The 5th Potsdamer Lateintag) took place in September 2009. It was part
of the Brandenburger Antike-Denkwerk (BrAnD), a project funded by the
Robert Bosch Foundation and scheduled for a period of three years. The
topic presented this time was ‘Power and Powerlessness ‒ Society and
Rhetoric’. Not only are today’s rhethoric theories and instructions
derived from antiquity, but the reciprocal relation between society and
rhetoric was already lived and pre-conceived in antiquity. The aim was
to get familiar with ancient instructions of rhetoric, to analyse
ancient orations with regard to their application and effect, and to
investigate their applicability today. This volume collects lectures
given by Prof. Dr. P. Riemer and Prof. A. Fritsch as well as reports on
the whole project and on some of the school projects.