• Organized by the ORDO Research Group, in collaboration with the Centre for Historical Studies of the Royal Cavalry Society of Ronda (Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda – RMR), the theme of the conference is “The Renovation of the Elites in Ancient Rome”.

• The main objective of this international congress is to advance understanding about the integration of new members in Roman elites and the spatial broadening of their recruitment, shown to be the most suitable way of reinforcing links between the urban communities of the provinces and Rome.

• Sponsored by the University of Seville, University of Malaga, the Regional Innovation Ministry within the Junta de Andalucía and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, amongst others, guest speakers at the congress include several internationally acclaimed historians.

Ronda, Monday 27th September 2010: The RMR will host the 1st International ORDO (“Roman Oligarchies of the West”) Congress between the 7th and 10th October in its Salón de Grado. Organized in collaboration with the Centre for Historical Studies at the RMR, this conference will debate topics relating to this years theme: “The Renovation of the Elites in Ancient Rome”.

The 1st International ORDO Congress has one clearly defined objective: to advance understanding of the process of renovation of Roman governing classes. The importance of this process lies in that fact that by incorporating the most conspicuous members of the provincial elites into the imperial aristocracy Rome achieved the total integration of different territories which came to make up the empire, and in consequence, the complete consolidation of imperial domination. The formation and incorporation of a governing sociopolitical elite which had its origins in the cities of the Empire also proved to be one of the most effective responses, using those promoted as administrators, to the growing demands of the ever more complex imperial administration.

In the worlds of Professor Antonio Caballos, director of the ORDO Research Group: “the intense and close scientific collaboration between the various members of the ORDO Group and the degree of maturity reached in our studies has made the organization of a congress of this stature feasible in order to debate these ideas amongst some of the finest international historians working in the domain of Roman elites”.

Sponsored by the Universities of both Seville and Malaga, the Regional Innovation Ministry within the Junta de Andalucía and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, amongst others, the International ORDO Congress will take place in Ronda. Speakers at the conference include over thirty high standing historians and investigators from fifteen European universities. Guests will debate the subject from various angles and their conclusions will be presented in a monographic publication in 2011.

“Hosting the congress is a huge responsibility and source of pride, allowing us to understand the origin of Roman elites more fully, their functions, behaviours, ideologies and their social obligations,” explains Ignacio Herrera, director of the RMR. “It is yet another example of the ways in which our Centre for Historical Studies is continuing to achieve its objectives in the task of studying elites throughout history”.

What is the ORDO Group?

The ORDO (“Roman Oligarchies of the West”) Group, is currently made up of investigators from various universities including Alcalá de Henares, Complutense de Madrid, Cordoba, Hamburgo, Bruselas, Navarra, Brescia, Salzburgo and Seville. Their task is the study and research of elites in Ancient Rome. Their contributions have been widely circulated and accepted within the international scientific community, into which they are fully integrated, and for which they have become an established point of reference.

Members of the ORDO Group have tackled, both individually and collectively, a large variety of subjects related to the research of elites in Ancient Rome such as identity, origin, extraction and promotion processes, their composition, social relations and familial strategies, economical basis, the exercise of public functions, and the expressions and relations of power, amongst numerous other issues that constitute current historiographic interest.

View the entire programme online in PDF format