La passion des Romains pour les jeux du cirque, et surtout pour les courses de chars, apparaît comme un topos dans la littérature ancienne. Si les auteurs anciens ont maintes fois évoqué l’état d’excitation du public, les jugements moraux et les stéréotypes l’emportent sur toute tentative d’analyse et très peu d’amateurs de courses ont laissé de témoignage, comme la première partie de cette thèse le met en évidence. Il nous a donc fallu dépasser ces préjugés afin d’expliquer les raisons d’un tel engouement. La confrontation des données issues des sources textuelles aux résultats de travaux récents en psychologie des émotions et en sociologie du sport nous a permis de démontrer, dans la seconde partie, le lien entre la passion des jeux et les émotions provoquées par ces spectacles. En effet, cette passion se nourrissait largement des émotions intenses éprouvées par les spectateurs, elles-mêmes conséquence d’un phénomène d’hyperstimulation sensorielle auquel ils étaient soumis depuis leur arrivée aux abords du bâtiment jusqu’à la fin des jeux. Cet engouement pour les ludi circenses avait donc des causes intrinsèques aux spectacles. Face à ce constat et à l’intérêt croissant du pouvoir pour les circenses dès la fin de la République, la troisième partie de cette thèse examine la question de l’instrumentalisation de ces jeux à des fins politiques. Si des chefs d’armées, comme Pompée ou Jules César, comprirent tout le bénéfice qu’ils pouvaient en retirer en terme de popularité et si, à partir d’Auguste, les circenses font partie intégrante de la politique impériale, il serait néanmoins erroné de percevoir les spectateurs du cirque comme une foule manipulée par le pouvoir. Ils jouissaient en ce lieu d’une autorité considérable, non seulement sur le déroulement des jeux, mais aussi à l’égard de l’empereur, à tel point que le rapport de force avec ce dernier pouvait même éventuellement s’inverser. Le cirque a été en effet parfois le cadre de manifestations d’hostilité de la foule à l’encontre de l’empereur ou de ses proches et dans la plupart des cas les manifestants ont obtenu gain de cause. La clémence du prince semble donc avoir été l’usage en ce lieu. Cependant, il convient de ne pas réduire les acteurs de ces mouvements de protestation à la plèbe. Ces manifestations étaient vraisemblablement souvent orchestrées et soigneusement préparées à l’avance, or il nous est apparu que seuls des membres de l’ordre sénatorial ou équestre avaient les moyens humains et logistiques d’y parvenir. / Passion for Roman circus games, and especially for chariot races, appears as a topos in ancient literature. Even if ancient authors frequently evoke the excitement of the audience, this excitement often attracts moral condemnations and stereotypes rather than critical analysis and there are very few testimonies coming from chariot races enthusiasts, as it may be noted in the first part of the thesis. This study aims to overcome these prejudices in order to explain the reasons for such an enthusiasm. In the second part, after confronting data coming from textual sources with what recent works in psychology of emotion and sociology of sport can teach us, we demonstrate the link between passion for the games and the emotions provoked by those spectacles. This passion, indeed, was mainly entertained by the intensity of the emotions, resulting themselves from the sensory overload which the spectators experienced, from the moment they were reaching the circus to the end of the games. This passion may be due to factors intrinsic to the show. Considering this aspect as well as the growing interest of the power for circenses at the end of the Republic, the third part examines the exploitation of the games for political purposes. Even if army leaders, such as Pompey and Caesar, well understood all the benefits they could derive in terms of popularity, and even if the circenses started to be, from Augustus on, an integral part of imperial policy, it would be a mistake to see the spectators simply as a crowd manipulated by political power. It appears that the spectators enjoyed considerable authority over this place, not only in relation to the conduct of the games, but also even in relation to the emperor, insomuch as the power struggle between the emperor and his subjects could sometimes be reversed. On several occasions, indeed, the circus was the scene of the crowd’s hostility against the emperor or his relatives, and in many such cases, the demonstrators were successful. It seems that it was customary for the emperor to show clemency within the circus. However, it is important not to generalise about the participants of protests and not to consider them simply as a plebeian mob. Such protests were in all likelihood often carefully orchestrated and planned in advance; it seems clear that only members of the senatorial or equestrian orders had the human resources and logistical capacity to achieve that.

The goal of this thesis on roman and greek reformers was to create a methodical summary of the most important constitutional reforms in ancient Rome and Greece. It is mostly focussed on the history of ancient Rome or Roman reformers, respectively. I call these reforms constitutional for their undoubted life-changing impact on the society as a whole - some of the reforms changed the ancient societies for the upcoming decades and even centuries, some changed them, as I believe, forever. For example a struggle between Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius had a far- reaching impact on Rome as too much of "unbreakable" rules were broken - which, of course, led to another and another heavy and unprecedented interventions which ultimately led to the fall of the republic and the beginning of the new, Imperial, era. Main sources of this thesis are the texts of ancient authors, such as Plutarch Suetonius and Appian, as it was one of my goals to use primary literature as much as possible.

The theme of the dissertation is the reception of the Classical Antiquity in the Czech Literature between 1880 and 1910. The aim was to analyse the ways in which Czech culture related to the Classical Antiquity in the period of increased concern with Classical topics, motifs and forms. The first, largest part, methodologically inspired by the demythicizing perspective of Vladimír Macura and Jiří Rak, concerns with stereotypical views of the Classical Antiquity particularly prominent in the contemporary discourse: the antithetical image of noble Greece and corrupted Rome, the topos of bright Hellenic Sun and clear Sky, the ideology behind the common opinion that Ancient sculptures were all white (and the reactions to the discovery that they were, in fact, polychrome), the topos of a Greek athletic body and its employment in the policy of the Czech sports movement 'Sokol' (Falcon), and last but not least the topos of a man unspoilt by civilization and living in accordance with the Nature. Separate chapters are also devoted to two then important intermediaries of reception, grammar schools and translation. In the second part, attention is drawn to the representation of the Classical Antiquity in dramatic plays by Jaroslav Vrchlický, especially the dramatic trilogy Hippodamie, and their reception in...

1 ABSTRACT The thesis is divided into three major parts, the first giving an overview of the history of films and TV series about ancient Rome. This overview is based on scientific literature written in English. The second part, using scientific literature and classical sources, mostly pictorial, briefly describes weapons and armour of Roman soldiers from the Roman Republic until the end of the 2nd century A.D. The third part describes the costumes and weapon props in 25 films and TV shows picked on the basis of their popularity on Internet movie databases. The aim of this thesis is to find out, how does the stereotypical Roman soldier, created by this branch of popculture, looks like. The conclusion shows, that in the films and series about ancient Rome, the costumes rarely correspond to our historical knowledge about the armours from the times in which these films and series are set. Some costume attributes are constant and are supposed to serve as indicators, that the actor in the view of the camera is a Roman soldier. One of these attributes is lorica segmentata, armour made famous by its appearances in films like Ben-Hur, Gladiator and films about Asterix. Other attributes are attic style helmet, known from antique reliefs, big rectangular shields and bracers. Those pieces of equipment were not the...

Dissertation .. The approaches towards death and burial in different historical epochs of mankind dealing with a view of death in intellectual conceptions during the history. People have been engaged in the question of life and deaths for ages. It is one of the oldest, the hardests and the most fundamental questions which are asked. We can think of the death in two levels: a general and a personal. The comprehension of deaths was developing in history. Thesis traces, what affected and how it is possible, that the today`s subject of personal death states taboo, even if masmedia floods us with death of others. For understanding, the thesis goes throught history. From the methodological aspects it follows the time line, divides the history into ancient world, the Middle Ages and modern period, as well as on horizontal line following individually nations and their intellectual directions.