rogueclassicism
quidquid bene dictum est ab ullo, meum est
Archive for the month “May, 2009”
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem iv idus maias
- 19 B.C. (?) — dedication of the Temple of Mars Ultor on the Capitoline
- 2 B.C. — opening of the Forum of Augustus
- 113 A.D. — opening of the restored Temple of Venus Genetrix
CONF: Teleology in the Ancient World
TELEOLOGY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
The Dispensation of Nature
The University of Exeter, 8-11 July, 2009
Organisers: Dr. Julius Rocca and Prof. Christopher Gill
An international conference on how teleological arguments were used in medicine and philosophy in antiquity, and how these arguments have continued to inform and influence current debate on evolution, creationism, and intelligent design. As well as examining philosophical contributions to the subject, especially Platonic and Aristotelian, a special aim of the conference is to show how ancient medical thinking on this topic relates to ancient philosophical ideas. Examining teleological methodologies in ancient medical thought from Hippocrates to Galen will offer a critical evaluation on the place of teleology within medical science, its cultural contexts, its account of human development, and teleological responses to competing explanatory theories of human structure and function.
Keynote speaker, Professor David Sedley, University of Cambridge: “Socrates’ place in the history of teleology.”
Other speakers: Elizabeth Craik, University of St. Andrews; John Dillon, Trinity College, Dublin; Rebecca Flemming, University of Cambridge; R. J. Hankinson, The University of Texas at Austin; M.R. Johnson, University of California, San Diego; Mariska Leunissen, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; Staffan Müller-Wille, University of Exeter: Jan Opsomer, University of Cologne; Mark Schiefsky, Harvard University; Samuel Scolnicov, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; R.W. Sharples, University College London; Harold Tarrant, University of Newcastle, Australia; Philip van der Eijk, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Accommodation in en-suite rooms in the University’s newest hall of residence overlooking the Exe valley and near the main conference venue: accommodation and all meals during conference: £240; conference fee £30 (£15 for students); daily rates also available.
Bookings, with accommodation: by end of May 2009 (booking period extended)
Without accommodation: by June 14 2009.
For booking form, contact Prof. C. J. Gill
Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter,
Amory Building, Rennes Drive,
Exeter, EX4 4RJ, UK
C.J.Gill AT exeter.ac.uk
Student bursaries available to cover all accommodation and meal costs and conference fee. Contact Prof. Gill if interested.
JOB: Ancient History @ St Hilda’s
College Lecturership and Classics Faculty Fellowship
Ancient History
St Hilda’s College
University of Oxford
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/RP642/
CONF: Kyknos Seminars (etc.)
KYKNOS: THE SWANSEA, LAMPETER, AND EXETER CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON THE NARRATIVE LITERATURES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
Below is given the KYKNOS programme for Easter term 2009. For more information about the various activities of the research centre, please visit our website (www.kyknos.org.uk) or contact Professor John Morgan (John.Morgan AT swansea.ac.uk) or Dr Magdalena Öhrman (m.ohrman AT lamp.ac.uk).
Research seminar series
Friday 8 May: Dr Regine May (University of Leeds), ‘An Ass from Oxyrhynchus: P.Oxy.LXX.4762 and Apuleius Metamorphoses. A New Fragment’, Swansea University, Keir Hardie, Room 130, 6.00pm
Thursday 14 May: Nora Goldschmidt (Magdalen College, Oxford University), ‘Virgil, Ennius, and the Site of Rome’, University of Wales, Lampeter, Roderick Bowen Research Centre, 6.00pm
Friday 15 May, Jane McLarty (Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University), ‘Sense and sensibility: class, gender and emotion in the Acts of Paul and Thekla’, Swansea University, Keir Hardie, Room 130, 6.00pm
Wednesday 27 May: Dr Johanna Akurjärvi (Lund University), ‘Narrating Athens: Genres in Pausanias’ Attika’, University of Wales, Lampeter, Roderick Bowen Research Centre, 6.00pm (Regulars please note the Wednesday date!)
Thursday 4 June: Dr Koen de Temmerman (Ghent University), ‘Less than ideal paradigms in the ancient Greek novel’, University of Wales, Lampeter, Roderick Bowen Research Centre, 6.00pm
KYKNOS Reading Group
A fortnightly KYKNOS reading group is held at Swansea University. For more information please contact Professor John Morgan.
Conferences:
Workshop on ‘The narrative of Hymns’, University of Wales, Lampeter, 9-10 May. The organisers are still able to accept late bookings – but please be in touch as soon as possible. Further details here: http://www.lamp.ac.uk/ric/conferences/narative_in_hymns.html
Conference on ‘The Erotics of Narrative’, Gregynog, nr Newtown, Powys, 15–17 July
CONF: Re-Inventing Athens after Loraux
Re-Inventing Athens after Loraux: A Workshop on the Funeral Oration
Organisers: Julia L. Shear and Ian Ruffell
Saturday 27 June, 10 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Department of Classics
65 Oakfield Avenue
University of Glasgow
Originally published in 1981, Nicole Loraux’s book L’invention d’Athènes:
histoire de l’oraison funèbre dans la “cité classique” quickly became the
main port of call for any research on funeral orations; an English
translation soon appeared in 1986 as The Invention of Athens: The Funeral
Oration in the Classical City (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).
Twenty-eight years later, this book has become a central plank in current
constructions of Athenian ideology and identity and it has widely influenced
studies of Athenian culture, literature and art. In this one-day workshop,
we seek to re-evaluate Loraux’s work by re-examining the funeral speeches in
their own right and reassessing what they can tell us about the social and
political construction of Athens.
Programme
10.00-10.30 coffee available
10.30-10.40 Julia L. Shear: welcome
10.40-11.50 Ian Ruffell: ‘The Ephitaphios as Agon’
11.50-1.00 Jon Hesk: ‘Loraux, Hypereides, and the Problem of
Difference’
1.00-2.00 lunch
2.00-3.10 Alex Long: ‘Flattery and Socratic Politics in
Plato’s Menexenus’
3.10-3.40 tea
3.40-4.50 Julia L. Shear: ‘The Epitaphios and the Construction
of the Past’
4.50-5.00 Ian Ruffell: summary
pub and dinner in a local restaurant
Since one of our main aims is to promote discussion of the funeral orations,
there will be plenty of time scheduled during the day for informal
round-table discussion. All are most welcome join us. Lunch will be
provided, but it will be helpful to have an idea of numbers for catering.
For further details and to let us that you will be attending, please contact
the organisers: Julia L. Shear (j.shear AT classics.arts.gla.ac.uk) or Ian
Ruffell (i.ruffell ATclassics.arts.gla.ac.uk). We look forward to seeing you
at our workshop.
A poster is available to download at:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_117326_en.pdf (colour) or
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_117325_en.pdf (black and white)
CONF: Greek Archaeology Group Seminars
Trinity term programme
Tuesday lunchtimes (1 pm) weeks: 2 – 5
Oxford, Institute of Archaeology, Beaumont St.,
Lecture Room
*Week 2 (5 May) – Thomas Kiely (British Museum)
Re-excavating Kourion, Cyprus. The British Museum Cyprus Digitisation Project
*Week 3 (12 May) – Peter Haarer (Oxford)
Alphabets and Iron
Week 4 (19 May) – Nicoletta Momigliano (Bristol)
No sex please, we’re Minoan
Week 5 (26 May) – Francois Leclere (British Museum)
The British Museum Project at Tell Dafana/Daphnae (Egypt, Eastern Delta)
Sponsored by the School of Archaeology and the Classics Faculty, Oxford.
CONF: Leeds International Classics Seminar
This is a reminder that the Leeds International Classical Seminar for 2009 on the subject of ‘Public images in Augustan Rome’ will take place on Friday May 15th.
Those planning to attend should notify Penny Goodman (p.j.goodman AT leeds.ac.uk) BY FRIDAY MAY 8TH in order to secure lunch. The conference fee, which includes tea / coffee and a buffet lunch, is £15 (or £10 for students and unwaged), payable on the day.
A full programme of papers follows below.
Programme for LICS 2009, ‘Public images in Augustan Rome’:
10.30 – 11.30: Registration in the Department of Classics
(1st Floor, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds)
11.30 onwards: Papers in Seminar Rooms 3 and 4 of the Leeds Humanities Research Institute (LHRI)
(29-31 Clarendon Place)
11.30 – 12.15: Diana Spencer (University of Birmingham)
Towards a new (space) syntax: Varro’s de Lingua Latina
12.15 – 13.00: Stephen Harrison (Corpus Christi, Oxford)
Horace and Augustan monuments
13.00 – 14.00: Lunch
(Room 119, Dept. of Classics, 1st Floor Parkinson Building)
14.00 – 14.45: Stratis Kyriakidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Rome and the fata Asiae, (Manilius, 1.512)
14.45 – 15.30: Andrew Zissos (University of California, Irvine)
Terra sub Augusto est: Augustan Rome and Ovid’s Metamorphoses
15.30 – 16.00: Coffee (in LHRI)
16.00 – 16.45: Amanda Claridge (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Augustus’ house on the Palatine
16.45 – 17.30: Alison Cooley (University of Warwick)
Contextualising Augustus’ Res Gestae
CONF: Durham Seminars
SEMINAR PROGRAM, EASTER TERM 2009
Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Durham
Tuesday 28 April; 5.30pm [Ritson room, NB replaces Anc. Phil. Reading
Group]
Mr Jonathan Broyles (Edinburgh)
Plato’s Apology and the uniqueness of Socrates
Wednesday 29 April, 5.30pm [Ritson room]
Dr Alexei Zadorozhnyy (Liverpool)
Platonic writtenness and orality in Plutarch’s Life of Dion
Wednesday 6 May [Ritson room]
Professor Walter Cavini (Bologna)
Knowledge or Science? Episteme in Plato’s Theaetetus and Aristotle’s
Posterior Analytics
Friday 8 May, 5.30pm [venue: University of Newcastle) [Classical
Association & Roman Society]
Dr Caroline Humfress (Birkbeck College, London)
Telling stories about Roman law
Wednesday 13 May, 5.30pm [Ritson room]
Dr Annemarie Ambuehl (Groningen)
Talking (about) Heracles: Narrative strategies in Hellenistic ‘epyllion’
Wednesday 20 May, 5.30pm [Ritson room]
Dr Anna Clark (Christ Church, Oxford)
Thinking about gods in Pompeii
Friday 22 May, 5.30pm [Ritson room]
Dr Chloe Balla (University of Crete, Rethymno)
On the origins of social contract theory: Plato and the Sophists
Wednesday 27 May, 5.30pm [Ritson room]
Professor Jannis Mylonopoulos (Columbia University, New York)
Nothing to do with Odysseus? Terracotta figurines from Ithaca and the
reinvention of epic traditions
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem v idus maias
Lemuria (day 2) — a private and public appeasement of the dead; the Roman paterfamilias would rise at midnight to conduct a ritual involving beans and bronze
rites in honour of Mania – a Roman divinity who was considered the goddess of the dead; she was also the mother of the Lares
14 A.D. — Augustus’ last official census comes to an end
330 — Constantine renames Byzantium and makes it his capital
1988 — death of E.T. Salmon (Samnium and the Samnites)
Antiquities at Christies – Venus With Her Hair Down?
Christie's Photo
Here’s a very interesting (to me) lot from the upcoming June auction of antiquities at Christies this June. As often seems to be the case, the poor lass is legless, headless, and armless, but what’s really interesting (again, to me) is the evidence on her shoulders that her hair was down. I can’t recall ever seeing a sculptural depiction of Venus with her hair down … in theory, that would mean this isn’t a ‘bathing’ Venus but she’s in some other mode.
UPDATE (just a short time later) – thanks to Caroline Lawrence (who twittered an example from Rhodes, which does seem to be in a ‘bathing’ pose) and Francesca Tronchin (e.g.) for pointing me to sculptural representations of Venus/Aphrodite Anadyomene (‘rising from the sea’ … a la Botticelli). There don’t seem to be an awful lot of them
This Day in Ancient History
ante diem iv nonas maias
11 B.C. — dedication of the Theatre of Marcellus
ca. 304 A.D. — martyrdom of Florian in what would become Austria
ca. 304 A.D. — martydom of Pelagia at Tarsus
1406 — death of Coluccio Salutati (humanist and proto-Classicist)
From the Italian Press 05/03/09
Scanning the Italian ‘papers’ …
A Roman bridge is being excavated in Parma:
Plans to build an archaeological park at Tivoli (about time!):
… and plans for Pompeii (I don’t quite understand what’s new in this one):
- Genovese (Pdl) su scavi di Pompei (Caserta News)
Assorted small finds recovered from a house in Taranto:
- Reperti archeologici recuperati da GdF Taranto (Il Paese Nuovo)
- TARANTO: SEQUESTRO REPERTI ARCHEOLOGICI (Telenorba)
Somewhat larger finds from a bust at Matera:
Similiter at Tarquinia:
- TARQUINIA, I CARABINIERI RECUPERANO TESORO ARCHEOLOGICO DAL VALORE INSESTIMABILE: DENUNCIATI DUE ‘TOMBAROLI’ (On Tuscia)
… and at the Grotta di Entella (Sicily):
- Scavi clandestini in una riserva naturale. Arrestati tre tombaroli nel trapanese (Sicilia Informazioni)
Complaining (it seems) about the inaccessibility of assorted (interesting) Roman tombs beneath the Chiesa dello Spirito Santo:
- Tesori sotto chiave a Castel di Guido (Abitare a Roma)
Very brief account of a conference on Ostia Antica:
In the wake of the damage to the Baths of Caracalla in that earthquake, politicians are pointing fingers and blaming each other:
… and the site of Amiternum has reopened:
They’re trying (it seems) to incorporate the Colosseum somehow into the Champions League final on May 27, but it’s controversial:
Catalogging the Catacombs
A lengthy item from the BBC is sure to generate a lot of interest; here’s a bit in medias res:
The leader of the project, Dr Norbert Zimmerman of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, was behind the idea to use laser scanners to record every part of the Catacombs.
His scanner, which looks like a cylinder on a tripod, stands a metre or so high and is a piece of kit you usually find in the construction industry.
Gone are the days when archaeologists just used shovels, brushes and sieves to unearth the past.
The scanner has been placed in hundreds of different locations in the Catacombs.
It turns slowly, sending out millions of light pulses that bounce off every surface they come into contact with. The light pulses rebound back into the scanner and are recorded on a computer as a series of white dots, known as a “point cloud”.
Gradually, every wall, ceiling, and floor is bombarded with the dots, enabling the computer to build up a picture of each room.
Eventually, the computer completes a 360-degree, three-dimensional, moving image of that room, with every surface looking like it is made up of small white dots.
At the same time a camera on the scanner takes a picture of each surface. That information is also fed into the computer enabling colour to be added to “fill in” the dots.
‘Real data’
When the process is finished, it looks like an actual film of the particular room in question.
In all, four billion dots were recorded, enabling practically the whole catacomb to be documented in this way. Only a handful of small spaces were left out because it simply was not possible to get the scanner in.
… there are all sorts of photos at the site; in theory, I’ve embedded a relevant bbc video below:
An incredibly interesting application of technology to the stuff within our purview …
rogueclassicism Review: Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer
Editor’s note: you might want to read our previous thoughts on this program/claim/issue (made prior to viewing, obviously):
As a sort of followup to all the hype about this program, I thought it might be useful to provide a reviewish sort of thing of this program since it has appeared in pieces on YouTube. So I’ll intro each section, and perhaps give you some things to look for.
In part one we get the basic background to the tomb claimed to belong to Arsinoe. Outside of the host’s (Neil Oliver) penchant for carrying around a kerosene lamp (which I find to be very distracting; who does he think he is … a latter day Diogenes?), we should note here the discovery of the tomb in the 1920s. The bones are said to have been found in a sarcophagus full of water. When the archaeologists left, they “resealed” the sarcophagus. When Hilke Thur reentered the tomb much, much later (date not given, but obviously not “nearly a century later”), she tells us she found the bones ‘partly in one niche’ and ‘partly in the other niche’ of the barrel-vaulted tomb. The rest of the segment deals with the initial identification of the occupant as being Arsinoe, Rome’s growing interest in Egypt, and some Ptolemaic genealogy:
Part II opens with Cleo being sent into exile by her brother, then seeking Roman help to regain her position. We then get Fabian Kanz (UVienna) talking about the skeleton. There’s good forensic stuff going on here but I can’t help but wonder about the carbon dating now that we know that the bones were disturbed at some point (I honestly don’t know if this is an issue). I’m not sure it’s really relevant that the bones being of a ‘slender’ person is a significant tie to Cleopatra, but it is used as a segue to the story of Cleo smuggling herself back into the palace.
Part III returns to Ephesus and Fabian Kanz returning to the tomb “last summer” in the hopes of finding more bones which belong to the skeleton, which he did (amazingly enough). Still no skull, though. Then we hear of Dr Thur tracing the skull to Germany in the 1920s and subsequently disappearing during WWII –but some archaeologist had made measurements of the skull. He is said to have mentioned that the skull reminded him of skulls he had seen from Egypt. Whatever the case, the much-hyped reconstruction was made according to this archaeologist’s notes, photos, and measurements. Some important things to note here … the reconstruction is based on ‘remapping’ a similar skull of similar gender and ‘ethnicity’ (we are told, but it isn’t really explained); it’s not even a complete skull, the jaw is missing. Again, the beauty of the erstwhile owner of the skull is used as a link to Cleopatra and provide a segue to the little ‘war’ between adherents of Cleopatra and adherents of Ptolemy. The segue leads to the Pharos of Alexandria and eventually to Arsinoe’s proclamation as queen by the “rebels”.
Part IV opens back at the octagonal tomb in Ephesus and the question of the identity of its owner. The archaeologists back in the 1920s had taken some objects from the tomb back to Vienna, including an interesting ‘column’ torch holder thing which is clearly designed to look like a bundle of papyrus (suggesting, of course, an Egyptian owner). Meanwhile, Hilke Thur and a some engineers have been trying to track down bits of the tomb and are doing a virtual reconstruction of it (this is very interesting!). Eventually, we see that the connection is made between the Pharos of Alexandria (as a symbol of the Ptolemies) and the tomb as being belonged to Arsinoe. That’s the segue clue back to the events at the Pharos, with Caesar ultimately swimming for his life. And so, the Pharos becomes a symbol of Arsinoe’s victory. The ensuing political events are then related … culminating in Arsinoe being paraded (in front of a Pharos) in Caesar’s triumph back in Rome.
Part V opens with Caesar’s sparing of Arsinoe’s life and banishing her to Ephesus, specifically, to the Temple of Artemis. We then get a segment on the Temple, of course, including its popularity as a place for asylum. There follows the political events following the death of Julius Caesar, including Mark Antony’s partying in Ephesus and his eventual liaison with Cleo. It culminates with Cleopatra planning to get rid of Arsinoe.
The final segment returns to the present and the bones purported to belong to Arsinoe. Fabian Kanz notes that the bones belonged to a person who appeared to be healthy, had an easy life, and died young. Then, of course, we cut back to the ancient narrative and the murder of Arsinoe on Cleopatra’s request and Antony’s orders. It is characterized as “the biggest crime of this period” to violate the sanctuary of the Artemesion. We are then told that:
… this skeleton is the first forensic evidence of Cleopatra’s family ever found. The shape of the tomb, its similarity to the Pharos — these are all parts of a code and the whole of it comes together to make a complete picture. At last we can solve the mystery beyond doubt of who the skeleton actually is. None other than Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoe …
We then have to find out what she looked like and we get the ‘rebuilding’ of the skull. After Drs. Kanz and Thur marvel at the skull, we get the ‘big announcement’ that the skull is elongated but also has European features, and so indicates mixed ancestry. Oliver then announces:
Our revelation backs up the controversial theory that the princess, and therefore her sister Cleopatra, also had African blood.
Then comes the suicide of Cleopatra and the political results thereof. The program ends with a facial reconstruction of “what she might have looked like” (interestingly, the only use of speculative language in the program).
Unfortunately, the YouTube version doesn’t preserve the credits, so I can’t give any more detail on researchers etc. (if, as, and when I do get this info, I’ll add it). I can note that the woman playing Cleopatra (fwiw) actually matches my own conception of what Cleo probably looked like; the Caesar and Antony aren’t even close. It’s interesting to have the tale of Cleo narrated by the same guy who was the herald in HBO’s Rome series, but other than that, there was nothing in this program to change my mind from things already said. The most serious is that it ignores the fact that we do not know who Cleopatra’s mother was, but you can revisit my previous posts for the full picture.
Roman Skeleton From Kingsholm
Interesting little item … here’s the incipit:
A ROMAN skeleton which was found in Kingsholm is being investigated by archeologists who are keen to trace his origins.
The male skeleton was discovered in 1972, north of Kingsholm Square and ever since experts have wondered where he came from. Now, the Gloucester City Museum has had funding for the analysis of the skeleton using new technology to work out where he originated. Member and former president of The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Carolyn Heighway, said: “We believe he was a special person in the late Roman period in Gloucester, judging by his grand belt and buckles and that sort of thing.
“Subsequently it was judged by academics that he could have been of eastern European origin and was probably part of the Roman army.”
The body had been placed in the floor of a mausoleum and the man, aged between 25 and 30 years old, was wearing distinctive military gear which included a silver belt buckle, shoe buckles and strap end, and a knife with a strip of silver set into the handle.
It was found by city archaeologist Henry Hurst and was thought to date from the late 4th century, or the early years of the 5th.
Oddly, no photos or further info at the museum’s website …
Babbling About Biscotti
Okay … this is a claim I’ve come across several times over the past few years, most recently in the Morning Call:
‘Biscotti are cheap to make and last a long time,” Anselmo says of the cookies, which were staples of the Roman legions and moved Pliny to remark that he thought they lasted forever.”
Typing ‘pliny’ and ‘biscotti’ into Google will bring up a pile of results, all of which say almost the exact same thing (sometimes ‘forever’ is replaced by ‘centuries’). In addition to the Roman legion connection, sometimes the biscotti are made analogous to “Parthian Bread”. Taking my cue from that, the only thing I can find about Parthian Bread in Pliny comes from Book 18.27 … here’s the version at Google Books:
The natural history of Pliny By Pliny, John Bostock, Henry Thomas Riley
The natural history of Pliny By Pliny, John Bostock, Henry Thomas Riley
… seems a bit of a stretch to me to find the origins of biscotti there. Is there some other passage I’m missing?
UPDATE (just a few minutes later): I think we’ll add ‘hardtack’/panis nauticum to this one too …
