Friends of Antiquity: Milns Visiting Scholar

Political Rivalries in the Late Roman Republic

Join us for the April Friends of Antiquity Sunday Series event titled: Political Rivalries in the Late Roman Republic, presented by Professor Josiah Osgood, Department of Classics, Georgetown University. The event will be held at The University of Queensland Forgan Smith Building, followed by an afternoon tea. Further details to come.

Presenter:

Prof. Josiah Osgood (Georgetown University), 2023 R.D. Milns Visiting Scholar

Politics in the late Roman Republic often revolved around personal rivalries. Politicians regularly insulted their opponents in public speeches and to carry on the attack, they penned pamphlets and memoirs. Some feuds lasted years, including those of Caesar and Cato, or Cicero and Clodius. Disagreements often led to violence and even civil war but why did the Romans practice such potentially destructive politics?  

Professor Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, will set out to encapsulate that political rivalry was fierce in the late Roman Republic, and that challenging someone in power was good for publicity.  As a parallel for Rome, this lecture also considers the raucous politics of the early United States, encapsulated most famously by the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.