A Roman Senate for a Global Empire

ZAZH-LECTURE MIT OLIVIER HEKSTER (RADBOUD-UNIVERSITÄT NIJMEGEN)

The Roman empire was among the larger empires that the world has seen, encompassing significant parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. Its socio-political reach was even larger, with ties to India and China. Yet notwithstanding the global reach of the Roman world, its formal governing structure was firmly fixed in the city of Rome. The senate, which would remain the pinnacle of Roman political culture for centuries of Roman rule, was a Roman institution. The constituent members of the institution, however, increasingly originated from the furthest reaches of the Empire. This lecture aims to explore various ways in which the global dynamics that the Roman world faced influenced the functioning and perception of the very Roman institution of the senate.

Die Videoaufzeichnung wird ab dem 23. Oktober 2024 auf www.zazh.uzh.ch verfügbar sein.