The seminar will look into key incidents in the history of the Roman Republic which were defined as extraordinary crisis events threatening the stability of the governing system. The institutional response mechanism which were invented or employed by the governing institutions in Rome to resolve several crises will be analysed. The interpretation will focus on the tension between the constitutionally available measures of emergency management and the temporary or permanent suspension of individual and collective rights and liberties which Romans qua citizens were guaranteed - like the right to bodily integrity, prohibition of torture and the guarantee of fair juridical investigations and trials, freedom of worship and movement as well as the protection of individual security and private space. In the theoretical framework and background of the seminar the modern discourse about the protection of human rights and civil liberties in a state of emergency when international law permits states to suspend many human rights in order to safeguard national security will be discussed.