studies in Byzantium. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 9780198824824 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198824824.001.0001)

Book Sections

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2023) Late Roman Italy in Latin Panegyric: From the Panegyrici Latini to Ennodius (289–507). In: Wijnendaele, Jeroen W. P. (ed.) Late Roman Italy: Imperium to Regnum. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, pp. 454-474. ISBN 9781399518024

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2023) The enemies of the tetrarchs: Barbarians, rebels, and usurpers in the ideology of Diocletian’s tetrarchy. In: Carla-Uhink, Filippo and Rollinger, Christian (eds.) The Tetrarchy as Ideology: Reconfigurations and Representations of an Imperial Power. Series: Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien (64). Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart, pp. 247-266. ISBN 9783515134002

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2020) Civil war and the late Roman panegyrical corpus. In: Omissi, Adrastos and Ross, Alan J. (eds.) Imperial Panegyric from Diocletian to Honorius. Series: Translated texts for historians. Liverpool University Press: Liverpool. ISBN 9781789621105

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 and Ross, Alan J. (2020) Imperial panegyric from Diocletian to Theodosius. In: Omissi, Adrastos and Ross, Alan J. (eds.) Imperial Panegyric from Diocletian to Honorius. Series: Translated texts for historians. Liverpool University Press: Liverpool. ISBN 9781789621105

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2020) Rhetoric and power: how imperial panegyric allowed civilian elites to access power in the fourth century. In: Manders, Erica and Slootjes, Daniëlle (eds.) Leadership, Ideology and Crowds in the Roman Empire of the 4th Century AD. Series: Heidelberger Althoistorische Beiträge und Epigraphische Studien (62). Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart. ISBN 9783515124041

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2014) Caput imperii, caput imperatoris: the display and mutilation of the bodies of emperors, in Rome and beyond; 296-416. In: Lau, Maximilian, Franchi, Caterina, Di Rodi, Morgan and Frankopan, Peter (eds.) Landscapes of Power: Selected Papers from the XV Oxford University Byzantine Society International Graduate Conference. Series: Byzantine and neohellenic studies (10). Peter Lang: Oxford ; New York. ISBN 9783034317511 (doi: 10.3726/978-3-0353-0566-1)

Book Reviews

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2026) Division of Empire: The Reign of the Sons of Constantine. William Lewis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. Pp. 240. ISBN: 9780197745144. Journal of Late Antiquity, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2024) Anthony Kaldellis – Marion Kruse, The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361–630. Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press 2023. xviii+205 pp. – ISBN 978-1-009-29694-6. Byzantine Review, 6, pp. 159-167. (doi: 10.17879/byzrev-2024-5549)[Book Review]

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2022) Simon Swain (ed. and tr.): Themistius and Valens. Orations 6–13. Plekos, 24, pp. 435-442. [Book Review]

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2021) Catherine Ware (ed. and tr.): A Literary Commentary on Panegyrici Latini VI(7). An Oration Delivered before the Emperor Constantine in Trier, ca. AD 310. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021. X, 396 p. £ 100.00/$ 130.00. ISBN: 978-1-107-12369-4. Plekos, 23, pp. 297-304. [Book Review]

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 (2015) Johannes Wienand (ed.): Contested Monarchy. Sehepunkte, 15(11), [Book Review]

Edited Books

Omissi, Adrastos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-8444 and Ross, Alan J. (Eds.) (2020) Imperial Panegyric from Diocletian to Honorius. Series: Translated texts for historians. Liverpool University Press: Liverpool. ISBN 9781789621105

This list was generated on Thu Sep 17 08:26:22 2026 BST.

Grants

 

 

Supervision

I would be very keen to supervise students working in any aspect of late Roman, Late Antique, or early Byzantine history, particularly students working on political culture, imperial representation, or the military establishment. My own future work will be exploring the emergence of Romano-Germanic culture and the interactions between Romans and barbarians, and I would likewise be particularly interested to support individuals looking to do research in these areas.

Teaching

Classical Civilisation 1B (pre-honours)

Classical Civilisation 2B (pre-honours)

Latin Level 1 (pre-honours)

Latin Level 2 (pre-honours)

Roman Warfare (honours)

Ancient Warfare (honours)

The Later Roman Empire, 270-400 (honours)

Imperium Indivisum: The Collapse of the West Roman Empire in the Fifth Century AD (honours)

Theories and Methods (PGT)