The mini-conference on Roman fake news will take place at the Netherlands Institute at Athens on Monday 26 January 2026 (16.00-20.30).
The conference focuses on Roman fake news in early imperial times, from the first to the third centuries CE, covering both Greek and Latin halves of the empire. It brings together four scholars exploring the potential of the concept. Is there something specifically ‘Roman’ about Roman fake news? What type of activities should we bring together under its heading? How does Roman fake news function in society? How does it circulate?
It consists of a hybrid meeting, with lectures partly on site, partly online, and is part of the series of “Democracy”-events, a collaboration project of the NIA and the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish Institutes at Athens. It is held on the occasion of the NWIB-visiting professorship of Laurens E. Tacoma at the Netherlands Institute at Athens, as part of his research project ‘Roman Fake News? Documentary Fictions in the Roman Empire (1st – 5th century A.D.)’ , funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Programme
4:00-4:15 welcome and introduction
4:15-5:15 Giuseppe La Bua (La Sapienza, Rome), ‘Exemplary stories: fictionality and
paradoxography in the epistles of Pliny the Younger’ (online)
5:15-6:15 Amphilochios Papathomas (University of Athens), ‘Damnatio memoriae as a form of fake news’ (on site)
6:15-6:30 Break
6:30-7:30 Donald Lateiner (Ohio Wesleyan University), ‘Fake Neros as a test-case for fake
news’(online)
7:30-8:30 Laurens E. Tacoma (Leiden University), ‘The circulation of Roman documentary
fictions’ (on site)
Chair: Theofanis Tsiampokalos (University of Patras)
Registration
Due to the limited number of seats, please register by email [email protected]
or telephone number: 210-9210760 (Monday to Friday 09.00-17.00).
The event will also be live streamed. For online attendance please register to the following
link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nBWT8r6wQsyo0Y0svpmr6Q
