Ancient World Seminar: Alexandra Eckert (Oldenburg), ‘Sulla Felix: Unveiling Cultural Trauma'
| When: | Mo 16-02-2015 16:15 - 17:30 |
| Where: | Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, room 130 |
After his victory in the battle at the Colline Gate on November 1st 82 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla introduced the proscriptions to eliminate political enemies in Rome and Italy. A few weeks later, he appointed himself dictator and adopted the name Felix (the Fortunate). Having performed constitutional reform, he resigned from the dictatorship and died as a private citizen in 78 BC.
So far, scholarly research has focused on the Sullan proscriptions as a means of outlawing, assassinating, and expropriating 4,700 members of the Roman elite. However, the proscriptions marked only “the tip of the iceberg” of Sulla’s measures of persecution after the civil war. Hence, not only the Roman elite suffered from Sulla’s vengeance, but a vast majority of Romans. To overcome the consequences of Sulla’s cruel deeds, his contemporaries initiated a “social process of cultural trauma” (Jeffrey C. Alexander). Having accepted Sulla’s acts of retribution as cultural trauma, Romans began to dispute his claim to be Felix, bearer of divine fortune.
Alexandra Eckert studied English and History with a focus on Ancient History at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. She worked as a grammar school teacher in London and Bavaria. In November 2009, she began her Ph.D. studies at the University of Halle-Wittenberg under the supervision of Professor Angela Pabst (Halle) and Professor Martin Dreher (Magdeburg). She was rewarded a Ph.D. in Ancient History in November 2012 for her dissertation “Remembering Lucius Cornelius Sulla from the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD.” Since April 2013 she is staff member of the department of Ancient History at the University of Oldenburg, where she works as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Professor Michael Sommer.
Alexandra is Alumna of the German National Research Foundation. She is a member of the postdoctoral mentoring programme “Im Tandem zum Erfolg.” Her mentor is Professor Tanja Scheer, University of Goettingen.