ABSTRACT
In Late Antiquity, imperial identity continued to be expressed through long-standing rituals of Roman political practice, such as acclamations and modes of deliberations and publication. Even religious groups which at times distanced themselves at least conceptually from the Empire resorted to them in their interaction with the imperial administration. This chapter offers a case study of what had become a lingua franca of decision-making rituals, focusing on the senates in Rome and Constantinople and on Christian synods. The participation of the senate in the construction of imperial identity, and the spread of senatorial rituals throughout the social and political fabric of the Empire come through in passages of three well-known late-antique texts.
