The philologist, if he wishes for a verdict of acquittal, must understand three things: antiquity, the present time, and himself; his fault lies in the fact that he either does not understand antiquity, or the present time, or himself ” said F. Nietzsche in his „We Phiolologists” (fr. 46.). What is more, antiquity can help us, in a special sense, to understand our present time. This paper shows the parallels between the Augustan propaganda and policy in Roman culture, and the same phenomena in Hungary after the revolution in 1956. Both of these times and systems are very complex and hardly adjudgable, somewhere between the political dictature and the power of a popular leader. Both of them have particular and particularly similar inner stage points and periods. The literary and historical evidences give us keys and possible interpretations now there, now here, helping us at the same time to understand the other era.

The philologist, if he wishes for a verdict of acquittal, must understand three things: antiquity, the present time, and himself; his fault lies in the fact that he either does not understand antiquity, or the present time, or himself ” said F. Nietzsche in his „We Phiolologists” (fr. 46.). What is more, antiquity can help us, in a special sense, to understand our present time. This paper shows the parallels between the Augustan propaganda and policy in Roman culture, and the same phenomena in Hungary after the revolution in 1956. Both of these times and systems are very complex and hardly adjudgable, somewhere between the political dictature and the power of a popular leader. Both of them have particular and particularly similar inner stage points and periods. The literary and historical evidences give us keys and possible interpretations now there, now here, helping us at the same time to understand the other era.