Friends of Antiquity Sunday Series: Heyworth-Smith Memorial Lecture
Join UQ’s Friends of Antiquity at the 2024 Adrian Heyworth-Smith Memorial Lecture, ‘The rule of law in Ancient Rome’, presented by Dr Eleanor Cowan, Lecturer in Roman History, The University of Sydney.
The ideal of the rule of law – that the law should protect all citizens from arbitrary exercises of power – can be traced from ancient Greece to the present day. Since the mid-twentieth century it has become one of the pre-eminent political values of our time.
The United Nations has long held the rule of law as one of its ‘universal and indivisible core values and principles’ and it is now firmly part of the lingua franca of domestic and international politics around the world. The study of the rule of law has likewise exploded over the last quarter-century across the disciplines of law, philosophy, history, economics, and political science.
Dr Cowan will explore the role of the law in the years immediately following the cessation of civil conflict at Rome.
Presenter: Dr Eleanor Cowan
Dr Eleanor Cowan is an historian of conflict and post-conflict Rome at the University of Sydney. She specializes in the history of communities in conflict, the history of thought and ideas, historiography and the history of the early Principate.
She also has an interest in Roman law, including the concept of the rule of law and in domestic violence in the ancient world.
Cost: $10
About Classics and Ancient History Seminars
The seminars of UQ's Discipline of Classics and Ancient History are held on Fridays at 4 pm.
Their format is in person and live on online.
The physical venue for all seminars is room E302 of the historic Forgan-Smith Building (building no. 1) on UQ's St Lucia campus in Brisbane.
For the online link please contact the seminar convenor Associate Professor David M. Pritchard (d.pritchard@uq.edu.au).
Seminars 2-3 and 6-7 will be recorded for subsequent publication as open-access podcasts.
Professor Maria Wyke (Seminar 2) is the 2026 Visiting Professor of UQ's Centre for Western Civilisation.
Dr Roslyne Bell comes to Brisbane as a guest of UQ's Friends of Antiquity. She will be delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Ancient History Day on Saturday 21 March.