The Humanists and the Emperors

Abstract The main aim of this chapter is to unpick the complexity of Biondo Flavio’s treatment of Roman emperors and the Roman empire in his Roma triumphans, a key text of the early Renaissance rediscovery of Rome. It focuses on how he navigates between his ancient sources, his historical aims, and the ideological and intellectual currents of his time—a time when the popes were trying to re-establish their authority in Rome and more broadly, through the idea of Rome, while others invoked Rome in the cause of free ‘republics’. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Biondo does not condemn the emperors en bloc for moral or political reasons, though virtue is the main criterion for his highlighting of Titus and Trajan as exemplary figures. He tries to present individual emperors on their merits. Through his enthusiastic endorsement of the success of Rome as an empire-state and his idealization of the Roman institutions underpinning it, he can be read as an anticipator of humanist imperialism.