Evening lecture and reception in honor of Prof. Dr. Hartmut Wolff

December 05, 2018 - 16:30 - 20:00

Zimeliensaal - Alte Münze 16, Room 09 /114

Exactly 40 years ago, on December 5, 1978, H. Wolff was appointed professor at the University of Cologne. Prof. Kunst takes this memorable day as an opportunity to thank him and his family for the extensive literary legacy that he donated to the Chair of Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Osnabrück. Prof. Dr. Krešimir Matijević (Flensburg) will give the welcoming address. The honorary lecture will be given by  Prof. Dr. Martin Jehne (Dresden) on the topic:

"Invectiveness in communication arenas of the Roman Republic and early imperial period - a research perspective"

The Roman Republic is characterized by a pronounced culture of invective. The senators in particular, the small socio-political leadership group, were constantly involved in disputes that included insults, abuse and disparagement. On the whole, however, it was possible to keep the escalation dynamic of invective attacks within limits, i.e. the outbreak of physical violence was rare, and even the enmities that arose from such violations of the social body were not so insurmountable that political cooperation could not soon be resumed. In the relationship between senators and the people, the principle applied that the political people present in official assemblies, as the incarnation of the polity, could not be insulted, while the senators also had to put up with a lot from this side. Even in the early imperial period, which was officially the continuing republic, the people still had considerable freedoms, even if the overall threshold for insulting the emperor was considerably higher due to his potential for violence.