Ranieri Colloquium on Ancient Studies

When it comes to the socially acceptable killing of a human being, what are the differences between assassination, sacrifice, and execution? What are the overlaps? When does legitimation come from the religious sphere, when from the political? The theme of violence, and particularly of socially legitimate violence, has become increasingly important to studies of both politics and religion in antiquity. The state's use of both judicial and extra-judicial killing in order to enforce its will is often seen as being at the heart of its ability to maintain social cohesion, while even those ancient societies which frowned on human sacrifice in principle were in practice often willing to countenance it or similar killings at times of crisis. Assassination is by definition illegal, but was used in retaliation against rivals in the form of proscription and against tyrannical heads of state. All of these killings required ideological justification, which could be more or less successful: the aim of this conference is to examine a range of these practices, the manner in which they are justified, and the hazy borderline between them.

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