Tyrants, bureaucrats and victims - Latsis University Prizes 2025

Lecture given by Mary Beard on 30 October 2025
Tyrants, bureaucrats and victims - Do Roman emperors have anything to teach us ?

This lecture explores the elusive figure of the Roman emperor. Modern writing (both history and fiction) has invested heavily in the biographies of individual emperors — from Tiberius "the hypocrite" to Commodus "the psychopath" — and has often created a lurid image of Roman imperial power. This lecture challenges this approach and asks what we might put in its place. How do we read what Roman writers had to say about their emperors? Is it more theorised than we take it for? Does it offer a critique of autocracy? The lecture will also reflect on the relevance of all this now. There is a modern media habit of comparing individual emperors to modern political leaders (which US president has not been compared to Nero fiddling while Rome burned?). But does ancient autocracy have something more important to teach us?

Introduction: 00:00:00 - 00:05:19
Prof. Martine Collart, Vice-Rector of the University of Geneva
Prof. Yves Flückiger, President of the Latsis Foundation

Presentation of the Latsis Prize Laureates: 00:05:20 - 00:32:18
Dr Quentin Béran, University of Geneva, Art History Unit
Prof. Rasmus Kyng, École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich, Department of Computer Science
Prof. Philippe Schwaller, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Laboratory of Artificial Chemical Intelligence
Prof. Martin Wolf, University of St Gall, Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economic Research

Lecture of Mary Beard : 00:32:19 - 01:46:50
Professor of Ancient Literature, University of Cambridge

https://www.unige.ch/cite/evenements/...