Die Darstellung der Masse in der römischen Literatur

The antagonism between the individual and the many is a basic constant of human existence. The particular dynamics of the mass, however, is only perceived in the literature of the Empire, starting with Ovid and Seneca and culminating in Ammianus Marcellinus, who is watching the plebs as if from above, from the Olympian perspective, like a foreign population from the animal kingdom. The increasing interest in the behaviour of the masses found its expression in a mannered and hypertrophic style. Similar features can be found in contemporary visual arts.