Conflict is omnipresent today, not only wars, but all kinds of confrontations require conflict resolution. The conference therefore seeks to answer the question of what kind of conflict resolution authorities and individuals in ancient Rome employed to end disputes, struggles or wars. It will explore peaceful conflict resolution and examine the religious and political mechanisms of conflict reconciliation. By focusing on texts and objects, the conference is an attempt to rethink our understanding of ancient Roman conflict culture.

The conference is part of the the BAK annual theme 2023/24 “Conflicts [and how to] deal with them”

Program

Thursday, 11 April

9.30
Darja Šterbenc Erker (Berlin)
Introduction

9.45
Stefan Pfeiffer (Halle)
Insurrections in Hellenistic Egypt: local agents and royal strategies of pacification (3./2. cent. BCE)

10.35
Fiachra MacGóráin (London)
Dionysos Lysios: resolving republican conflicts in the era of Augustus

11.25
Coffee Break

12.05
Darja Šterbenc Erker (Berlin)
Approaches to the study in conflict and religious-political conflict resolution in antiquity

13.00–14.30
Lunch Break

14.30
Wolfgang Spickermann (Graz)
Die ‚Zähmung‘ von Stammesgottheiten zu Beschützern des Kaisers und seiner Provinzen

15.20
Martin Dinter (London)
Reconciliation the Roman Way

16.10
Coffee Break

16.40
Jörg von Alvensleben (Göttingen)
Antike religionsphilosophische Reflexion über Unglück, Schicksal und Weissagung

17.30
General discussion

18:30
Conference Dinner

Friday, 12 April

9.30
Robert Kirstein (Tübingen)
‚Die Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos’. Ovid, die Kritische Theorie und die Krise des Subjekts

10.20
Anke Walter (Newcastle/Berlin)
The Epic Body in Conflict in Statius‘ Thebaid

11.10
Coffee Break

11.40
Lieve Van Hoof (Gent)
Conflict and conflict resolution in fourth-century Antioch: Libanius as a mediator between emperor and city

12.30–14.00
Lunch Break

14.00
Matej Petrič (Ljubljana)
Annus ubique ad famem proximus: 4th century food shortages and food-related crises in the letters of Q. Aurelius Symmachus

14.50
Amel Bouder (Hamburg)
Priests as resolvers of conflicts between pagans and Christians, as well as among Christian sects in Antique Algeria

11.10
Coffee Break

16.10
Beatrice Trînca (Berlin)
Zensur in Paris (13. Jh.)

17.00
Concluding remarks

Organised by

PD Dr. Darja Šterbenc Erker
Institut für Klassische Philologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
darja.sterbenc.erker@staff.hu-berlin.de