Restraining the psychopathic CEO: Seneca and Nero Event as iCalendar
(Classics and Ancient History, School of Humanities)
13 March 2019
6 - 7:30pm
Venue: Old Government House Lecture Theatre (102-G36)
Contact info: Matthew Trundle
Contact email: m.trundle@auckland.ac.nz
Associate Professor Marcus Wilson | University of Auckland
Psychopathic behaviour within the leadership of large commercially oriented organisations has become a significant area of research interest within modern business and organisational studies. Roman imperial history is surprisingly relevant to this modern problem, since emperors held supreme power but were often spectacularly unqualified to exercise it wisely, giving their advisers a very delicate task trying to ameliorate the effects of bad decisions made by their bosses.
Nero ticks most of the boxes on all the modern measures of a psychopathic personality. Seneca, as Nero's principle adviser, was someone who not only experienced this type of situation but tried various strategies to deal with it and wrote about it in ways that are still informative and useful.
Marcus Wilson is an associate professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Auckland.
