ABSTRACT
The Imperium Romanum of the early Principate was certainly not an oppressive state, but absolute power and mass media were in the same hand. The different cases of character assassinations and attacks discussed show how much the free speech of completely different representatives of political and public life could be suppressed under completely different charges. Critics and oppositionists were discredited, exiled or accused of (alleged) lèse majesté, and sentenced. Or they were deprived of their media and audience – and with them their messages – silenced and isolated. But despite the uneven distribution of power, the goal of these attacks was regularly missed: the authors and the books banned retained an enormous attraction.
