Friday 11 July 2025, 15:00 – 17:00
Panels and abstracts
Cicero and Seneca
Location: United College, School II
Chair: Liz Gloyn, (Royal Holloway )
Seeing without Sight: Cicero and the Blind
Jason Morris (Crip Antiquity: Chief Financial Officer of Crip Antiquity)
Scholars working on disabilities in antiquity in recent years have not fully appreciated just how much of our evidence on the life of the blind in late Republican Rome comes from just one source, Cicero’s Tusculanae Disputationes. More specifically, they have not engaged with the intellectual problems that come from the fact that Cicero, within this text, invokes the blind as a topos in a discourse on the concept of Stoic wisdom and virtue. This use of the blind has important implications for historians attempting to reconstruct the lives of disabled people in antiquity. Therefore, this paper considers three closely interrelated issues. First, it considers just how much experience Cicero have with blind people. It then considers the roll that sight or more specifically the lack of sight played in Stoic thinking. As part of this stage in the discussion, the paper also addresses the ways in which Cicero manipulated Stoic thinking through the lens of his own personal experience to communicate fresh ideas about human understanding and what it means to “See” as a thinking person. Finally, the paper establishes the limits to which we can use Cicero’s work as a window into the lives of the blind.
Paper
Cicero’s “Silence” on Plato’s Cave Analogy: an Image in the Shadows?
Eve Harrington (University of Oxford)
‘Cicero’s citations and reminiscences of Plato never include mention of what we are inclined to regard as the centre of Platonic philosophy: the allegory of the Cave.’ (Burkert, 1965, p. 198). Given Cicero’s sustained engagement with Plato across his philosophical works and letters, the fact that he never explicitly mentions Plato’s allegory of the Cave in Republic VII is troubling. It leaves us wondering whether the allegory of the Cave occupied any significant space in Roman receptions of Plato and might make us hesitate to identify more subtle play with the allegory in Roman literature outside of Cicero during the late Republic and early Augustan period. I argue that the statement ‘Cicero is silent on the matter of the allegory of the Cave’ is misguided. I will build on Gildenhard’s (2013) and Altman’s (2016) earlier arguments for subtle Ciceronian engagement with the allegory by examining some previously undiscussed passages from Cicero’s philosophical works (in particular, Tusculan Disputations and De Natura Deorum) that subtly play with shadow and sunlight imagery. I suggest that Cicero viewed the allegory as so central to Platonic thought that he did not feel the need to clearly signpost his engagement with it.
Paper
Papa Was A Rolling Stone: Bad Fatherhood in Seneca’s Phaedra and Hercules
Liz Gloyn (Royal Holloway)
Seneca uses the creative space of his tragedies to explore Stoic philosophical concepts, and to work out the consequences of living unStoically; the result is a dramatised amplification of messy real-life domestic complications. In Phaedra and Hercules, Seneca explores what happens when good heroes are bad fathers through the impact of two trips to the underworld on two different families. While the trips mean Theseus and Hercules meet expected heroic standards, their absence from the family has catastrophic results. Seneca’s handling of mythic royal families mirrors his treatment of the effect imperial power had on the Julio-Claudians; in both cases, holding incorrect priorities means the family’s ability to function is impaired. By exploring the impact of the missing father, Seneca touches on how such departures and reappearances affect a family’s stability, and the cost of privileging heroic status over virtue. The outcome of paternal absence is compounded by the threatening presence of the stepmother in both tragedies. Hercules’ absence provides the opportunity for Lycus, the usurper of Thebes, to threaten Megara, while Theseus’ absence allows Phaedra to declare her illicit passion for Hippolytus. Phaedra and Hercules thus dramatize how the missing father disrupts a family’s tranquillitas, with tragic repercussions.
Paper
Sanguineum insigne: Laius and nefas in Seneca’s Phoenissae
Oliver Baldwin (Universidade de Lisboa. Centro de Estudos Clássicos)
Seneca’s probably unfinished Phoenissae is a truncated family psycho-drama. The roaming of a suicidal Oedipus accompanied by his faithful daughter, haunted by the ghost of his father, Laius, and excited by the prospect of his sons’ fratricidal and sociopathic crimes, permeates the play’s first half. In the second half Jocasta tries to intercede, verbally and physically, to stop the war between her sons, the fruit of her guilty union with her son-husband. Haunting the play is a sense of consanguineal crime no Labdacid can escape. Nefas drives the plot.This paper intends to explore the role of nefas in Seneca’s play by focusing on the haunting presence of Laius as (grand)father and Theban king, as transmitter and promoter of the family’s curse. This will be done primarily by focusing on the two appearances of Laius to Oedipus in the play (38-50; 166-181) and how a referential web of inherited crime is created, stemming from Oedipus’ mention of Laius’ ‘sanguineum gerens insigne regni (40-41)’ that becomes the polyvalent token of both familial and political nefas in Thebes. Through this, this paper will seek to map Laius’ haunting presence not only in the play, but perhaps also in Phoenissae’s non-existent prologue.
Paper
Class and Classics: Teaching and Policy Making
Location: United College, School I
Chair: Reise Watson, (University of St Andrews )
We must find a way, or make one: threats to state provision of Classical subjects in Scotland
George Connor (Working Classicists)
The majority of new Classical Studies teachers have no formal Classical Studies training. They are, in the main, enthusiastic teachers of other subjects. The absence in Scotland of any provision of teacher-training is a continued threat to Classical subjects.Very few of these new teachers have GTCS registration. Earning this registration can be difficult, and the process is not entirely clear, and the lack of clarity on this process dissuades many from trying at all.Those teachers who have begun to offer Classical Studies will, in addition, not have the subject reflected in their contracts. This suggests that the recent gains in the subject could be rolled back with relative ease by schools and/or local authorities.Last year, fewer than 100 state school pupils sat National 5 Latin. Just 30 sat Higher. With staff retirements in Latin over the next few years, there is a genuine threat to Latin’s survival in the state sector.Restoring vitality to Scotland’s state schools Classics provision must be a two pronged-approach. It must make the subjects popular, and it must make them sustainable. A concerted approach to solving these difficulties is the only way to ensure Classics can be accessed by working class pupils.
Paper
Carpe linguam: Exploring the Impact of Latin and French Learning on Metalinguistic Gains Across Socio-Economic Groups
Phoebe Graham (Reading)
This study examined the impact of learning Latin alongside French on metalinguistic development among Year 7 students in UK state schools, with a particular focus on socio-economic status (SES). Historically, Latin has been associated with educational privilege, yet recent research has suggested that its benefits may be especially pronounced for students from less advantaged backgrounds. A total of 160 students from six schools participated, with two schools learning French only and four learning both Latin and French. Metalinguistic ability was assessed using a bespoke 33-item test at the beginning and end of the academic year, while a verbal reasoning test provided a baseline measure. Stimulated recall interviews offered additional contextual insights. Analysis using a generalised linear mixed effects model revealed a significant interaction between Latin learning and time, indicating greater metalinguistic gains for those studying Latin. Notably, a significant three-way interaction among time, Latin learning, and SES was observed, with students eligible for free school meals demonstrating the largest improvements. Specifically, each unit increase in the SES measure (indicating lower SES) was associated with a 1.55 times greater likelihood of benefiting from Latin. These findings challenge traditional assumptions and highlight the potential of Latin to support equitable language education.
Workshop
What is needed to get Classics into more Scottish local authority schools?
Arlene Holmes-Henderson (Durham University)
[Part of panel- Class and Classics: Teaching and Policy Making]In this paper, Professor Holmes-Henderson will outline several practical steps required to widen access to Latin and Classical Studies in Scottish local authority schools. Policy support is already in place thanks to Scotland’s 1+2 languages policy and the inclusion of both classical languages and Classical Studies in Scotland’s national Curriculum for Excellence. Provision for assessment in these subjects is (currently) available via the national awarding body, the Scottish Qualifications Authority. Policy support is not enough. At a time when the Scottish Government is committed to ‘Getting it Right for Every Child’, the Classics community must clamour for better access to the study of the ancient world in local authority schools by enacting vital practical improvements. Priorities for collective action include; establishing and accrediting a teacher training pathway (PGDE) for Classics teachers in Scotland, providing free online training for ‘non-specialist’ teachers, creating high quality teaching and learning resources which are freely accessible to all, as well as creating better connections between university classicists, museums and local schools.Nothing short of a concerted effort will suffice. The future of classical subjects in Scottish schools depends on it.
Paper
Early Modern
Location: United College, School VI
Chair: Lanyu Chen, (University of Cambridge)
The Many Shapes of Euripides’ Monster
Tomas Riklius (Vilnius University)
In the exodus of Euripides’ Hippolytus, a gigantic bull roared out of the sea. Later writers have changed this part. In Seneca’s Phaedra, it is a monstrous bull that resembles a great whale, and in Phèdre Jean Racine goes even further, describing a strange artificial creature that looks like both a bull and a dragon. Many scholars believe that Seneca’s Phaedra was inspired in one way or another by Virgil’s Dido, where in Book 4 of the Aeneid we find the phrase ‘fama crescit eundo’ (the rumour grows as it goes). Given that in Seneca’s and Racine’s versions it is Phaedra herself who reveals the truth before she dies, it seems reasonable to think that this visual transformation of Euripides’ bull into a strange monster functions on several levels in later adaptations of Phaedra’s myth. In this paper I argue that in Seneca and Racine the strange sea monster becomes a symbol of the rumours that set the denouement of the tragedy. Since both Seneca and Racine give greater prominence to Phaedra’s mythological background and association with the Minoan labyrinth, this change in the representation of the sea monster also reveals additional symbolic meaning and significance in the dramatic action.
Paper
School Theatre in Lithuania: Latin Teaching and Civic Education from the 16th Century to Present
Jovita Dikmonienė (Vilnius University), Tomas Riklius (Vilnius University)
This paper explores the role of school theatre as a pedagogical tool for Latin and civic education in Lithuania from the 16th century to the present. The Jesuit theatre tradition at the Vilnius University, with the performances such as Stefano Tucci’s Hercules (1570), laid the foundations for two centuries of Latin-language school plays. These dramas, written by professors or students, served as exercises in rhetoric and poetics and allowed students to practise Latin. The Ratio studiorum emphasised the role of theatre in the development of linguistic and rhetorical skills, with plays performed in Latin. Notable examples include Gregorius Cnapius’s Philopater (1596), a tragicomedy influenced by Seneca and Plautus, which promoted moral values and depicted themes such as filial piety and Roman history. Later, the plays of the Jesuit school portrayed the history of Lithuania, dramas about national figures such as Mindaugas, Algirdas, Vytautas and historical events, confirming the unique civic aspect of the region. Modern revivals of this tradition, such as the student-written comedy Palemon apud hyperboreos, about the mythical Roman founder of Lithuania, performed at the THALIA 2024 International Latin Theatre Festival in Vilnius, show how classical drama continues to enrich Latin learning and promote civic engagement.
Paper
Lucan’s Intervention: Rewriting Exemplary Figures in The False One
Lanyu Chen (University of Cambridge)
In The False One, a collaborative Jacobean play composed by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra are not only portrayed as protagonists, as in other early modern Roman plays, but also each attract an imitator — Pothinus and Eros, respectively. Eros’s emulation of Cleopatra invites reflection on legitimacy, echoing the discussion of crossing the Rubicon as a breach of law in Lucan’s Bellum Civile — one of the plots and implications the two playwrights draw on extensively. Through Pothinus’s imitation of Caesar and allusions to this event, the playwrights caution the audience about which aspects of Caesar make him a suitable model for imitation and the conditions under which imitation can achieve the desired beneficial effect. Lucan’s intervention undermines Julius Caesar’s validity as a virtuous exemplar, leaving Cleopatra’s character to more interpretive openness. In turn, by reading and imitating classical authors, the playwrights reflected on exemplarity and emulation. Steered by the tension between interpretation and emulation in Lucan’s text, the play picks up on the uncertainties and risks of exemplary and moral education, conveying them more intuitively through playwrights’ imitation of classical authors.
Paper
Bernardini Stephonii Flavia Tragoedia: classical models for Catholic propaganda
Salvador Bartera (University of Tennessee)
Flavia (1600) is a martyr play with a historical subject, but closely linked with contemporary events. Stefonio was a professor of rhetoric at the Jesuit Roman College, and his students were to be the actors of his play. Although it was customary for professors in Jesuit Colleges to write plays in which their students would perform, Stefonio’s play stands out for its historical subject, for it is set at the end of Domitian’s principate. What is remarkable about the Flavia is how its author uses classical sources to serve Catholic propaganda in the age of the Counter-reformation. Stefonio produces a richly intertextual play that corroborates, even linguistically, the primitive phases of early Christianity, in line with post-Tridentine Catholic ideology. In this paper, I will offer some examples of how the author engages with classical texts, at times as plain ‘plagiarism’, but often in a more subtle adaptation of classical themes to Christian doctrine. What emerges is a rich cultural milieu in which the text functions as a bridge, as it were, between ancient and contemporary Rome, thus validating a continuity between pagan and Christian Rome that paradoxically corroborates the superiority of the latter.
Workshop
Greek Prose II
Location: United College, School III
Chair: Judith Mossman, (Coventry University)
To Hilarity and Beyond: Tackling an Ancient Jokebook on its Own Terms
Hannah Baldwin (Royal Holloway, University of London)
The Philogelos is our sole surviving ancient Greek jokebook and raises important questions about how to tackle a humorous work within a Classical framework. The Philogelos is largely contextless, and questions of authorship are complicated by the nature of jokes themselves which exist to be told, adapted and retold.Traditional Classical scholarship does not have any framework to specifically address the humorous form of the jokebook; and this has limited most scholarship to discussion of manuscript tradition and textual emendations. Attempts have been made to trace the jokes through time, but there remains no systematic framework. This is further complicated by the language around humour, using terms such as “joke”, “wit”, “humour”, “comic” often interchangeably.This paper intends to plug this gap by applying contemporary humour theories to jokes from the Philogelos, illustrating the benefits and insights gleaned from such an interdisciplinary approach. The discipline of humour studies extends far beyond the work of Freud and others and encompasses a wide variety of cross-cultural and transhistorical approaches. Although far from a universal theory of ancient humour, these contemporary approaches elucidate precisely these questions of adaptability and transmissibility which are crucial to understanding the nature of a jokebook.
Paper
Reading illness in the late antique letters of Gregory of Nazianzus: Communication, distance, and (un)natural conditions
Mathijs Clement (University of Cambridge)
With vast surviving corpora, Late antiquity is in many ways the heyday of literary letters. These letters are subject to a series of generic expectations. Many of these epistolographic conventions centre around the role of letters as tools for building and maintaining networks. Letters can bridge distances by metaphorically making the absent present. Within this web of conventions of late antique letters as present-makers, there is a trope that has not received much scholarly attention: the repeated references to illness in letters.By focusing on the use of illness in the letter collection of the fourth-century author Gregory of Nazianzus, I aim to demonstrate how it is in the nature of these late antique letters to explore illness as an unnatural condition which threatens the role of letters as present-makers, but at the same time also establishes illness as an intervention of divine nature in the human realm, adding a layer of complexity to the classical tropes of presence and absence. A study of Gregory’s repeated references to illness will shed more light on the reuse of classical tropes in a late antique context by showing how illness is both a limiting and enabling feature of Gregory’s letters.
Paper
θαυμάσαι δὲ ἄξιον: thauma, power and nature in Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius.
Angharad Derbyshire (University of Cambridge)
In the Vita Apollonii, Philostratus enmeshes Apollonius’ own status as a miraculous individual with the Roman imperial frameworks of marvel-related power, and yet most scholarship has focussed on schematisation of the wonders in this text.This paper examines how Apollonius’ interactions with rulers throughout the text manipulate pre-existing imperial frameworks for dealing with wonders, as Apollonius takes on a quasi-imperial role as both a source and arbiter of wonder. It argues that Philostratus sketches a relationship between Apollonius as an authority on imperial wonders to disrupt imperial dominion over wonder, and to demonstrate Apollonius’ status as politically-dislocated intellectual. Apollonius’ interactions with Flavian emperors are especially revealing for how imperial recognition of Apollonius’ status as a wonder in turn disempowers the Roman emperors to resist wonder’s disorienting appeal. Philostratus consciously adapts and rewrites the historical tradition to make Apollonius the chief wonder worker within Flavian history. A focus on wonders and the frameworks of power they implicate also reveals Apollonius’ disruptive undercutting of Philostratus’ own approach to dealing with wonders within a travel narrative. This discourse of wonder within the text invites possibilities of reading ‘against’ the voice of the narrator.
Paper
Ekphrasis through the looking-glass: reading visual and performing arts in Philostratus’ “Imagines”
Luisa Pimenta Figueiredo (Universidade do Porto (University of Porto))
Within the corpus attributed to Greek sophist Flavius Philostratus (2nd-3rd centuries AD), this paper focusses on Imagines, a collection of around sixty-four descriptions of paintings, found in an (unknown) Italian gallery. Whilst engaging ekphrasis as a pedagogical exercise, the text provides a relevant testimony to ancient traditions concerning the relationship between word and image. Yet it can also be read as prefiguration of similar concerns in contemporary theory on intermediality, namely the dynamic borders between verbal and visual representation.Tackling the interface between rhetoric, poetics and painting explored in the text, one proposes to analyse in further detail the descriptions which thematise or include express reference to other arts (music, dance, theatre, sculpture), in order to understand their particular contribution to the complex notion of verbal image that the author advocates and, thus, to further illuminate the complex history of mimesis and phantasia.For reading other arts allows us to understand better the erudition exercise that emerges from the intertextual references a wise interpreter has to (learn to) recognise, just as it shows how evoking certain formal and synesthetic elements from visual representation and performance can be a fruitful strategy to reflect enargeia and, hence, to (re)define ekphrasis across times.
Paper
Homer II
Location: Swallowgate, Seminar Room 3
Chair: Eirene Allen, (Institute for Classics Education)
The Divided Homeric Self: A Cognitive Revision to Snell
Bertie Norman (Roehampton university)
In this paper, I use a cognitive linguistic approach to revise Snell’s argument of incoherent selfhood in Homer. Snell argued that the many names for the soul in Homer indicated that characters did not fully grasp the concept of mind and/or soul and were unable to make real decisions. Scholars have resisted Snell’s argument, namely because of Jahn’s suggestion that such words are semantically interchangeable and used for metrical purposes. But i suggest that cognitive linguistics allows us to revise and reach similar conclusions to Snell. I first propose that many of the names for the so-called soul in Homer are cognitive metaphors that describe intangible selfhood. I then argue that cognitive grammar and blending theory can not only explain how these words for the mind become synonymous, but underpin how difficult it is to fully describe the concept of self. The significance of this paper is that it will provide us with a great insight into psychological conceptions present in Homer, as well as explain how semantic and metrical uses of language are employed masterfully in these epics.
Workshop
Gender and Innovation: Sappho and the Homeric Tradition
Ellen Greene (University of Oklahoma)
Sappho’s abundant use of Homeric allusion has been widely acknowledged. While I believe that Sappho presents some of the traditional myths represented in the Homeric epics from a woman-centered perspective, I also think that Sappho utilizes Homeric narrative and discourse to show, in quite ingenious ways, a commonality between war and love, between the masculine drive to dominate and conquer and feminine desire. I shall argue in this paper that Sappho’s use of Homeric material reflects a dynamic interaction between Homeric ideals and Sapphic eros, allowing Sappho to incorporate both masculine and feminine poetic voices in her work. I shall argue that Sappho’s literary engagement with Homer gives rise to a discourse that embodies a consciousness of both the public male world and a private female-centered world (Winkler 1990). Even in her poems addressed to other women, poems that evoke an all-female world apart from the typical male concerns of war and politics, Sappho often uses military terminology and draws on allusions to Homeric heroes to characterize love relations. I will argue that Sappho often attempts to show a commonality between war and love, between the masculine drive to dominate and conquer and “feminine” desire (duBois 1995, Greene 2008).
Paper
Disambiguating Verbs of Hearing in Homeric Poetry
Jurgen R Gatt (University of Malta)
This paper addresses the problem of semantic overlap among Greek verbs denoting acts of hearing, particularly in contexts where such variation cannot be attributed to metrical constraints. Although these verbs may refer to the same perceptual act, their usage patterns differ significantly. For example, while the imperative of κλύειν serves as a formulaic introduction to prayer in the Iliad, the imperative of ἀκούειν appears in this role only once. The study proposes a quantitative method for disambiguating such verbs in terms of their pragmatics. It offers a systematic analysis of the principal verbs of hearing in the Homeric epics (κλύειν, ἀκούειν, πυνθάνεσθαι, ἀίειν), which occur just over 400 times in total. Each instance is classified by the nature of the hearer (divine or mortal) and of the content heard (e.g., prayer, sound, command, factual statement). These classifications inform the calculation of each verb’s ‘relative semantic weight’—its likelihood of occurring in a given context, relative to the others. The paper presents the results graphically, offering explanations for overarching patterns and situating the findings within broader scholarship on hearing and speech in Homeric poetry.
Paper
Latin Literature and the Environment
Location: United College, School V
Chair: Andrew Fox, (University of Liverpool)
From Roman Warmth to Modern Crisis: Exploring Misconceptions in Roman Climatic Discourse
Riccardo Bianco (Individual researcher)
This workshop will examine the nuanced connection between the ancient Roman world with modern climate change discourse, focusing particularly on the climate in antiquity and how the findings are interpreted today. Classical scholars have long explored the Roman Climatic Optimum that seemed to occur at the same time as the Roman Imperial Age. This workshop critically assesses the validity of that concept, exploring to what extent a warmer, more stable Roman climate is supported by evidence, and how this affected the climate at the time. We’ll then consider how admiration for the Roman Empire, shaped by centuries of aggrandising the past, may contribute to misconceptions about past and present climate realities. These ideas are then perpetuated when scientific studies are filtered through ideological media outlets, where they are used to undermine the seriousness of current climate change. By analysing this intersection of classical history, climate science, and media interpretation, this workshop seeks to shed light on how the past is invoked in present-day environmental debates, and the risks of doing so uncritically.
Workshop
The Dead Ruminal Fig: Hyperobjectivity at the end of Annals 13
Andrew Fox (University of Liverpool)
In 58 CE, the Ruminal fig tree began to die. This arboreal death was taken as an omen before the tree returned to its usual vigour, a miraculous regrowth according to Tacitus, who recorded the event at the end of Book 13 of the Annals. This event, read retrospectively as a comment on Nero’s reign opens up questions about Roman relationships with the natural world. When read within the theoretical framework of hyperobjectivity, a component of Morton’s dark ecology (2013; 2016), we can see a complex ancient relationship with the world around them. This theoretical approach has begun to gain ground in Classics, appearing in Campbell’s study of the sea (2020), and Sissa and Martelli’s introduction to Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Environmental Imagination (2023). The introduction of this new theoretical model has begun to allow re-evaluation of traditional texts.This paper will reframe ancient interactions with trees in the context of hyperobjectivity, with a specific focus on the omens associated with their death or disruption. Here, we can see the disruption of a hyperobject and By reframing these arboreal interactions, we may be able to extrapolate the paper’s conclusions onto the natural world more widely.
Paper
Ovid and the Environmental Politics of Eating Yourself
Robert Santucci (University of North Carolina Wilmington)
In this paper I examine different strands of recent reception of the Erysichthon myth and explore the potential of the myth as a clarion call for environmental responsibility in the 21st century. Most notably, I make the claim that Erysichthon’s act of eating himself actually supersedes his felling of Ceres’ tree; for the activist texts I analyze in this paper he is an overconsumer first and foremost. This paper builds on previous work that I have done on this myth, which is the planned topic for my second monograph.
Paper
Lucretius
Location: United College, Quad Room 32
Chair: Matthew Shelton, (University of Cape Town)
Evidence of Medieval Learning Communities in the Manuscripts of the “Consolatio Philosophiae”
Victoria Lansing (University of Oxford)
I analyse the evidence of learning communities formed around Boethius’ Consolatio Philosophiae through manuscript evidence. My paper employs two case studies; 1) a novel interpretation of an illumination in BL.Harley 4335 and 2) an analysis of Ox.Auct.F.I.15, which contains neumatic notation of a Consolatio poem. In both cases, I contend that scribes are responding to reading and worshipping communities which employ the Consolatio as an educational text.Harley 4335f.1 contains a miniature of Boethius in a library as he gazes at a mirror. Curiously, the mirror does not show the philosopher’s reflection, but depicts Boethius being consoled by Lady Philosophy: the premise of the Consolatio. This illumination encapsulates a common Medieval interpretation of the work as an allegory of learning about the self. In turn, I believe it evidences a community of readers who understood the Consolatio as an educational text which could be applied to their lives.MS Auct.F.I.15, originated from St. Augustine’s Abbey, a renowned medieval centre of learning. The neumatic notation is set to Book IV poem 7 and is suggestive of at least two community applications. Specifically, use of the song tradition of the Consolatio in elite worship communities and its employment as a school text.
Workshop
The Sublime and Lines of Sight in Lucretius
Megan Sharp (University of Oxford)
Turning to the opening proems of Book Two and Three of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, I investigate how each conceptualises philosophic success for its reader. By drawing upon two key verbs of perceptual vision (to describe philosophic vision): despicere and dispicere, I establish a difference between the lines of sight, degree of realisation, and emotional involvement each passage promotes. If the Epicurean temples of Book Two represent the ideal philosophic state of ataraxia, I argue that the sublime experience of Book Three brings the reader closer to understanding nature’s material processes by its very arousing of emotion: of excitement, fear, horror, and wonder. Sublime experience is a foothold-intermediary means for Lucretius’ reader to gain greater understanding about the workings of the universe. If the text’s final philosophic project is formulated along a vertical axis: ascension upwards to these philosophic temples from which we, having become wise, and near-divine, may look down in undisturbed peace, I draw out a new axis which takes place in the interim: the horizontal plain of phenomenal-sense experience, level and on the ground, from which Lucretius teaches de plano and invites his reader to tread.
Paper
Lucretius in Suetonius’ Life of Virgil
Matthew Shelton (University of Cape Town)
In his Life of Virgil, Suetonius records that Virgil assumed the toga virilis on the very same day that the poet Lucretius died (‘evenitque ut eo ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet’, Suet. Vita Virg. 6). This Suetonian synchronism points clearly enough to what Rostagni (1964) called ‘una successione ideale fra i due grandi poeti’ (p. 75), but any deeper significance behind the coincidence has remained obscure. In their analysis of Suetonius’ language, Bayer, Holzberg, and Lorenz (2002) observe that ‘evenitque’ is typically used for omens rather than synchronism (p. 128), and this is one reason for their suggestion of the deletion of the clause as a later interpolation despite Suetonius’ love of synchronisms (p. 130). Chronological problems surrounding the synchronism have distracted from the literary and intellectual significance of the appearance of Lucretius in the Life. I argue that the synchronism does, in fact, signal the fulfilment of an omen. In the preceding sentences, Suetonius relates multiple omens surrounding Virgil’s birth. I argue that the language of the omens refers both to Virgil and to Lucretius and that the omens are brought to fruition by the synchronism.
Paper
Multiple Explanations and the Scientific Simile in Lucretius 5
Pietro Gabriele Tozzi (Trinity College Dublin)
It is widely recognised by Lucretian scholars (West 1969; Schrijvers 1978; Schiesaro 1990) that the ‘multiple-correspondence’ simile has a key argumentative function to play in the DRN, above and beyond its illustrative role. However, in one particular section of the poem, the discussion of cosmology (5.509-770), there is a distinctive change in the similes’ character, with the ‘scientific’ simile disappearing almost completely from the DRN, and only coming back once Lucretius moves onto another topic. This paper will argue that the sudden shift in the similes’ character can be related to Lucretius’ adherence to the Epicurean principles of the Canonice, which state that, when perception does not give us information concerning the causes of a phenomenon, any theories not contradicted by the senses are to be accepted as equally true. Thus, when the poet presents multiple alternative explanations of the various cosmological phenomena, he avoids using ‘scientific’ similes, since they would provide the final confirmation of that explanation’s veracity, something which Lucretius is here keen not to do. Instead, the ‘scientific’ simile is replaced, in all but one instance, by a type which ancient rhetoricians would describe as a simile ornandi causa, with the sole purpose of presenting an illustration.
Paper
Modern Novel II
Location: United College, Quad Room 30
Chair: Robin Fodor, (University of St Andrews)
An Absent Muse: Vladimir Nabokov writing Orpheus (and Eurydice)
David Larmour (Texas Tech University)
In his early short stories of the 1920’s and 30’s Vladimir Nabokov begins to experiment with his favourite Orpheus and Eurydice myth. As a peripatetic Russian émigré, Nabokov found it particularly effective in conveying the experience of exile and displacement and their effects on literary creativity.This paper examines “The Return of Chorb” (Vozvraschenie Chorba, 1925), in which a young émigré tries to recreate the image of his German wife who died on their honeymoon. Themes of rebirth (the statue of Orpheus outside the opera house playing Parsifal) mingle with loss and the backward glance. Eurydice transforms from beloved wife into a symbol of art, the mysterious source of the author’s inspiration. This is a device which Nabokov will use frequently thereafter, in his novels Mary, The Gift, Ada or Ardor, and even Lolita.While Nabokov treats various aspects of the Orpheus myth—for example, music and the sparagmos in his short story “Bachmann”—his re-imaginings are always underpinned by two elements established in “The Return of Chorb”: the male artist’s special exilic status and unique sensibilities amid his brutish surroundings; and the “beloved” woman-Muse, defined by her absence, present only in fragments (of body, clothing, speech, time) never in her totality.
Paper
Imperial Traditions in Middle Earth: The legacy of the Roman Empire in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien
Jo Messore (University of Exeter)
The Legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien is a fictional world rooted within the legacy and reflective of our own world, and its history. The popularity and influence of Tolkien’s work on both the cultural zeitgeist and fantasy genre allow it to serve as a useful lens through which to reflect back on popular cultural conceptions of the past. Through a close examination of the imperial traditions in Tolkien’s work, I will invite exploration of the long shadow of the Roman Empire and its evolving legacy.This paper will show how through the fictional island nation of Numenor and its successive kingdom of Gondor, Tolkien engages with many popular associations of the Roman Empire, examining its enduring impact and allowing us to consider how we continue to interact with this legacy. This paper will explore specific examples of this fictional reception of Rome and through it, reflect upon the complicated nature of the legacy of the Roman empire within popular understanding. I will show how Tolkien’s fictional empires serve as a mirror for us to consider the imperial traditions of the Roman Empire, why they continue to hold relevance today, and invite critical reflection on its legacy within our own culture.
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Bucolic tradition, human and nonhuman animals in Sándor Márai’s novel Peace in Ithaca
Attila Simon (Eötvös Loránd University)
Attila Simon (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)Bucolic tradition, human and nonhuman animals in Sándor Márai’s novel Peace in Ithaca This paper on Sándor Márai’s 1952 novel Béke Ithakában (Peace in Ithaca) centres on two closely related or even overlapping themes. On the one hand, the first chapters of the Third Part (Telegonos) of the novel are closely linked to the topoi of ancient bucolic poetry. This connection will be illustrated in the first part of the paper using the relationships between humans and animals and the music scene in Chapter I. The second part of the paper will take a closer look at the political zoology of the novel’s Third Part from the point of view of the upheavals, ruptures and blurring of the boundary between human and nonhuman animals. The main thesis of the paper is that in this work Márai questions the nature of man and the difference between man and animal more sharply than in his earlier works – not independently of the experiences of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century and WW II. In the novel, the ancient bucolic tradition becomes the vehicle for these questions, which also correspond to contemporary developments in European thought.
Workshop
Nunc Tendo Chelyn (Theb.1.33): The Fine-tuning of Disruptive Horatian Poetics in Statius’ Thebaid
Location: United College, Quad Room 31
Chair: Julene Abad Del Vecchio, (University of Manchester)
Strike the Lyre: the Reception of Horace’s Carmina in Statius’ Thebaid
Stefano Briguglio (University of Turin)
Although epic and tragic poetry are the main models for Statius’ Thebaid, the poem’s relationship with Horatian odes is no less fruitful. I will explore some aspects of this intertextual dialogue, beginning with the framework of the Thebaid, which contains allusions to Horace in the proem and the final envoi. I will then focus on lexicon and style, to show how Statius recovers Horace’s words and iuncturae in order to modify them, as evidence of the reception of Horace’s language in imperial epic. Finally, I will select some episodes from the Thebaid to demonstrate the presence of ‘political’ carmina, which provide Statius with much material for some scenes in the second half of the poem: the sacrifice of Menoeceus and his relationship with Virtus (Theb. 10, 634-782); the death of Atys (Theb. 8, 594-606); Capaneus’ challenge to heaven and his death, struck by Jupiter’s thunderbolt (Theb. 10, 827-939). The motif of the Gigantomachia itself is frequently used in political odes (whose sublime tone refers to the Pindaric model) and is a relevant element of Augustan ideology: Statius revives it to characterise the hero whose death is perhaps the most spectacular, in a combination of theomachy, philosophy, and discourse on power.
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Horace’s lyric echoes in Statius’ divine characters
Francesca Econimo (University of Toronto)
This paper aims to explore the reception of Horace’s lyric poetry in Statius’ Thebaid, with regard to the characterisation of divine figures. I will investigate the description of Apollo in the hymn at the end of Thebaid 1 in light of Ode 3.4 and the plan of destruction announced by Jupiter in Thebaid 3 through the lens of Ode 1.2. I will show that, through lexical parallels and thematic connections (in particular the imagery of Gigantomachy), Statius reworks the Horatian image of both deities and their Augustan representation to provide a more problematic portrait of their divine intervention. I will then analyse Bacchus’ agency during the Nemean drought and his speech to the Naiads in Thebaid 4 as a development of his lyric portrait in Ode 2.19. I will also consider some expressions of the ‘Bacchic poetics’ from Odes 2.19 and 3.25 in the Nemean digression of the Lemnos episode. In particular, I will draw attention to the Bacchic furor embodied by Polyxo and the key oxymoronic notion of dulce nefas, which might take its cue from Horace’s dulce periculum (3.25.18) and dulce … furere (2.7.28) in Bacchic contexts.
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‘The Lyric Vates: Amphiaraus, Horace and Statius’
Lucrezia Sperindio (Royal Holloway University of London)
In this paper, I suggest that the characterisation and utterances of the Argive prophet Amphiaraus in Statius’ Thebaid 3.629-647 engage with the self-presentation of the Augustan poet Horace as a lyricus vates, in Epodes 7 and Odes 1.2. Amphiaraus’ characterisation as prophet and warrior opens up in Statius’ reception a tension between the character’s clairvoyant understanding of the impiety of the Argive expedition against Thebes, and his desire for glory in battle. By drawing on the intertextual parallel between Amphiaraus’ rebuke to the Argives about their sacrilegious enterprise and Horace’s condemnation of civil violence, I argue that Statius’ reception of Horace’s civic discourse and of Horace’s own conflictual identity as poet and warrior in the historical context of the civil wars of the first century BC enriches Statius’ portrayal of Amphiaraus. Additionally, this parallel informs Statius’ own role of poet singing of the civil war in Thebes, which has been argued to be an image for the Actian civil war in the first century BC and, also, for the internal turmoil of 69 AD.
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Desiste canendo: Manto’s Magic as remedia in Statius’ Thebaid 4
Alexis Whalen-Muse (University of Southern California)
This paper examines how Statius represents tensions between traditional epic values and magic through his portrayal of Manto in the necromantic episode of Thebaid 4. In particular, it considers how the poet engages with themes established in Horace’s Epodes 17. For Horace, the force of Canidia’s katadesmos—or binding spell— has caused him to age prematurely. By contrast, the force of Manto’s spell has the power to invigorate Tiresias. Likewise, where Canidia’s spell casts Horace into blindness, Tiresias has his sight temporarily restored by Manto. In light of such comparisons, this paper explores the degree to which Statius subverts the memory of Canidia in his representation of Manto, who at first appears to be a typical agent of magical nefas, but whose spell is ultimately a demonstration of remedia. Finally, it considers the broader implications of this portrayal for understanding Manto’s role within Thebaid 4, and for the interplay between magical and epic poetic registers in the Thebaid as a whole.
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The Panathenaea: Sensory Experiences and Cognitive Approaches II
Location: Younger Hall, Seminar Room 1
Chair: Ellie Mackin Roberts and Ben Cassell, (University of Bristol and King’s College London)
The Panathenaea, Ritual Viewing, and Euripides’ Ion
Lauri Reitzammer (University of Colorado Boulder)
An important component of theôria (sacred sightseeing) involves ritual viewing, that is, travel to a sanctuary to see the sacred space, the buildings, sculpture, and dedications. This practice is staged in Euripides’ Ion, when the chorus arrive and admire the sculpture and architecture at Delphi. Endless scholarly discussion concerns what monument or monuments the chorus gaze upon. Yet, the impossibility of connecting the chorus’ description to this or that historical pediment, frieze, series of metopes, or temple, I suggest, speaks to the complexity of ritual viewing within the context of theôria, a subjective, sensory, and affective practice that is mediated and hardly straightforward, and which instead involves significant interference. This paper argues that, although the chorus in Ion are situated at Delphi, and although they are looking at Delphic architecture, they “see” the Panathenaea, Athens, and Athenian monuments. The parodos provides not a transparent snapshot of any actual building, statue, or place, but rather an interaction with a monument. Ion offers two divergent emotional and physical responses to this activity, that of the chorus and Creusa. Both responses underscore that the monument exists not only in connection with the Delphic landscape, but also in relation to Athens and Athenian theôria.
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Understanding human-animal relationships at the Panathenaia
Sarah Eisen (Northwestern University)
Due to an abundance of surviving material, literary, and epigraphic evidence, scholars have been able to reconstruct the Panathenaic festival to a high degree. Most of this study focuses on the human worshippers; however the non-human animal participants of the festival—including but not limited to cows, sheep, rams, and horses—were equally important, as the grand hecatomb for Athena was a primary motivation for the festival. This paper borrows methodologies from animal studies and sensory studies to critically consider how human participants formed cognitive and embodied relationships with these animals throughout the duration of the festival, from preparation and procession, to sacrifice and feast. Were these relationships able to form candidly, or were interactions between human and non-human animals choreographed? How did the various sensory intensities of the festival foster these embodied connections, and how did the emotional effects of these relationships change as the festival progressed? The festival was highly affective and curated for participants to feel specific sociological and religious emphases; by giving attention to the animal participants and treating them as vital components of the festival, we will be able to uncover a more holistic understanding of the sensory, emotional, and theological goals of the festival.
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“Setting Sail at the Kerameikos”. The Panathenaic Festival and Identity Construction in Roman Athens
Margarita Sardak (University of Cologne, Archaeological Institue)
Shared ritual acts, especially major religious festivals, are known to have provided the framework within which an individual received an individual experience that mediated to him his belonging to an exclusive community and his own age-, gender- and group-specific role. However, in researching this role of religion, the will of the individual is often not considered. The underlying motivation was largely based on education and social pressure, but not exclusively. The spectrum of individual motives becomes particularly rich in times of crisis. This paper will analyse the participants’ and spectators’ experiences of the Panathenaia in Roman times. The reconstructed perceptions of the festival’s immersive environment by these two differently involved groups will be scrutinised to determine what individual motivations could have been behind the decision to participate actively or to witness the festival as outsider, what personal expectations could have accompanied this decision and how these expectations were served by changes of various elements of the feast. It will be shown how through sensory and cognitive approaches the study of the Panathenaia, the festival’s continuity and changes, can help in answering the question of what it might have meant for an individual to be an Athenian in the Roman Empire.
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Performance
Location: Swallowgate, Seminar Room 4
Chair: Alex MacFarlane, (University of Birmingham)
Sapphic Fragments in Performance: The Potential Use of Theatre to Study Receptions of Fragmentary Material
Alex MacFarlane (University of Birmingham)
It is believed that a sizeable amount of the Sapphic poetic corpus was composed for performance. The details of these recitals remain highly debated, owing to the gaps in our knowledge regarding Sappho’s life and the limited work surviving to us. I explore the possibility of fragmentary text as a basis for contemporary performance. I consider how the nature of the text-as-fragment can be explored as a central part of the staging, rather than creating something that is ‘reconstructed’ into a whole. How might aspects of theatrical production be dis-composed to create a sense of fragmentation over time? Few laypeople are familiar with the partial texts of Euripides or Aristophanes. However, Sappho is well-known and ripe for studies of reception of fragments. This reinterpretation draws inspiration from Anne Carson’s use of square brackets to indicate lacunae in the Sapphic corpus, staying true to the “papyrological event” inherent in the texts. Carson’s style can be transformed into a physical theatrical production, employing sound, light, and movement in place of the square-bracketed lacunae. Disturbing modern theatre staples may be a fruitful venture in exploring the reception of fragmentary material. Thus, it examines classical transformations aside from attempts to recreate a ‘whole’ piece.
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Performing Greek Tragedy and the Challenges of Interdisciplinarity
Lucy Ruddiman (University of Bristol), Lucy Ruddiman (University of Bristol)
This paper will address some of the challenges of interdisciplinarity in the context of the modern performance of Greek tragedy in the UK. I argue that the performance Greek tragedy activates tensions between different forms of knowledge. These tensions roughly break down along disciplinary lines within academia between Classics and Theatre and Performance Studies, as well as along the divide between academia and creative practice. I will use Diana Taylor’s The Archive and the Repertoire (2003) to examine the nature of this epistemic tension between ‘the archive of supposedly enduring materials (i.e., texts, documents, buildings, bones) and the so-called ephemeral repertoire of embodied practice/knowledge (i.e., spoken language, dance, sports, ritual).’ Building on the recent work of David Bullen and Christine Plastow in Greek Tragedy, Education, and Theatre Practices in the UK Classics Ecology (2024) I find that disciplinary structures create a false polarization between the archive and the repertoire in order to maintain a hierarchy of knowledge which privileges the archival. I will examine the ways in which this is manifested in the modern performance of Greek tragedy, where these epistemes are forced to confront each other.
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Queer II
Location: Younger Hall, Seminar Room 3
Chair: Thomas Barrett, (Royal Holloway University of London)
Glitching Ovid; A Trans Performance of the Metamorphoses
Millie Marriott (University of Bristol)
Legacy Russell coined the term ‘Glitch Feminism’. For Russell, the ‘glitch’ is something to be celebrated within our social system as ‘not, in fact, an error at all, but rather a much-needed erratum. This glitch is a correction to the “machine”, and, in turn, a positive departure’ (2012). Russell identifies gender as a key cog in society’s machine; at the core of the manifesto is a call to make use of the digital world to throw a glitch into the binary concept of the gendered body. My paper will use Russell’s manifesto as a model to analyse the 2024 production of the Metamorphoses that ran at The Cockpit Theatre in London, and was created and performed by a trans and non-binary team. The performance was throughout a showcase of the digital, with screen projections, electronic music, and futuristic costuming. Through the use of digital techniques, the performance explored the intersection between Ovidian bodies and trans bodies, reaching to the heart of Russell’s manifesto. My paper will show how Metamorphoses embraced the digital glitch, using classical mythology to innovate with society’s (and Ovid’s) ideas about gender, as well as giving Trans+ people power over their own narratives and mythology.
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Kaineus and Kurukshetra: the Greco-Indian Heritage of a Transgender Hero
John McDonald (University of Missouri)
Absent from multiple accounts of his biography, Kaineus’ pursuit of masculine invulnerability and transition from woman to man are deemed later expansions. Comparison with the Mahabharata indicates that Kaineus’ transition is innate to his narrative.Amba and her hippophilic fiancé agreed to marry without parental consent, a wanton arrangement called a Gandharva marriage, the Gandharvas being hypersexual creatures associated with horses and sometimes portrayed as semi-hippomorphic hybrids. Abducted by Bhishma during her wedding, Amba reincarnates as a man in order to obtain the masculine opportunity to kill her abductor in battle. Amba becomes Shikhandin, brother of Draupadi, whose Greek equivalents include Hippodameia.Shikhandin contributes to Bhishma’s death during the Kurukshetra War but is killed by Ashvatthaman, the first segment of whose name is cognate with hippos and who is so named because he neighed at birth; South Indian adaptations of Ashvatthaman are hippocephalic. Shikhandin’s death corresponds to Kaineus’ during the assault of Hippodameia by the cloud-generated, crapulous Centaurs who, in addition to being onomastically related to Amba’s nuptial exemplars the Gandharvas and sharing the equine aspect and lechery characteristic of their Indian brethren, also share other associations, including an attachment to environmental humidity and attraction to aromas and psychoactive beverages.
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Changing reception of the relationship between Alexander the Great and Hephaestion Amyntoros.
Lukas McDonald (Cardiff University)
The subject of Alexander and Hephaestion’s relationship, specifically the sexual aspect, is rarely studied as a central focus. Scholars who do imply a sexual relationship between the two are often ambiguous about it and clearly cautious of making a statement that there was a sexual element to their relationship resulting in a larger focus on their romantic relationship which can easily be read as platonic if the reader so wished.One common justification for arguments that Alexander and Hephaestion were nothing more than close friends is that a sexual relationship between the two would be unacceptable to those around them. However, when properly examined there is no substantial basis for this assumption as there were multiple cases of male-male sexual relationships between those of similar circumstances to Alexander and Hephaestion in Macedonian history.Studying representations of Alexander and Hephaestion’s relationship in the context of the ancient Macedonian royal court reveals that it is only the male-male sexual relationship of Macedonia’s most infamous ruler that is questioned. Other male-male sexual relationships described with identical language by the same ancient scholar are not questioned by modern scholars thus demonstrating a reluctance to portray an influential historical figure as anything other than heterosexual.
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‘Pretending to be the vilest women’: classicists, transmisogynists and transfeminists read Cassius Dio on Elagabalus
Alex O’Neill (Trinity College, Dublin)
In 2023, a British regional museum’s decision to change its signage for a Roman coin made international news. It seems unlikely that the North Hertfordshire Museum’s staff expected their choice to refer to the emperor Elagabalus, one of whose coins forms part of the museum’s collection, with she/her pronouns would be reported on by (among others) TIME magazine. Coming as it did, however, in an environment of increasing hostility towards transgender people across the English-speaking world, and especially in the UK, it is no surprise that this change in signage caused significant controversy. It also raised a number of difficult questions about how we as classicists ought to mediate between opposing receptions of the ancient world.This paper will explore the competing and often contradictory receptions of the ancient world revealed by this decision and the responses to it from trans allies, TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists), and professional classicists, before asking how we might make transfeminist readings of classical texts. Since it was the text most commonly cited in reporting on the museum’s decision, and seems to have been the impetus for the pronoun change, this paper concludes by offering a possible transfeminist reading of Cassius Dio’s biography of Elagabalus.
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Renaissance Reception II
Location: Younger Hall, Stewart Room
Chair: Alex McAuley, (University of Auckland)
“Vera, Licita, et Naturalis Magia”: Renaissance Conceptions of Orphica and the Eschenbach Edition of 1689″
Jordi Alonso (Louisiana State University)
This paper examines the evolving reception of Orphica in Renaissance and early modern thought, focusing on Andreas Christian Eschenbach’s 1689 bilingual edition of Orphei Argonautica, Hymni, et de Lapidibus. Bridging Renaissance Neoplatonic interpretations of Orpheus with emergent philological methods, this editio minor reflects the shifting role of classical texts in the intellectual landscape of early modern Europe. Eschenbach’s prefaces, testimonia, and critical notes reveal an effort to reconcile Orpheus’s mythic legacy with scholarly rigor, providing a case study of how classical traditions were both preserved and reimagined during this period.Aligned with the theme of Classical Reception, this paper situates Orphica within the Renaissance fascination with Orpheus as both a historical and mystical figure. Drawing on the works of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, it explores how Orpheus, viewed as a “gentiles’ David,” was central to Renaissance ideas of natural magic and Christian theology. At the same time, Eschenbach’s edition begins to disentangle Orphic texts from mythic attributions, signaling the gradual shift toward a more scientific and critical engagement with antiquity.Ultimately, this paper underscores the significance of how Orphica mediated ancient, magical, and Christian thought for both scholarly and practicing audiences.
Workshop
The Source of the Greek Text of Thomas More and William Lily’s Progymnasmata
Kathryn Simonsen (Memorial University)
In 1987 Alan Cameron argued that Thomas More had owned the manuscript of the Palatine Anthology because More and Lily’s 1518 Progymnasmata included an epigram, not found in the Planudian edition of the Greek Anthology, but instead among the poems added to the front of the Palatine Anthology. Since John Clement, a protégé of More, likely owned that manuscript, Cameron argued that Clement had inherited it from More. While some of Cameron’s suggestions about how the manuscript could have reached More have since been shown to be incorrect, Grantley Mcdonald (2013), supported parts of Cameron’s argument with additional evidence based on the Greek text of the poems. Further study of the Progymnasmata suggests a different situation: More and Lily used the 1503 Aldine edition of the Greek Anthology and something else, but not the Palatine Anthology. Attention should be paid to all translations in the Progymnasmata. In particular, the twelfth entry is a prose text known from a number of sources, including the Apophthegmata of Aristobulus Apostolius. Although the publication of the Apophthegmata is later (1519) than the Progymnasmata, the connection of Erasmus and Apostolius with the Aldine Press may provide an explanation.
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From Greece to Milan and Back Again: The Reception of Epic Narrative Techniques in Milanese Literature
Francesco Sironi (Università degli Studi di Milano / Liceo Statale “Antonio Banfi”)
Italian literature is not only a literature in Italian. The many dialects of Italy are also part of it and lively interact with the production in the national language, often in search of legitimization against or aside the major literary tradition. The reception of Classical literature has often offered a fertile ground for this confrontation. This paper will focus on the reception of epic narrative techniques in Milanese literature, which appears to be particularly lively in this perspective. Two Milanese translations of epic narratives will be considered: Alessandro Garioni’s La Batracomiomachia d’Omero (1793), a Milanese paraphrase of the pseudo-Homeric Battle of Mice and Frogs, and Lorenzo Sant’Ambrogio’s Ratteide Milanese (1831), a rewriting of Theodore Prodromos’ Katomyomachia. The paper will show how epic narrative techniques (especially invocations of the Muses, proems, similes, and typical scenes) are not only transposed from the Greek original into the Milanese works, but also freely used by their authors for various purposes (e.g. to affirm the qualities of Milanese as a literary language; to support Classicism or, on the contrary, Romantic ideas), thus showing how Milanese literature actively and directly derived these narrative devices from the Classical world.
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Learning how to rule with fables: Homer, Aesop and Ovid explained to children in a middle-French adaptation of Erasmus’ Institutio principis christiani (1526)
Angèle Tence (University of Caen Normandie-ERC AGRELITA)
“L’institution du prince chrétien” has been commissioned by Louise de Savoie in 1526 for the three male heirs of Francis I and Claude de France. The translator’s goal is to make the three children remember the moral and philosophical contents of fables. This decorated manuscript contains full-page miniatures illustrating some Aesop’s fables, the story of Phaethon (Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book II) and Ulysses blinding Polyphemus (Homer, Odyssey, IX). It appears that orality plays a key-role in the educational program. I will try to show how the image becomes a mnemonic tool to help the children’s tutor telling a story that is not put in writing. Besides, such pagan “figures” were meant to make the children laugh. At first glance, Phaethon losing the control of the Sun chariot doesn’t sound funny at all. Nevertheless, a huge gap finds it way between the moral content of the fables and the way the anonymous painter depicted them. Images entertain the children pleasantly, preparing them to be more receptive to the “truth” under the “veil”. Therefore, I will demonstrate how such images harkens back to classical rhetoric and to the speaking power of painting that Renaissance artists convoke in their own works.
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Rethinking the Cornelii Scipiones: Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Roman Gens
Location: Younger Hall, Seminar Room 4
Chair: Thomas Biggs, (University of St Andrews)
The Scipios and Capitoline Jupiter: a case study in family identity in the late Roman Republic
Gary Farney (Rutgers University)
The Cornelii were one of the oldest and most prestigious Roman gentes, extended family kinship groups, in Republican Rome. Various members and branches of this family advertise some kind of connection to the supreme deity, Jupiter. The Cornelii Scipiones, Scipio Africanus in particular, took this connection even further, claiming a genealogical tie to the the god and a special relationship with Jupiter Optimus Maximus and his famous temple on the Capitoline hill: he was said to visit the Capitolium regularly to commune with the god and after his death his ancestral death mask, his imago, was kept in the temple. Later members of his family maintained this connection, consistently linking themselves to Jupiter on their coinage, exhibiting their own mystical behavior reminiscent of Africanus, and holding their funerary banquets and funerary processions on the Capitoline hill. Their investment in Jupiter and focus on him as part of their clan identity points to what was probably a widespread phenomenon in Republic: that is, the manipulation of traditional religion by individual families for their own advancement and glorification.
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Like Aeneas, Like Romulus: The pietas of the Cornelii Scipiones
Sarah Prince (University of St Andrews)
The patrician Claudii were arrogant (Cic. Fam. 3.7.5); Manlii were severe fathers (Val. Max. 5.8.3); only a Scipio could bring victory in Africa (Plut. Vit. Caes. 52.2-3, Suet. Iul. 59). A recent study of gens identity and the historiographical tradition by Richardson (2018) has argued that Roman audiences were highly sensitive to pattern, parallels, and repetition. Expectations of ancestral emulation encouraged standardised presentation among members of a gens, both in conscious action and literary tradition. The role of pietas in the presentation and reception of the Cornelii Scipiones has been recognised by Roller (2018) & Farney (2023), and this paper will argue that they maintained a reputation for pietas towards their parents and brothers. Africanus’ rescue of his father at the Battle of Ticinus (218) was explicitly equivocated with Aeneas and Anchises by Silius Italicus, but the exemplary tradition and promotion of this filial pietas was prominent from the 3rd Century. Exempla invite comparison and repetition (Langlands 2018), and so the devotion of Scipio Aemilianus to his parents or Metellus Scipio’s numismatic representation of his father’s achievements, both reasonable conduct and modes of self-presentation, were likely to be viewed as an iteration of genealogical conduct and ingrained traits (Richardson 2018).
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Conflation, Confusion, and Consequences in Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis
Ian Goh (Swansea University)
The Somnium Scipionis (‘Dream of Scipio’), a celebrated fragment of Cicero’s De Re Publica which circulated on its own for centuries, extends Cicero’s late 50s BCE arguments about polity and identity to the cosmic realm. I extend numerous recent analyses that have approached the text from historical and philosophical angles, by focusing on the ways in which Cicero exploits the contextual background of his interlocutors. The Somnium recapitulates the astronomical phenomenon of the dialogue’s opening; we can reassert the playful elements of Cicero’s universalising view and craft of the dramatic scenario. The Somnium set-up itself repeatedly toys with identification as identity; close analysis of the references to contemporary and later political circumstances reveals the use of a technique of deliberate confusion jarringly juxtaposed with revelation. I ponder these problems through a sceptical reading of the episode, culminating with Africanus’ invocations of ‘every man being a deity’ (6.26) as a reference to his family connections with Jupiter.
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Blurred Lines in Scipio’s Sea Crossing
Florence Rogers (University of St Andrews)
In Book 29 of his Ab Urbe Condita, Livy’s representation of Scipio’s sea-crossing to Africa, while appearing providential and reflective of Scipio’s excellence as a general, contains a much more nuanced and potentially negative reading of both Scipio and Rome’s future. Livy illustrates this in various ways, not the least of which is Scipio’s manipulation of sight, belief, and nature. Livy also demonstrates this largely by the introduction, before the commencement of the crossing, of the concept of the voyage as a spectacle, which ties into Livy’s later representations of foggy battle landscapes as spectacles and thus as unreal, deceptive landscapes. Finally, Livy represents this nuance by the presence of fog, which, due to its prior associations, creates a sense of foreboding that is not alleviated simply by Scipio reaching the African shore. Fog is a narratological device which blinds both the reader and the actors in the episode, creating ambiguity. The blindness forces a pause in the narrative, which then commands the reader, against the foreboding backdrop, to consider the wider implications of the episode. These implications include the negative consequences of Scipio’s and thus Rome’s eventual victory against Carthage.
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We Will Rock You II: Interdisciplinary and Methodological Approaches to Epigraphy
Location: Younger Hall, Seminar Room 2
Chair: Sisi Xie, (University of Edinburgh)
Written in Stone: Truth, Post-Truth and Fact in Reading Roman Imperial Inscriptions
Jurriaan Gouw (University of Warwick)
Inscriptions by their very nature as objects inspire a certain sense of immutability and veracity. The ‘Ten Commandments’ were said to have been written on stone tablets, and today the phrase “written in stone” evokes this perpetuity and correctness. The tangibility of physical mediums lends a ‘realness’ that is more easily understood as ‘true’ in comparison to more ephemeral forms of communication. Ancient authors too were well aware of the value tituli could grant their subjects “in aeternitatem” [Plin. HN II.154; Tert. Apol. 50.11]. This paper seeks to examine the way such biases have affected the study of epigraphy both in terms of definition and utility [Macdonald 1998; Panciera 2012]. This has impacted not just the cataloguing of inscriptions and the assumptions made in reconstruction, but also the way they are utilised in broader historical studies. Looking at Roman imperial inscriptions, the paper will reinforce the care that needs to be given to authorial intention and audience when using the information provided. By considering cognitive biases and an approach derived from epistemic philosophy, I will demonstrate that what is ‘real’ in the sense of its existence is not necessarily ‘true’ as a proposition.
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Beyond the Patriarchal Framework: Addressing Gender Bias in Epigraphy
Katharina Korthaus (Scuola IMT Alti Studi Lucca)
The underrepresentation of women in ancient epigraphic records is well acknowledged (Laurence 2007; Sears 2013; Hemelrijk 2013). Tuomo Nuorluoto’s recent study (2023) reaffirms this imbalance, showing that, during the Imperial period, the most common male cognomen appears over three times as often as the most common female one. This has significant consequences: The silences that enter the moment of fact creation in antiquity feed on today’s moments of fact retrieval and the “making of history” (Trouillot 1995). Scholars like Peter Kruschwitz (2010) and Abigail Graham (forthcoming) have shown how epigraphers’ preconceptions may lead to inaccurate readings. As expertise grows, so does our ability to predict – but also the risk of seeing what we expect, thereby reinforcing male-centred interpretations. Despite growing awareness, the intersection of epigraphy and gender bias has received little attention. Exceptions include footnotes on Pompeian graffiti (Lohmann 2017; Zimmermann-Damer 2021) and work by Rachael Helen Banes on Greek graffiti in the Late Antique East (Banes, forthcoming). The issue is crucial, especially when integrating names drawing on quantitative data. This paper offers a critical examination of biases in epigraphic studies, explores how masculine defaults shape readings of fragmentary texts, and proposes methodologies to address these biases.
Workshop
Monumental Exclusions: Domitian’s Unwritten Legacy at Ephesus
Abigail Graham (Institute of Classical Studies)
Monumental erasures in antiquity present fascinating parallels with modern concepts of ‘cancel culture’ as well as a striking sensory phenomenon, but what about removals that left less obvious traces? Roman Ephesus, which flourished under Domitian (81-96 CE), has many erasures and a significant scheme of rival dedications under Trajan (98-117 CE). Many Trajanic benefactors, be they a Roman official (Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus), a local aristocrat (Tiberius Claudius Aristion), an Imperial freedman (Tiberius Claudius Classicus) or a woman (Claudia Trophime), scripted/rescripted their messages to exclude Domitian. These tacit omissions, like monumental erasures and literary sources, emphasise a break from the past. The need to create a rival legacy, however, may obfuscate a key aspect of Domitian’s legacy: continuity in administration and civic participation. Contemporary audiences were aware of this continuity, but how did exclusions impact the perception of future generations? This paper will explore how one might read between the lines of text on the monumental landscape at Ephesus, considering the long-term impact of cancellation culture on our understanding of Domitian’s legacy. To what extent have rivalries been amplified by subsequent emperors, authors and benefactors and how might unwritten or omitted words shape our understanding of history?
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Embodying Late Hellenistic and Roman Epigraphy: A Multisensory Case Study of A Maze Graffito From the House of the Tritons, Delos
Abigail Staub (University of Michigan)
While close analysis and contextual readings of ancient graffiti are increasingly commonplace in Vesuvian settings, Delos remains underutilized. Mantha Zarmakoupi recently authored a chapter on graffiti in late Hellenistic and Roman Delian homes, but her selections are textual, and the engagement is brief. By spatially-contextualizing a labyrinth graffito in the portico of the House of the Tritons, we can strengthen social readings of graffiti beyond the Italian peninsula, adding to the corpus begun by Zarmakoupi. As Benefiel has theorized in Vesuvian settings, graffiti production is highly social, clustering in locations of passage or gathering, where viewers would be enticed to interact with a dialectical wall surface. The maze graffito, unsurprisingly, follows suit.However, I enrich a social reading further with a multisensorial, microhistorical approach, and by considering the complex maze mnemonics used to create a replicable graffito form across the Roman world. The maze, in its totality, is evidence of the intentionally non-illicit, non-haphazard, and highly complex nature of graffiti-image-making. Its precise making required prolonged temporal effort, carefully controlled bodily contortion, and focused attention. Finally, the House of the Tritons’ maze graffito reflects Delos’ participation in a globalized interest in Roman wordplay and game culture.
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