Tertullian, The Bishops of Elvira, and the Precession of Simulacra: Unpacking Strategies of a Christian Political Engagement before Constantine

In the Roman empire signs of power could survive the end of its exercise by prolonging their visibility beside the lawful terms of the mandates. Or, on the contrary, they could precede the achievement of the first prestigious post. The modern relationship between positions of power and signs of power should be reversed: whatever public-political angagement, expectations, and accountabilities resulted from rank, it was rather the office that signaled and trumpeted to the world a tailor-made robe adhering to the waerer by reason of birth, success, or just imperial favour. This paper argues that such a relationship between power and signs of power might help illuminate the situation behind an apparently bizarre dispute, which is referred in chs. 17-18 of Tertullian's treatise On Idolatry (Carthage, around 198-206 CE).