This important new and original study on the institution of the Japanese emperors focuses on the enigma of the institution itself, namely, the extraordinary continuity of the Japanese dynasty, which is unknown anywhere else in the world, yet which is now at risk on account of more recent laws of succession.

During a family trip to China, eleven-year-old Mia Chen and her older brother Jake follow clues and solve riddles in hopes of finding their missing Aunt Lin and, perhaps, a legendary treasure.

The book offers a fascinating picture of the four emperors of modern Japan, their institution, their personalities and their impact on the history of their country. Leading scholars from Japan and other countries have contributed essays which treat this subject from various angles.

A vibrant and broad-ranging study of dynastic power in the late medieval and early modern world.

Emperor Constantine the Great is one of the most impressive and controversial figures in world history. His decisions are a real enigma, which is masterfully unravelled in this book. His life was a series of struggles and conquests, friendships and hatreds, loves and heartbreaks, grandeur and misery, noble acts and terrible crimes, deceptions and betrayals. With the humility of a man facing his own death, he weighs it all in the balance. The last of the great emperors, he was the bastard son of Constantius Chlorus and reunified the entire Roman Empire, east and west, for the last time. He gave Christians their freedom, created the first mobile army and introduced a single currency (the Solidus, the true forerunner of the Euro). He founded Constantinople, murdered people with his own hands ... and experienced great love with Minervina, his first wife. There are great mysteries too: he was the son of St Helena but was not baptised until two days before he died; even then he found an Arian bishop to do it. He never gave up the title Pontifex Maximus, nor did he stop worshipping Mithras, the sun god. After unifying the entire empire, he had it split into four parts after his death. Delving into the life of Constantine the Great is to relive an incredible era and discover the great mystery behind his seemingly absurd and contradictory decisions. In reality, a surprising, relentless logic runs through them all, which Albert Salvado portrays with a steady hand. "The Enigma of Constantine the Great is an engaging book with aspirations to match. The book is intended for a wide range of readers who will not come away disappointed." Joan Isern. AVUI. "The Enigma of Constantine the Great is a reflection on the great questions of life and death, the value of the present, and eternity, by a person well-suited to doing so. The author holds nothing back in his portrayal of the character's dark side: his calculating mind, his loss of affection, his brutality ... There is a lot packed into this book but the skill of an accomplished author makes it easy to read." (Alvar Valls, El Periodic) Watch out for two things: one, the first edition will sell out in no time; two, it seems this eminent author will never tire of writing. What is the enigma? The enigma is resolved within the book itself. (Manel Anglada, writer, Diari d'Andorra)

This volume of the Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan brings together the work of Ben-Ami Shillony on modern history, crisis and culture, Japan and the Jews.

In the days of the Roman Empire, the emperor was considered not only the ruler of the state, but also its supreme legal authority, fulfilling the multiple roles of supreme court, legislator, and administrator. The Emperor of Law explores how the emperor came to assume the mantle of a judge, beginning with Augustus, the first emperor, and spanning the years leading up to Caracalla and the Severan dynasty. While earlier studies have attempted to explain this change either through legislation or behaviour, this volume undertakes a novel analysis of the gradual expansion and elaboration of the emperor's adjudication and jurisdiction: by analysing the process through historical narratives, it argues that the emergence of imperial adjudication was a discourse that involved not only the emperors, but also petitioners who sought their rulings, lawyers who aided them, the senatorial elite, and the Roman historians and commentators who described it. Stories of emperors settling lawsuits and demonstrating their power through law, including those depicting 'mad' emperors engaging in violent repressions, played an important part in creating a shared conviction that the emperor was indeed the supreme judge alongside the empirical shift in the legal and political dynamic. Imperial adjudication reflected equally the growth of imperial power during the Principate and the centrality of the emperor in public life, and constitutional legitimation was thus created through the examples of previous actions - examples that historical authors did much to shape. Aimed at readers of classics, Roman law, and ancient history, The Emperor of Law offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the much debated problem of the advent of imperial supremacy in law that illuminates the importance of narrative studies to the field of legal history.