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The question “How does Revelation interact with the Roman Empire?” weaves its way through the past 125 years of scholarly research on the Apocalypse. Yet, flawed methodologies, false assumptions, and limited trajectories have led to poor conclusions that posture Revelation as nothing more than a vitriolic attack on the Roman Empire that intends to incite, reveal, and/or remind Christians of imperial evil. This thesis challenges this academic narrative of the Apocalypse through the development and implementation of the Alter-Imperial paradigm. Repositioning the theoretical background of the imperial inquiry around Empire Studies, the Alter-Imperial paradigm applies insights from Postcolonial criticism and “examinations of dominance” to engage the complexities of the relationship between the sovereign(s) and subject(s) of a society—a dynamic far more intricate than either rebellion or acquiescence. From this disposition, various forms of Roman propaganda (from Augustus to Domitian) are explored to surface the Sovereign Narrative saturating the public transcript and immersing the subjects in key messages of absolute dominance, divine favor, and imperial benevolence. The date of Revelation’s composition, then, is established to isolate the socio-historical analysis to the Flavian dynasty, paying particular attention to the viewpoint of the oppressed and the question of “persecution.” The Flavian dynasty’s essential development of an anti-Jewish environment (intensified in Domitian’s reign) offers not only a contentious context for Christian communities—still viewed as indistinguishable from Jewish communities by Roman elite—but also indelible images of imperial propaganda through which subject texts, like Revelation, can interact with the empire. From this vantage point, the Alter-Imperial paradigm offers fresh interpretative possibilities for familiar (and even forgotten) texts, such as Revelation 20:7-10. This enigmatic passage depicts the release of Satan from a 1,000 year imprisonment at a climactic moment in the Apocalypse, and yet, this text is widely neglected in Revelation scholarship. Parallels to Roman triumphal processions (a central element in Flavian propaganda), however, demonstrate that Revelation 20:7- 10 depicts Satan as the bound enemy leader marching in God’s triumphal procession. Nevertheless, the Alter-Imperial paradigm does not stagnate at intriguing textual parallels. Indeed, this interpretation of Revelation 20:7-10 postures the interpreter to poignantly address the question: “How does Revelation interact [not merely subvert] the empire?” Specifically, the use of Roman imagery in the subject text does not necessitate an “anti-imperial” intent, but may simply be the grammar with which the subject text constructs their Alter-Empire. In fact, the Alter-Imperial paradigm suggests that to reduce Revelation to an anti-Roman document intent on the empire’s destruction is to over-exaggerate Rome’s significance in the subject text and, then, to miss its true target—the construction of the Alter-Empire through the destruction of the true enemy, Satan.

Chapter 1 describes the synthesis of a 1,4-dicarbonyl compound 1 which was constructed by a sequence involving opening of a protected glucose epoxide with allyl magnesium chloride, alkylation and Wacker oxidation; the 1,4-dicarbonyl compound 1 readily underwent cyclisation under basic conditions to produce the cyclopentaannulated sugar derivative 2. Treatment of the cyclopentaannulated sugar derivative with N-bromosuccinimide and subsequent treatment with activated zinc completed the fragmentation of 2 to furnish the cyclopentanes 3. Chapter 2 describes the reduction of 2 which furnished a mixture of allylic alcohols 4 in a ratio of 8:1 in favour of either isomer depending on the conditions and reagents employed. The application of a Stork silyl methylene radical cyclisation of the a-cyclopentaannulated derivative led to a 2:1 mixture of trans and cis fused tricyclic ring systems. Treatment of the allylic cyclopentaannulated derivative, however, led to a single cis-fused product 5. This is in contrast to previous examples which show a mixture of cis and trans-fused 6,5-ring systems. Chapter 3 describes the continuation of work in the Jenkins group directed towards the synthesis of taxanes from glucose. A model study was undertaken to show the viability of a stepwise diene synthesis utilising selenium chemistry. This succesful model study showed that an enone to diene conversion was possible. The application of this methodology to the C-ring synthon 6 produced 7, the most advanced intermediate to date, as a single isomer.

The hypothesis that the extinction of the Multituberculata largely resulted from competition with early members of the Rodentia, based mainly on fossil-rich sequences in North America, features prominently in the history of early mammals. In this study, I expand the scope of investigation into this subject to include the other two continents where multituberculates made up a significant portion of the community, Europe and Asia. I used diversity measures, percentage richness, taxonomic rates of origination and extinction, and estimates of body size overlap to compare and contrast the replacement patterns on the three continents. In addition to testing hypotheses of multituberculate extinction, I also tested how closely this extinction conforms to the predictions of the incumbent replacement model of competitive faunal replacement. I conclude in this study that, especially in the light of new data, competitive interaction stands as the most likely explanation for the disappearance of the Multituberculata in Europe and North America. I base this conclusion largely on the fact that I observe correlated rates of origination (rodents) and extinction (multituberculates) on both continents. The incumbent replacement model predicts this result and thus provides the best conceptual framework for understanding the global extinction of the multituberculates. I also find that substantial size overlap existed between the Multituberculata and Rodentia of North America and Europe. I infer this to suggest niche overlap and resource competition between these groups. Finally, I conclude that the decimation experienced by multituberculates at the end of the Cretaceous, especially in Asia, opened up niche space, into which the ancestors of rodents could radiate. These events set the stage for the eventual replacement of multituberculates by rodents in North America and Europe by providing an opportunity for rodents to establish themselves initially in Asia relatively free from competition with multituberculates.