Promoting Latin Internets Style:The Series I
About a month ago we first caught wind of and shared a summer Latin course ad created by Serena Witzke and Ted Gellar-Goad … in subsequent conversations, it turns out the ad was part of a series, so for the next few days we’ll be featuring a couple of them a day for your enjoyment and inspiration. This one was the original (click for larger versions):
credit: @serenawitzke and @thmggphd
… and here’s another:
credit: @serenawitzke and @thmggphd
… more tomorrow …
CONF: Structure and scale of Roman urban economies: the case of Pompeii
Seen on the Classicists list:
Registration is now open for the conference ‘Structure and scale of Roman urban economies: the case of Pompeii’ that will take place in Oxford on 29-30 June, co-organized by the Oxford Roman Economy Project and the Network on Structural Determinants of Economic Performance in the Roman World (Flandres).
The conference brings together Pompeii specialists and leading economic historians of the Roman world to explore what Pompeii’s unique remains have to offer to the larger debates about structure and scale in the Roman economy. The topic will be approached from a variety of angles, with papers addressing issues of commerce, manufacturing, trade, transport, agriculture, finance and living standards. A wide array of evidence will be covered, including shops, workshops, the street network, villas, coins, wax-tablets, and archaeobotanical remains.
Confirmed speakers include: Wim Broeckaert (Gent), Philippe Borgard (Aix), Steven Ellis (Cincinnati), Miko Flohr (Oxford), Richard Hobbs (British Museum), Willem Jongman (Groningen), Estelle Lazer (Sydney), Nicolas Monteix (Rouen), Eric Poehler (UMass Amherst), Nick Ray (Leicester), Damian Robinson (Oxford), Erica Rowan (Oxford), Ferdinando de Simone (Oxford), Koen Verboven (Gent), and Andrew Wilson (Oxford). You can download the complete conference program on our website: http://oxrep.classics.ox.ac.uk/oxrep/index.php?t=13&pg=115.
Attendance of the conference is free, but in order for us to plan numbers please register through miko.flohr AT classics.ox.ac.uk before June 15th.
CFP: Olympic Athletes: Ancient and Modern
Seen on the Classicists list:
The School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics
at the University of Queensland
presentsA Conference on Olympic Athletes: Ancient and Modern
Date: (Friday-Sunday) 6-8 July 2012
Place: University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, Australia.Speakers include: Prof. Mark Golden (Winnipeg), Prof. Christoph Ulf (Innsbruck), Prof. Matthew
Trundle (Auckland)Second Call for Papers
Papers are invited for a conference on ‘Olympic Athletes: Ancient and Modern’, which will be held
at the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, Australia, from 6-8 July 2012.The theme can be interpreted fairly broadly, but there is a particular desire to assemble papers
which analyse the Olympic experience of athletes from the ancient and the modern games. What
was / is special about Olympic competition and Olympic athletes? Who were / are the great
Olympic athletes? Why?All speaking slots will be 30 minutes in duration (20 for paper, 10 for questions). Please send
offers of papers, plus a 100-word abstract, to Dr. Tom Stevenson (t.stevenson AT uq.edu.au) by
Friday 22 June 2012 (note extended deadline).Full details on the conference, including the online registration form, are available at:
http://www.uq.edu.au/hprc/olympic-athletes-conferenceEnquiries about the conference should be directed to Dr. Tom Stevenson (t.stevenson AT uq.edu.au)
for the organizers.
CONF: Thucydides our Contemporary? Bristol, 28th-29th June
Seen on the Classicists list:
Thucydides our Contemporary?
An international and interdisciplinary conference, Burwalls, University of Bristol, 28th-29th June
The full programme is now available at
http://www.bris.ac.uk/classics/thucydides/conference/
There are still a few places available for colleagues or postgraduate students to attend; please contact Neville Morley (n.d.g.morley AT bris.ac.uk) as soon as possible, and certainly by 15th June.
There is also a public lecture on Friday 29th by Hunter R. Rawlings, President of the American Universities Association, on ‘A Possession for All Time? How and why Thucydides still matters’. Attendance is free to all, but you are requested to let us know if you’re coming at
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pace/public-lectures/rawlings.html.
Philology and Empire: Network on Ancient & Modern Imperialisms
Seen on the Classicists list:
"Philology and Empire, 1700-1900".
University of Reading
Wednesday
27 June 2012The years from 1700 to 1900 are a crucial period for the development of scholarly philology and imperial expansion. This relationship between philology and empire was studied anew in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and the time seems ripe to build on these developments. We explore the findings of such scholars as Martin Bernal, Pascale Casanova, Maurice Olender, Sheldon Pollock, and Edward Said. Our focus is on the study of ancient languages, whether Greek or Sanskrit, Hebrew or Latin. We construe philology broadly: we take it to encompass more than linguistic analysis and think of philology as the study of ancient languages in their historical, social, and cultural contexts. A central feature of the conference will be its comparative framework, bringing together scholars who work on a variety of languages, literatures, and histories.
The conference is organized in conjunction with the Department of Classics (Reading) and the Network on Ancient and Modern Imperialisms.
PHILOLOGY AND EMPIRE,
1700 to 190010.30 am
Registration10.45 am
“Introduction”
Phiroze Vasunia (Reading)11 am
“Philology for God and Country”
Simon Goldhill (Cambridge)
Chair: Katherine Harloe (Reading)12 noon
“William Gladstone and the Parrot: Latin in Nineteenth Century British West Africa”
Barbara Goff (Reading)
Chair: Esther Mijers (Reading)1 pm to 2.15 pm
Lunch2.15 pm
“Women, Sanskrit, and the Memories of Empire: Gender and Classical Language in the Freedom Movement of India”
Laurie Patton (Duke University)
Chair: Edith Hall (King’s College London)3.15 pm
“The Question of Philology in Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India”
Javed Majeed (King’s College London)
Chair: Alison Donnell (Reading)4.15 pm to 4.45 pm
Tea & coffee4.45 pm to 5.45 pm
“Making the Grade: Classical Philology and the Totally Administered Society”
Daniel L. Selden (UC Santa Cruz)
Chair: Johannes Haubold (Durham)5.45 pm to 6.15 pm
Response & discussion
Pedro López Barja de Quiroga (Santiago de Compostela)
and Tim Whitmarsh (Oxford)6.15 pm
ReceptionConference Location: Palmer Building, Room 105
There is no fee. If you would like to attend, please register your interest by writing to the organizer, Phiroze Vasunia, at p.vasunia AT reading.ac.uk.
An interdisciplinary conference sponsored by the Department of Classics; the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Science; the Network on Ancient and Modern Imperialisms, at the University of Reading; and the Jowett Copyright Trust (Oxford).
JOB: Lecturer in Greek and Latin at King’s College London (3 Years)
Seen on the Classicists list:
The Department of Classics at King’s College London is appointing to a three-year Lectureship in Greek and Latin Language and Literature.
The lecturer to be appointed should have been awarded a doctoral degree in the relevant field, or be close to submission of the doctoral thesis; proven research quality is required and the lecturer is expected to make a full contribution to the Department’s REF submission, appropriate to the appointee’s academic status and experience.
Candidates should specialise in any aspect of Greek and Latin language and literature. The lecturer will be expected to contribute flexibly to the teaching of Greek and Latin at BA and MA level. Supervision of undergraduate and MA dissertations will also be expected. An established record of effective teaching, at least to undergraduate level, is highly desirable. Fuller details of departmental courses and teaching can be found on the Department website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/classics/ug.
The lecturer will undertake administrative duties as required by the Head of Department, which are likely to include acting as a personal tutor.
The closing date for applications is 21st June 2012
Interviews are scheduled for 12th/13th July.
The appointment will be made at grade 6 on the Lecturer scale, £31,020 to £37,012 (plus £2,323 London Allowance), according to qualifications and experience.
Post duration 3 years
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pertra/vacancy/external/pers_detail.php?jobindex=11811
ED: Vivarium Novum Academy Scholarships
This looks interesting:
Announcement of Competition
Latin, Greek and Humanities at the Academy Vivarium Novum in Rome – Italy
Academic year 2012-2013The Academy Vivarium Novum is offering ten full tuition scholarships for high school students of the European Union (16-18 years old) and ten full tuition scholarships for University students (18-24 years old) of any part of the world. The scholarships will cover all of the costs of room, board, teaching and didactic materials for courses to be held from October 8, 2012 until June 15, 2013 on the grounds of the Academy’s campus at Rome.
Application letters must be sent to info AT vivariumnovum.it by June 30th in order to receive consideration.
A good knowledge of the fundamental of Latin and Greek is required.
The courses will be as follows:
Latin language (fundamental and advanced)
Greek language (fundamental and advanced)
Latin composition
Roman History
Ancient Latin literature
History of ancient Philosophy
Renaissance and Neo-Latin literature
Latin and Greek music and poetry
Classics reading seminarsThe goal is to achieve a perfect command of both Latin and Greek through a total immersion in the two languages. All the classes will be conducted in Latin, except for Greek classes which will be conducted in Greek.
In the letter the prospective student should indicate the following:
1. Full name;
2. Date and location of birth;
3. What school you currently attend;
4. How long you have studied Latin and/or Greek;
5. Which authors and works you have read;
6. Other studies and primary interests outside of school.In addition, please attach a recent passport/ID photograph.
(For more information about the Academy, you may visit the website www.vivariumnovum.net.)
Emperors of Rome: Julius Nepos
We’re almost at the end … Adrian Murdoch continues the series with a guy who is often seen as the last emperor of the West:
Classical Words of the Day
- enjoin (Wordsmith)
- putative (OED)
- histrionics (Dictionary.com)
A dabbling of Latinitas:
nuntiare: to announce: verb. Example sentence:Hostibus appropinquantibus senatus Cincinnato nuntiavit eum factum… bit.ly/KZqWbd—
Latin Language (@latinlanguage) June 04, 2012
This Day in Ancient History: nonas junias
nonas junias
Portrait of Socrates. Marble, Roman artwork (1st century), perhaps a copy of a lost bronze statue made by Lysippos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
470/469 B.C. — birth of Socrates (according to one estimate)
466 B.C. — dedication of the Temple of Dius Fidius … a.k.a. Semo Sancus (and associated rites thereafter)
17 B.C. — ludi Latini et Graeci honorarii (day 1)
204 A.D. — ludi Latini et Graeci honorarii (day 2)
Like this:
Blogosphere ~ Review of Sperber, Greek in Talmudic Palestine
PaleoJudaica.com: Review of Sperber, Greek in Talmudic Palestine.
Blogosphere ~ Ancient and Modern
Friends of Classics ~ Ancient & Modern: 26th May 2012.
Blogosphere ~ Duke professor leaves classroom, hopes to restore importance of language, history, literature
Friends of Classics News: Duke professor leaves classroom, hopes to restore importance of language, history, literature.
Blogosphere ~ Latin Without Latin: Amator
Bestiaria Latina Blog: Latin Without Latin: Amator.
Blogosphere ~ Cinema and the Fall of Rome
History of the Ancient World: Cinema and the Fall of Rome.
Blogosphere ~ Hesiod’s Works and Days: Moral or Practical Teaching?
History of the Ancient World: Hesiod’s Works and Days: Moral or Practical Teaching?.
Blogosphere ~ Ancient World Linked Data plugin for WordPress
AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Ancient World Linked Data plugin for WordPress.
Blogosphere ~ The Herodotean “Harem” and statecraft in Achaemenid Persia
History of the Ancient World: The Herodotean “Harem” and statecraft in Achaemenid Persia.
Blogosphere ~ Disticha Round-Up: June 4
Bestiaria Latina Blog: Disticha Round-Up: June 4.
CJ Online Review: Doody, Pliny’s Encyclopedia
posted with permission:
Aude Doody, Pliny’s Encyclopedia. The Reception of the Natural History. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Pp. 194. Hardcover, £58.00/$99.00. ISBN 978-0-521-49103-7.
Reviewed by Kenneth Kitchell, University of Massachusetts Amherst
To read this book is to be exposed to scholarly questions few of us consider. Most would agree with the author’s statement that “The Natural History has perhaps more often been used than read” (40). Scholars who study any aspect of the ancient natural world have routinely dipped into Pliny’s treasure chest of facts at one time or another. But few of us have considered questions such as these: “What is an encyclopedia?”; “Did such a genre exist in antiquity?”; “Are Pliny’s endless lists random or planned?”
Doody addresses such questions as these and more in her volume. The title is a bit misleading. This reader hoped to find a full tracing of the influence Pliny has exerted on later encyclopedists. Yet mention of Solinus and Isidore or of the medieval explosion of encyclopedic works (e.g. Bartholomew the Englishman, Vincent of Beauvais) is scant and passing (170). Yet readers interested in this line of inquiry can find material for reading in the impressive footnotes and bibliography of Doody’s work.
The current volume instead consists of four rather discrete essays loosely joined together. A brief introduction (1–10) lays out the book’s underlying aim – to study Pliny’s work as an encyclopedia and to study the ways in which the demands of any given time frame affect the manner in which the Natural History is perceived and used. Each of the subsequent chapters looks at a different way in which this has happened. The first chapter, “Science and Encyclopedism: the Originality of the Natural History” (11–39), reassesses the readiness with which modern scholars call Pliny’s work an encyclopedia in the modern sense of the word. His work, she argues, is not a mere collection of random facts. Rather, the facts are juxtaposed and arranged by Pliny to show us that “it is the power and majesty of nature that we are supposed to understand, not the details for their own sake” (25). Moreover, she maintains, the Natural History was “designed to entertain as well as instruct” (30). The chapter ends with a brief study of Francis Bacon’s attitudes toward Pliny.
Chapter 2 (31–91) is entitled “Diderot’s Pliny and the Politics of the Encyclopedia,” and was this reader’s favorite. In wide-ranging fashion, Doody studies the role of Pliny in ancient education and the concept of enkyklios paideia, the relationship of Pliny to the works of Cato, Varro and Celsus, and the geographical lists of Pliny as indicators of that author’s biases and scholarly methodology. It also concludes with a modern instance of reception, this one being the use of Pliny by the great French encyclopedist, Diderot.
Chapter 3, “Finding Facts: the Summarium in the Early Printed Editions” (92–131), is an intriguing study of the way early printed editions chose to treat Pliny’s first chapter, in which he lays out the contents of the huge work facing a reader. He does so, he says, so that the ancient reader, much like the modern reader, may skip ahead to the facts and information he or she is seeking. The chapter studies the early editions to show that some felt the Summarium was little more than a table of contents and even felt free to break up the contents of the first chapter and use them as chapter headings. Even the way in which the Summarium is printed affects the reader’s perception. If printed as continuous prose, it reads as a narrative. If an editor chooses to print it in columns, it resembles a table of contents.
The fourth and last chapter, “Specialist readings: Art and Medicine from the Natural History” (132–72), is a close study of how two books have mined the Natural History to make thematic collections of excerpts from Pliny. The first is an instructive study of a fourth-century medical collection generally called the Medicina Plinii and a later, sixth-century version of this work called the Physica Plinii. The reader is given a history of the texts, manuscripts, and the first edition by one Alban Thorer (1489–1550). It is an interesting, if somewhat labored read. The second book is Eugenie Sellers’ The Elder Pliny’s Chapters on the History of Art (1896 with subsequent reprintings). This volume is studied for the way the material excerpted and collected reflects the tastes and needs both of the times and of the subject under discussion. As with Thorer, the text is rather dense and in places (155) could have benefited from clearer exposition. The book ends with a two page summation
The breadth of Doody’s scholarship is impressive, as her cited sources range from manuscripts, through incunabula, and over centuries of scholarly work in widely diffuse fields. The text is very clean and free of typographical errors. As mentioned, the prose style can be difficult to follow at times, but it is always informative. The steep price of the book and the rather narrow focus of the chapters mean that this book is not a “must have” for the average classicist. But anyone who has admired Pliny and has spent some time wandering in his hall of wonders will want to read it.
Classical Words of the Day
halcyon (Merriam Webster)
levigate (Dictionary.com)
specular (OED)
Latinitas:
apis: bee: noun. Example sentence:Si sapis, sis apis.Translation:If you are wise, you should be a bee. bit.ly/Lk1r3p—
Latin Language (@latinlanguage) June 03, 2012
This Day in Ancient History: ante diem iii nonas junias
Saecular Games continue (day 3)
some time after 296 B.C. — dedication of a Temple of Bellona (and associated rites thereafter)
Blogosphere ~ APA Blog : CFP: Heliodorus: Within and Beyond the Canon
American Philological Association: APA Blog : CFP: Heliodorus: Within and Beyond the Canon.
Blogosphere ~ Hallmarks in the History of Epilepsy: From Antiquity Till the Twentieth Century
History of the Ancient World: Hallmarks in the History of Epilepsy: From Antiquity Till the Twentieth Century.
Blogosphere ~ Latin Without Latin: Omnia Vincit Amor
Bestiaria Latina Blog: Latin Without Latin: Omnia Vincit Amor.
