Peace, war and conflict in the ancient world

The workshop plans to examine the following questions:

• What theories of the origin of conflict, or suggestions for conflict-avoidance, do we find in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds?
• What was the relation in ancient thought between war and other fields of activity? Was war useful for the ancients to think with for other practical and evaluative questions?
• Do we find concepts and considerations from other fields deployed in reasoning about war?
• Do we find attempts to de-centralise war in ancient literature, historiography, philosophy, or all three?

Speakers will be drawn from a range of disciplines, including Greek philosophy, literature, the history of democracy and historiography.

Programme

9.30-10.30 Nicolas Wiater
10.40-11.40 Jon Hesk: The Rhetoric of War and Peace. Folk Psychology and Behavioural Economics in Demosthenes.
12-12.40 Alice König: The Militarism(s) of Livy's Peace Lessons.
1.30-2.30 Consuelo Martino: Just War or Just Empire? War, Moral Legitimacy, and Imperialism in Roman Imperial Historiography.
3-4 Mehmet Erginel: Plato on the Sources of Conflict.
4.10-4.50 Alex Long: War-readiness and Plato's incomplete Atlantis story.

Registration

Please email [email protected] by 1 May 2026 if you plan to attend, noting any dietary requirements.