The seminar deals with the question of existence and meaning of “human rights” and other civil/social/political rights in different periods of Roman history from the Roman Republic and the imperial time till Marcus Aurelius as possible sources of modern universal human rights law. Relevant texts of different authors will be read and analyzed in order to understand different concepts and their development during the change of political systems in ancient Rome. If (and how) modern concepts of human rights might be rooted in Roman civilization, history and thought will be discussed in order to see if the reference to Roman antiquity in human rights law is used to “update the myth of ‘Western civilization’ to suit momentary agendas” (Samual Moyn, Human Rights and the Uses of History, xiv).