Internal War. Society, Social Order and Political Conflict in Antiquity

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Johannes Wienand
• Subject Area: Ancient History ; Greek and Latin Philology ; Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 393553516

The aim of the project is threefold: (a) The network intends to further our historical understanding of civil war as a crucial factor of sociocultural development in antiquity at large by developing conceptually new approaches to the phenomenon in question; (b) to advance a methodologically sound and comprehensive reexamination of the relevant source material; (c) and to lay the groundwork for future research by strengthening for the medium to long term the cultural studies perspective on civil war. A joint publication by the network members will be the enduring result of the project. The publication will combine the advantages of a source reader with those of programmatic articles and in-depth ‘Companion’ papers: In the form of problem-oriented essays, the contributions provide close-readings of a wide range of selected sources (literary, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, papyrological). The essays will be organized in three sections: Classical and Hellenistic Greece; Roman Republic / Early Principate; and High Empire / Late Antiquity. Each network member is invited to contribute to one of these sections. In order to achieve the goal of a joint publication, the network members will meet on three occasions over a period of three years: Three two-day conferences correspond to the three sections of the publication. The conferences will be prepared in detail by the project leaders (Johannes Wienand, Henning Börm, Carsten Lange) who come together for a coordination meeting at the start of the project. Near the end of the funding period and after the three conferences, the project leaders will have an editorial meeting in order to give the final touches to the manuscript and prepare it for print. Generally, the network has strong potential for follow-up projects and provides a valuable point of departure for academic exchange beyond the disciplinary boundaries of classical studies.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks