cORPORATE MEMORY AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN ANCIENT ROME
PROFESSOR Tim PARKIN & ASH FINN, University of Melbourne
To maintain competitive advantage in an ever-changing market, modern businesses must be innovative, creative and always evolving. But at the same time, many successful companies of every size proudly advertise the many years they have been in business. This is because customers see a company’s history as a sign of quality and its longevity earns our trust. This is not new – in Ancient Rome, there existed a similar phenomenon known as the mos maiorum. Roughly translated as ‘the ways of the ancestors’, mos maiorum was regularly invoked by Roman lawyers, politicians and moralists.
The idea of mos maiorum was shrouded in mystique, and the Romans used it to use and to abuse the ways of their ancestors as the demands of the situation required. Employed in arguments both for progressive change and adherence to the status quo, the concept of mos maiorum is both a guide and a warning for the use and abuse of tradition and history as we continue to innovate and develop business practices in the contemporary world.
PROFESSOR TIM PARKIN, University of Melbourne
Tim Parkin joined the Classics & Archaeology department at the University of Melbourne in 2018 as the inaugural Elizabeth and James Tatoulis Chair in Classics. Before this he had spent over 11 years as Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester (UK). He is a New Zealander by birth who was awarded a D.Phil. at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and who, since 1989, has worked in universities in New Zealand, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom. Tim’s teaching covers both ancient history and classical languages. His main research is in ancient history, particularly Roman social, cultural, legal and demographic history. Among his major publications are Demography and Roman Society (1992), Old Age in the Roman World (2003), Roman Social History (2007) and The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World (2014). He is now working on books about ancient sexual health and domestic violence in antiquity, as well as a six-volume world history of ageing. Tim is currently serving as Deputy Head of the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies and as the Deputy Associate Dean of Arts (Partnerships & Engagement) at the University of Melbourne.
ASH FINN, University of Melbourne
Originally from Lancashire, England, Ash has recently submitted his PhD thesis at the University of Melbourne titled Vindictively violent: a sociology of Roman Punishment c. 50 BCE – 200 CE after completing both undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Manchester. Alongside his thesis research into Roman penal thinking he has also published papers on gendered violence in Roman society and literature, and on Apuleius' novel The Golden Ass. As well as previously holding teaching roles at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney, in 2020 Ash was the Therese and Ronald Ridley scholar in residence at the British School at Rome.
Hear Ash Finn speak about this H21 lecture below:
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