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Christians took for granted the monarchical order from the beginning. Nevertheless, it came as a surprise that a Christian could become king or even emperor. The Old Testament offered perspectives that deeply influenced Christian conceptualisations of a good ruler. Additionally, the New Testament stimulated dialectical approaches to the exercise of political power, administration of justice, and conduct of war. In late antiquity, other texts such as the vitae of emperors, ecclesiastical histories, and other patristic writings became authoritative texts on this topic. This conference takes a transepochal and transcultural approach to this problem by discussing the conceptualisations of rulers in various cultures and languages. The contributions explore how cultures within and beyond the Roman and Byzantine Empire interacted with Christian and Jewish traditions and with each other. Christians lived under a diverse range of Christian rulers, some of which ruled over large areas, others over small kingdoms. But Christians were also ruled by non-Christians, which must have deeply influenced their perspectives. Moreover, theological controversies and the ensuing schisms impinged on the perception of political power, giving rise to the image of a heretical or impious ruler. This conference not only focuses on Roman traditions in East and West but also on expressions of Christianity in the Coptic, Syriac, Persian, and Caucasian Worlds. Developments in the Post-Roman World will also be addressed. The following three areas will be given special attention: 1. What words were used to denote monarchic rulers in different cultures? 2. Which qualities, merits or faults were ascribed to the ruler? What kinds of relationships were expected with the ruler? 3. Which examples from the Judaeo-Christian tradition were most frequently used for the image of a good ruler? Did they change over time and were innovative conceptualisations made? As a whole, this conference explores how traditions that originated out of Christian scriptures interacted with other traditions of thought and outlines the challenges of attending to the transmission of texts and ideas among various languages and cultures of the Mediterranean and Near East from the fourth to the tenth century.