Session 7

Imitating Nature: Art and Inspiration in Democritus and Alcman

Ronald Forero Alvarez (Universidad de La Sabana), Jeniffer Lizeth Fonseca Rivera (Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Universidad de los Andes)

The objective of this presentation is to analyse how fragments from the works of Democritus and Alcman reveal the notion that the imitation of animal behaviour forms the foundation of certain human creations. Both authors provide perspectives in which animals are not merely part of the human natural environment. Democritus posits that human skills such as singing, weaving, and construction originate from observing and imitating animals. This imitative learning aligns with his theory that art, to achieve quality, must not deny divine inspiration and requires a touch of madness. Conversely, Alcman declares in his verses that a poem was composed by imitating the call of partridges. This heuristic-imitative conception of poetic creation portrays the poet as a creator who reworks observations of nature. However, Alcman also invokes the Muses, suggesting that he also envisioned a divine dimension. This implies that the natural and the divine coexist as sources of inspiration. This study concludes that the philosophical and poetic reflections analysed share a perspective that links nature, creativity, and culture through the observation and imitation of animals by humans. This conception reveals an aspect of ancient thought that remains relevant today for understanding the diverse relationships humans can establish with nature.

Paper

The Octopus: An Emblem of Wisdom and a Cautionary Tale

María Antonia Prado Villalba (Universidad de La Sabana), María Antonia Prado Villalba (Universidad de La Sabana)

This article explores how the conception of the octopus in Greek thought gave rise to a diverse range of literary representations reflecting various facets of human nature. It argues that the Greeks employed comparisons between octopuses and men for didactic purposes, offering guidance on leading an optimal life. The octopus captivated the imagination of the ancient Greeks and Romans, leaving its mark on mosaics and pottery, where its image appears prominently. In Greek literature, its adaptable, cunning nature makes it a compelling role model and a cautionary tale about the consequences of excessive cleverness. From fragments of Theognis (213–218) to the lost epics of the Theban Cycle (Ath. 7.317a = Clearch. fr. 75 Wehrli), and as far back as Homer’s Odyssey (5.432), the octopus appears as a clever, resourceful animal whose ability to adapt is depicted as worthy of emulation—a form of wisdom in navigating life. This “changeful disposition,” as Campbell (1983) notes, renders it exemplary in showing how one should conduct oneself. Yet this same intelligence also serves as a warning, notably echoed in Odysseus, whose trickery often places him in morally ambiguous situations. This paper examines these depictions to explore how nature helped the Greeks articulate human complexity.

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Heavenly Dew: Bees and the Divine in Aristotle’s Thought

Andres Felipe Peña Viracacha (Universidad de la Sabana), Ana Marìa Ocampo Campos (Universidad de la Sabana) , Yustinne Cardenas Garay (Universidad de la Sabana)

This paper aims to analyse how Aristotle’s depiction of bees in Historia Animalium reflects divine principles through their association with harmony, order, and purity. By examining their biological and social characteristics, the paper analyses how bees serve as natural exemplars of the eternal and orderly, embodying traits Aristotle considers markers of divinity. Aristotle highlights bees among terrestrial creatures for their hierarchical and cooperative behaviour, distinguishing them biologically by their membranous wings, sacrificial stingers, and a preference for purity—such as avoiding decay and seeking clean water (HA 487a-488a; HA 596b). Their structured communities, governed by a leader and defined by collective labour, lead Aristotle to draw parallels between them and human societal organisation. Beyond their biology, bees symbolize cosmic harmony in Aristotle’s thought. Their reproductive system, marked by a hierarchical caste structure (queens, workers, and drones), embodies mathematical proportionality, which Aristotle considers inherently beautiful and divine, as Lehoux notes (“Why does Aristotle think bees are divine? Proportion, triplicity, and order in the natural world”. BJHS, 52(3), 383–403, 2019). By merging empirical observation with symbolic interpretation, Aristotle not only advanced zoology but also established bees as enduring symbols of cosmic order and divine principles within the natural world.

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Classical Objects in Local Museums

Christine Downton (University of Leicester)

This talk will look at the challenges that objects and collections from classical periods present to historic houses and small (local) museums. Recent events at the British Museum have highlighted some of the problems which occur, even at large institutions, but there are a variety of other issues which affect small museums and historic houses. The first part of the discussion will look at the type of challenges classical objects pose for museums, including: Loss of provenance and contextual informationLack of in-house expertiseMisinterpretation of objects. Sometime deliberate historical (from the person who ‘acquired’ it), sometimes through a lack of expertiseLack of training for specialist objects. Training deals in generalizations due to necessity (sculpture, furniture, paintings) Often these objects are not the focus of a collection, particularly in historic houses. They are essentially niche objects in a wider unrelated collectionProblems of storage vs display: environmental controls, theft, audience engagement. Digitization of collections, which could reveal important information if only they were available to a wider audience. Issues around contested ownership The second part of the discussion will look at potential solutions to these issues.

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Digital Dura: How Linked Open Data is transforming the landscape of archival knowledge

Sophia de Medeiros (International Digital Dura-Europos Archive)

This paper explores the role of Linked Open Data (LOD) in the future of Digital Classics from the perspective of a recent Classics graduate involved in the International Digital Dura-Europos Archive (IDEA) project. Dura-Europos is a particularly significant site due to both its multicultural nature in antiquity and the political dimensions of its excavation history impacted by the French and American presence in Syria. Today, it is a site that stands to gain a lot from digitisation: much of the site has been destroyed, and what was removed from the site has ended up in geographically disparate locations. The same imbalances of power which dictated the circumstances of the site’s excavation determine who has access to the physical and intellectual products of those excavations today, and whose perspectives are reflected in not just historical narratives, but in the digital infrastructure that powers online searches. IDEA is demonstrating how digital approaches can help shift the power dynamics within archaeological archives by de-siloing disciplinary perspectives, speaking back to archival biases, and bringing about more equitable access to the intellectual products of colonially-entangled excavations. This paper will share my experience of the hands-on learning space IDEA provides to build familiarity with LOD methods.

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Video gaming in classical education; the effect of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Origins on post-16 recruitment.

Claire Johnson-Martin (University of Wales Trinity St David/Gower College Swansea)

Current research into video games focused on classics is narrow in scope; authors have tended to focus on what are called “serious”, or specifically educational, games and little scholarly research has been conducted into “non-serious” games, or those designed for entertainment. In regards to the use of video games in classical education, research continues to focus on smaller games, or games that fit specific briefs. My aim is to identify the effectiveness of non-serious games in both engagement and education, with a specific focus on the subject of classics; my research will add an in-depth study of two games that have not been as well documented – Assassin’s Creed; Origins, and Odyssey. The paper will analyse a combination of primary evidence from the period, and also carry out an analysis of primary research conducted in the format of interviews and questionnaires, to address whether the games can be useful in recruiting and educating students in the classical subjects. I hope to suggest that non-serious games have a role to play in classics education; to help recruit students into the subject which I teach. Ultimately this paper aims to contribute to the relatively new and advancing field of gaming in education.

Paper

You’re the one: desire and unity in Achilles Tatius’ syrinx

Leo Boonstra (University of Cambridge)

This paper reads the description and myth of the syrinx (panpipes) in Achilles Tatius’ novel Leucippe and Cleitophon as a reflection on the plurality or singularity of the body and the text. Despite interest in the myth of Syrinx —which echoes versions in Longus and Ovid—this myth is seldom read alongside the technical description of the instrument which precedes it. When read in this manner, a shared emphasis of both the myth and the description is the status of the syrinx as a singular instrument, while at the same time emphasis is placed on its constitution out of several reeds. Furthermore, the language used of the syrinx hovers between the bodily and the textual. Therefore, the syrinx is a privileged object through which to think about the constituted “wholes” of bodies and texts; is the text one unity or many signifying fragments? Is the body a single object or a composite of parts and investments? Ultimately, the syrinx reveals a desire for textual and bodily unity, even in the face of multiplicity and fragmentation.

Paper

Driven by Curiosity: The Relationship between Polypragmosunè and Story-interpretation in the Pseudo-Clementines

Benjamin De Vos (Ghent University)

This paper addresses the further need for interdisciplinary studies within the fields of biblical narrative, ancient narrative, and Jewish and Christian narratives, by focusing on the Greek Pseudo-Clementines as a unique expression of Christian novelistic prose fiction. It has been argued too often in the past that the Pseudo-Clementine novel adopted the narrative framework of recognition scenes from the Greek novel in order to attract the reader (delectare) – hence the Pseudo-Clementine novel has received little to no attention in secondary literature about ancient novelistic literature. This neglect is undeserved. This paper addresses the topic of story-telling and story-interpretation, in particular regarding the motif of curiosity. Although the recognition scenes are framed as the result of divine providence, the immediate catalyst of the various recognition scenes is a form of curiosity, periergia (περιεργία) or polypragmosunè (πολυπραγμοσύνη) regarding story-telling. This curiosity is noted in the case of the apostle Peter, who becomes intrigued by a deformed lady sitting at the temple entrance and who had departed from any once physically beautiful form (Klem. 12.14.3-4). Peter’s interest is directed towards other people’s affairs, including their stories and misfortunes.

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“Myrtle and Ivy: Myth and Poetry in the Natural World of Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe”

Seraphina Vasilodimitrakis-Hart (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)

This paper examines the subtextual and metatextual roles of plants and the natural world in Longus’ romantic novel, Daphnis and Chloe, with context drawn from Theocritus’ Idylls. The countryfolk of Daphnis and Chloe exhibit some knowledge of the Olympic pantheon, but religion is conspicuously absent from the novel.The centrality of the natural world ensures the implicit presence of the gods of the pantheon who are neglected in the novel. Many gods are associated with natural spaces, and one or more sacred flowers or plants. This association with natural spaces means the natural world and its florae replace the gods who are not represented or worshipped in the novel. In place of the explicit presence of the gods and myths, the novel focuses on pastoral themes and on nature as embodiment of divinity. Specific plants like myrtle, laurel, hyacinth, and ivy comprise a referential code that brings gods and myths from the neglected tradition into the subtext of the novel. Longus limits the number of myths his characters tell and exaggerates his characters’ ignorance of Eros to emphasize their bucolic innocence. By de-emphasizing the role of religion, the natural world is idealized and nature itself presents as divine.

Paper

Mind your satirical mouth! Dangerous Speech in Juvenal Satire 10

David Larmour (Texas Tech University)

It is often argued that Juvenal’s Satire 10 advocates moving away from indignatio to a more “philosophical” contemplation of human vices. This paper argues against the notion of a fundamental “re-set” in Satire 10, via its reprise of a primary theme of Satire 1, the dangers of speech. As Satire 10 systematically rejects all the foolish things humans crave, it is striking how many of the exempla have to do with the dangers of speech torrens dicendi copia multis / et sua mortifera est facundia (9-10). I shall focus here on two segments of Satire 10: the downfall of Sejanus (56-113) and the famed eloquence of Demosthenes and Cicero (114-32). While the fate of Sejanus exemplifies the folly of seeking a powerful position, the narrative relies heavily on the need for vigilance in what one says when being overheard. This leads into Demosthenes and Cicero whose rhetorical skills doomed them (eloquio sed uterque perit orator, 118). These and other verbal echoes and images alluding to the prominent concerns of Satire 1 suggest that Satire 10 offers merely an illusory reset, with the same anxieties about giving voice in dangerous times underpinning the “new” approach. Times do not in fact change.

Paper

Virgil’s toad

Miguel Mangini (Trinity College Dublin)

One of the animals in Virgil’s catalogue of threshing-floor pests (Georgics 1.181-6) is the inuentus cauis bufo (‘the bufo found in burrows’). The term has been glossed as either ‘large toad’ or ‘field-mouse’, but Virgil’s meaning remains uncertain, as the word happens only here in Classical Latin. I re-evaluate this age-old question in two ways: initially, I discuss whether a word meaning ‘toad’ or ‘field-mouse’ fits as a grain pest, for which I touch upon how such animals were perceived in antiquity, e.g. toads were highly poisonous and used in rituals; secondly, I examine the usage in Latin for frogs, common rana, and toads, the low-currency [rana] rubeta, to investigate why Virgil employs neither here. I argue for ‘toad’, supported by a passage in Pliny (HN 18.158) in which this animal is used in a farm ritual, proving a connection between toads and farming fields; moreover, ‘toad’, instead of ‘shrew’, makes for a more varied list, which already contains a mouse. Finally, I suggest that the stylistic effect of using bufo rather than rubeta is lending a ‘rural colouring’ to the passage, as this is a loan-word from a Sabellian language and unfamiliar to the literary Latin of the City.

Paper

Nec Se Roma Ferens: The Identity Crisis of Empire in Book 1 of De Bello Civili

Colton Levi (Texas Tech University)

This paper addresses how in book 1 of De Bello Civili Lucan uses descriptions of the farm to emphasize the loss of self that Rome suffers through imperialistic expansion. In book 1, Lucan suggests that Rome’s magnitude has caused its inevitable collapse, yet he fails to offer a reason. Lucan’s view of the farm, however, potentially offers some clarity. He depicts the land in poor health and attempts to draw attention emphatically to the neglect the land has suffered. Lucan considers this land a storehouse for Roman identity, and he can make the correlation that, like the land, the Roman state was neglected in its expansion. Additionally, Lucan offers another picture of the farm where expansion is explicitly a theme. Addressing the latifundia, he claims Romans have overextended, joining together various land boundaries. Moreover, foreign tenet-farmers occupy the farmland, not Romans. These lines together offer a perspective on Lucan’s issue with empire and expansion. By taking the farm as a metaphor for the self, we see that Rome has ignored itself, spending the majority of its time constructing a massive ‘estate’ managed by non-Romans. Thus, Lucan suggests Roman self-identity weakened with empire, as it projected outwards most of its energy.

Paper

Juno and Jupiter as siblings in Statius’ Thebaid

Carmen Van der Aa (University College London)

While Juno and Jupiter’s roles as husband and wife often dominate interpretations, this study foregrounds their sibling bond as a lens for examining power, loyalty, and gender. Statius’ Thebaid presents numerous representations of kinship and is fertile for analysis of the dynamics of siblinghood. This paper explores the complex interplay between kinship and gender, which shapes Juno and Jupiter’s sibling bond in ways that reflect broader cultural anxieties around authority and hierarchy. Key questions include: How does the brother-sister relationship inform our understanding of divine power and familial duty in Roman epic? In what ways does Statius’ portrayal build upon, yet diverge from, earlier literary models? My analysis relies on close reading of passages including the Council of the Gods in Book 1, the peplum ekphrasis in Book 9 and Juno’s intervention in Book 12. This paper suggests that divine sibling bonds function as more than narrative devices. Instead, they offer critical insights into the intersections of gender, power, and familial loyalty in the epic tradition. This analysis seeks to enrich our understanding of the Thebaid, a poem that not only reflects its literary antecedents but also introduces new layers to the portrayal of sibling dynamics in the Latin canon.

Paper

Festering Wounds, Mental Torment, Physical Imperfections: Purity and Roman Priests

Alex Antoniou (University of Glasgow)

Roman notions of bodily and mental integrity have recently come to the foreground through the body of scholarship which considers Roman conceptions of disability (e.g. Laes 2018; Trentin 2013). These studies commonly stress that disability was a fundamental reality in Roman life, across all strata of society. Against this background of day-to-day life, over a century ago Georg Wissowa (1912) suggested that Roman priests were expected to be physically exceptional: that ‘physical flawlessness’ (‘körperliche Fehlerlosigkeit’) was fundamental to Roman understandings of their priests (491). Whilst Wissowa’s conclusions have more recently been challenged (Morgan 1974), this paper seeks to re-examine the evidence which suggests that there were expectations for the bodily perfection of Rome’s priests. Not only does this paper suggest that there were expectations for the physical perfection of a handful of Rome’s priests (especially Vestals, augurs, and pontiffs), at least in the late republic and early empire, but that there were also limited expectations for their mental purity as well. This paper seeks to draw out the importance of these conclusions for our understanding of the exceptionalism of Rome’s priests, in ways which challenge our limited conceptualisations of the distinctions between Rome’s priests, magistrates and senators.

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The Song of Nature. Medicine as teleological mysticism in Galen of Pergamon

Enrico Piergiacomi (Technion | Israel Institute of Technology)

This research starts from the 17 books of Galen’s On the Usefulness of Parts, which defend divine teleology or the idea that the parts of the animals display specific functions because they are so created by the mind of god. By doing so, he excludes in principle the opposite belief of atomistic mechanicism (= that parts of animal are the outcome of the combinations of atoms in the void) and reveals some “mysteries” about the order of the cosmos / the structure of living beings. Particularly interesting is the end of the 17th book, where the entire treatise is considered a “song” to the Artifex of nature.My principal aim is to focus on this aesthetic closure and argue it must not be read as a mere metaphor. Galen wants deliberately to present medicine as a means for the knowledge of animality and the divine: a rational form of mysticism that reveals scientifically the presence of the mysterious activity of divinity in biology and its beauty. Such research is interdisciplinary in its spirit, for it tries to study the possible positive relationship between theology and medical thought, mysticism and logic or science.

Paper

Speaking metaphors (Or how ancient patients would represent their body and suffering)

Carlo Delle Donne (University of Salerno)

Paper cancelled

Hearing, Sounds, and the Environment in the Hippocratic Corpus

Jurgen R Gatt (University of Malta)

This paper investigates how hearing—and sense-perception more broadly—is shaped by environmental factors in the Hippocratic Corpus. Several treatises, including Regimen, On Fleshes, Sacred Disease, and Places in Man, offer physiological accounts of hearing that situate perception within a broader framework of environmental interaction. Despite differences in detail, these accounts share a crucial feature: they posit air as the medium through which sensation occurs, rendering hearing an internal motion that depends on a corresponding external one. Illness disrupts this alignment, producing pathological perception when internal processes become disconnected from environmental stimuli. This model is most explicit in Sacred Disease, where inhaled pneuma governs both sensation and cognition, the disruption of which causes seizures characterized by insensitivity. This idea reappears in On Places in Man, whose author suggests that aerial phenomena (including words) are converted into sounds and even language within the brain. Such views reflect a broader understanding of perception as a porous boundary between organism and environment. By examining the references to hearing in the Hippocratic texts, this paper argues that auditory perception is not merely a physiological function but part of a wider explanatory paradigm—climatic determinism—which dissolves the distinctions between body, mind, and world.

Paper

Becoming Roman in Ennius’ Annales

Jesse Hill (University of Edinburgh)

Ennius famously claimed that he had tria corda – Greek, Oscan, and Latin hearts. Patrick Glauthier has argued that this image is emblematic of the larger conception of identity within the Annales, whereby, far from superseding other cultural identities, one’s Romanness is able to exist alongside, even embrace and include one’s separate ethnic selves. According to Glauthier, Ennius advances a vision of Roman identity that is expansive and multiple.My paper argues that this is not the only vision of Roman identity on offer in the Annales. I suggest that, even as he proudly welcomes it, Ennius – the immigrant from Apulia – at times conceptualises ‘Romanisation’ as an alienating force: one becomes Roman and therefore in part loses one’s local self. Following the lead of Jackie Elliott, then, we might say that the Annales offer us both ‘pessimistic’ and ‘optimistic’ visions of Roman identity: Ennius’ tria corda embody the optimistic ideal, his singular cor Romanum the pessimistic worry.I argue my case by reading Ann. 34–50, 72–91, and 525 alongside the material record of Apulia, suggesting that epic and landscape together tell a story of cultural loss – of the epistemicide (cf. Dan-el Padilla Peralta) that Roman conquest visited upon Ennius’ local community.

Paper

A New Conjecture in Ennius’ Alexander

Melina McClure (Oxford)

This paper will present a new conjecture for one of the most desperate textual cruxes of Ennian tragedy, the fragment of Ennius’ Alexander found at Festus, p. 240.14 (Lindsay = fr. 65 Jocelyn = 17 TrRF) in the very damaged Codex Festi Farnesianus. Because of the extremely corrupt nature of the fragment, it has been all but shelved from scholarly discussion in recent decades, and has been approached by neither textual critic nor literary critic for some time now—there are currently no persuasive textual emendations or productive literary interpretations of the fragment, and no convincing suggestions for the context within the play where the fragment might have fit. Using intertextual, stylistic, and metrical analysis, supported by discussion of the relevant Sophoclean and Euripidean plays on the subject of Alexander, I will first propose a new reading of the fragment and then explore the implications of this reading on our current understanding of the structure of the play, locating the fragment not only within a specific scene, but within a specific moment—and one of especial structural importance.

Paper

Naevius’ ‘Epitaph’, Andronicus’ ‘Odyssia’, and Interdiscursive Approaches to Early Latin Literature

Thomas Biggs (University of St Andrews)

This paper revisits the ‘Epitaph’ for the poet Gnaeus Naevius preserved by Aulus Gellius (NA 1.24.1–2; FRL VI Varia F3). Against the current scholarly consensus that the work is a post-Ennian throwback in the nostalgic style of the so-called Carmen Priami, it argues that 1) Naevius could very well have composed the work, which is the view held by Gellius (ab ipso dictum esset) and the occasional modern scholar; and 2) that the poem could predate Livius Andronicus’ Odyssia. A close reading of the text supports the first claim. Concerning the second, a thorough reassessment of extant evidence for the dating of Latin’s first authors suggests two poets whose compositional timelines overlap completely and offer scholars nothing but fuzzy temporal anchors. The implications of claim 2) are particularly far reaching. The famous choice of Camena for Musa in Fragment 1 of the Odyssia is considered a watershed moment in Roman literature. What if the divae Camenae who mourn Naevius’ passing in the ‘Epitaph’ came first? In closing, the paper entertains the benefits of ‘interdiscursivity’ for the interpretation of Latin’s earliest poems, which emerge simultaneously and partake of a more collective genesis than traditional modes of literary history have embraced.

Paper

Epigrams and scoptic verses in Lucilius and the other Republican Satirists

Martina Farese (Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza’)

In Lucilius’ writing career, the use of the elegiac couplet, the signature metre of epigrammatic production, constitutes a sort of middle ground, both chronologically and thematically, between a more archaic, polymetric, so to speak ‘comic’ kind of Satire and the more refined and defined hexametric Satire. Very few fragments remain of Lucilius’ satirical compositions in distichs, but we know that Ennius had already made use of the form of the epigram, albeit not satirically, and that other republican satirists had sometimes returned to the metrical structure of the elegiac couplet.I intend to offer an overview of the attestations of the elegiac couplet in Roman Republican Satire and put forward some observations on what the use of this metrical structure might entail, both stylistically and thematically, in their work and how, more generally, it might affect the satirical discourse: while, on a structural level, the epigrammatic phase certainly seems to constitute a preliminary stage to the establishment of the hexameter as the metre for Satire, in terms of subject matter, the epigrammatic writing may have contributed to Satire’s involvement in issues such as Literary statements and controversies, Biography and matters pertaining to the personal life of the author.

Paper

Teaching Reading Skills in the Latin Classroom – A Workshop

Jacqueline Carlon (University of Massachusetts Boston), Skye Shirley (University College London)

After a quick survey of SLA research on the processes involved in fluent reading, this interactive workshop will involve participants in various activities that focus on the utilization of specific skills needed for reading a Latin text. These will begin with introductory exercises that teach bottom-up strategies, like word recognition, guessing, and identifying syntax; the workshop then moves on to the use of top-down strategies like predicting, scanning, recognizing discourse structure, phrasing, building comprehension, and developing metacognitive awareness, all of which are critical for fluent reading. The goal is to provide a toolbox of activities and approaches that teachers can immediately take back to their classrooms.

Workshop

Impressions of power: Roman emperors in Doliche

Timo Kulartz (University of Münster)

The ancient city of Doliche stands at a cultural crossroad, where regional commagenian traditions blend with Hellenistic and Roman influences, giving rise to a unique form of religious and administrative expression. The city’s prominence grew due to the nearby sanctuary of Jupiter Dolichenus. The importance of this cult for the city itself, as well as its impact on conceptions of local identity is difficult to trace. However, the presence of the Roman emperor on seal impressions from Doliche —appearing sporadically yet persistently over centuries until the city’s destruction in 253 CE— indicates a complex, evolving relationship between local and supra-regional identities. These seal impressions may serve as markers of Doliche’s cultural identity within a globalized Roman Empire. Drawing from my ongoing Master’s thesis, this paper seeks to catalog this group of seal impressions and investigate whether they reflect personal agency among Dolichean individuals adapting to Roman authority or rather the imposition of Roman influence on Doliche’s cultural tradition. A layered decontextualization of the seal impressions adds considerable complexity to their interpretation, but the imagery of Roman emperors may elucidate the city’s role as a supra-regional cultic center within the empire and broader questions about identity formation in the Roman East.

Paper

Building Materials as Agents of Change. Concrete Construction in Northern Syria

Fynn Riepe (University of Bergen)

This paper will examine the topic of building materials, their distribution, use and change during the Roman Principate. The investigation will concentrate on Roman concrete in northern Syria up until the 250s CE. The paper will present the preliminary findings of my doctoral research project, which has two primary foci. The initial objective is to present, for the first time, a comprehensive account of the dissemination and utilisation of Roman concrete in northern Syria. This will provide, an overview of the circumstances under which the material was used in construction processes throughout the region, and how this changed during the Principate period. From this, it is possible to interpret the underlying cultural and social currents, employing assemblage theory to better understand, the impact and other reciprocal effects exerted by the material itself. The contribution shall present initial findings regarding the dissemination of Roman concrete in northern Syria, delineating the contexts in which the material has been identified. The paper will thus demonstrate how Roman concrete transformed the regional building tradition, giving rise to a new architectural language that, in turn, had a formative impact on the cultural and social practices of northern Syria.

Paper

Temples with apses. Architecture and Empire in Roman Syria

Michael Blömer (University of Münster)

During the Roman Imperial period, Syria experienced a remarkable surge in urban and rural development, marked by extensive building activity, urbanization, and the rise of monumental architecture. A distinct Syrian architectural style began to emerge, shaped by the interaction between local traditions and wider Mediterranean influences—especially evident in religious architecture. Temples with apses exemplify this synthesis. These were long thought to be limited to southern Syria, at sites such as Burqush, Rahle, Al-Sanamayn, Slim, Mismiyeh, and Kedesh. Further north, Palmyra’s Baalshamin temple also features an apse and side rooms. Such structures adapt Near Eastern temple layouts, notably with a prominent adyton housing cult statues.The 2021 discovery of a monumental apsidal temple at Doliche in northern Syria offers a new perspective on this architectural form and prompts fresh questions about the role of Roman influence in its development. Rather than viewing Syrian architecture through the lens of Romanization alone, this talk explores how the Roman Empire fostered cultural exchange, enabling diverse architectural expressions. Reframing the apse as a product of local and imperial interaction, this study highlights the dynamic processes of identity formation and cultural integration in Roman Syria.

Paper

Alexander taming Bucephalus in Edinburgh

Isabel Hood (N/A)

First exhibited in Edinburgh in 1833, the sculpture group Alexander and Bucephalus created a sensation and established the reputation of its early career sculptor, John Steell. While much lauded, it took over fifty years, and a public subscription, for the full-size sculpture to be finally cast in bronze and presented to Edinburgh in 1884. By this time Steell had become the most eminent and prolific sculptor in Scotland. Many of his works are still the most famous sculptures in Edinburgh (though he himself is now far less remembered). His statue of Alexander taming Bucephalus has been largely forgotten, but its permanent establishment was a major civic occasion, and it also gave rise to other versions, with a number of miniature statuettes of it being produced.That Alexander and Bucephalus is not better known within the ‘Athens of the North’ is a shame. This paper is intended to raise awareness of the sculpture group and to encourage more visits to it by discussing the history. In doing so, it touches upon some outstanding debates around subject choice and reference material, and more modern controversies. Did Steell purposely make a pig’s ear of it?

Paper

Reclaiming Scotia

Erlend Myklebust (University of Oslo)

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a scholarly debate raged between a number of Irish and Scottish scholars on the meaning of the Latin terms Scoti and Scotia in medieval sources. Although there is no doubt that the term originally referred to Ireland and the Irish, including the Irish settlers in present-day Scotland, some Scottish scholars claimed the term for their own people, thereby also claiming the many saints and scholars referred to as Scoti in medieval sources. The seventeenth century saw multiple fierce attacks on Irish culture and history as part of the British ‘reconquest’ of the island, and in an attempt to defend their history, some Irish authors took to writing historical treaties contesting the negative presentations of Scottish and English writers. An important topic in these treaties became how to understand the notion of Scoti, as this lay the basis for the use of all medieval sources on the Irish. My paper will discuss some Irish texts dealing with this debate and what sources they use in arguing for the Irish interpretation of Scoti. It will further focus on the perhaps most heated single debate relating to the term, namely the nationality of John Duns Scotus.

Paper

Scottish Macaronic Poetics: the Polemo Middinia

Carole Newlands (University of Colorado Boulder), Frances Myatt (University of Oxford)

Scottish literature often reveals a pawky vein of humour, and Scottish classical texts are no exception, as seen in the seventeenth-century Polemo Middinia. This mock-epic subverts genre and gender to recount a battle waged between Fife noblewomen over property rights around the shifting of manure. The language is equally comic, as in macaronic style vernacular words are given Latin endings to create a humorous hybrid of English, Scots and Latin, with lines such as “Lobster monifootus in undis /creepat.” The Polemo first circulated anonymously, although was suspected to be the work of the distinguished seventeenth-century poet William Drummond. Then, in 1691, Oxford student Edmund Gibson increased its popularity by publishing a spoof commentary on the poem. But is the Polemo simply a clever, scatological riff on epic? Or does it have a serious undertow?This joint paper by Carole Newlands and Frances Myatt will suggest that the Polemo is a comic and pertinent response to a period of cultural and political crisis in Scotland. Furthermore, the paper will also include an adaption of the Polemo in praise of St. Andrews, concluding by considering how such creative exercises in macaronic verse can contribute to classical research and pedagogy.

Paper

Teaching Latin in Scottish Schools 1300 – 2025

Jennifer Shearer (Kirkcaldy High School (ret.))

Latin is the only subject to have been taught in Scottish schools continuously for almost 8 centuries, right up to the modern day. I have been a Latin teacher for forty years in the Scottish state system and, in that time, I have seen many changes in the delivery of Latin in the classroom.However, forty years of Latin teaching is a drop in the educational ocean and so, in this paper, I would like to go back to the very beginning of teaching Latin and review its provision for Scottish learners, starting with the church schools in the early Middle Ages, and then the various pivotal education acts throughout the later Middle Ages, designed to encourage the study of Latin in Scottish state schools.I will assess the reasons for the decline of Latin learning in schools at the end of the 18th Century, and then Latin’s resurgence in the 19th Century. I will give a personal assessment of the various initiatives in the 20th and 21st Centuries to promote the learning of Latin by individuals, organisations, and the UK and Scottish Governments. I will conclude with a summary of Latin provision within the Scottish curriculum as at 2025.

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How can we teach Latin in Scottish primary schools?

Mary O’Reilly (Hamilton College)

This presentation will describe the development of a resource for the provision of Latin teaching in primary schools in Scotland as a pilot programme in collaboration with the Classical Association of Scotland. Considering the place of Latin within the Languages section of Curriculum for Excellence, I will discuss some of the challenges facing the introduction of Latin at primary level, looking at the arrangements of Scotland’s 1+2 Language policy and the wider landscape of L2 and L3 language provision. I will outline some of the considerations which shaped the design of the resource and challenges in setting up the pilot scheme. I will discuss the feedback received from teachers and pupils and include some reflections on how the resource might be adapted to incorporate some of the suggestions, relating to cultural expectations of learning Latin, level of language content and digital activities. I will consider how approaches used in teaching other languages might be embraced in the teaching of Latin and will conclude by considering the value of building a course which sets Latin in a local context of ‘Romans in Scotland’ and the links which could be forged with museums and historical sites to support this.

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Scottish Teachers’ Network: Classical Education in Scottish Schools

Lee Baker (St Aloysius’ College)

Classical subjects, once a staple of nearly every secondary school in Scotland, have experienced a marked decline since the 1980s, with Latin now taught in only a few state schools. The discontinuation of Classical Greek as an examinable subject by the SQA in 2015 has further limited access. However, the past decade has seen a resurgence in Classical Studies, particularly through its integration into social studies or English departments by non-specialist teachers. This paper will assess the current state of classical subjects in Scottish secondary schools, identifying areas of strength and addressing gaps. It will also propose strategies for enhanced collaboration between schools and universities, with a particular focus on improving progression pathways for Latin and related disciplines.

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