rogueclassicism

CONF: Triennial Conference of Classical Studies

Seen on the Classicists list (please direct any queries to the folks mentioned in the item and not to rogueclassicism):

A CELEBRATION OF CLASSICS: 2011 TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE IN CAMBRIDGE

From Monday 25 July to Thursday 28 July 2011 the Faculty of Classics in the University of Cambridge will once again host the Triennial Conference of Classical Studies. This Triennial has been given a radically revised format:

http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/seminars_conferences/triennial_conference/speakers/

Working with a committee that includes representatives of sponsoring bodies (Societies for the Promotion of Hellenic and Roman Studies, British Schools at Athens and Rome), the organizers have been fortunate in attracting a large international cast of speakers, and have tried to cover most sub-disciplines within Classics and Ancient History in greater depth than in the past. The organizers are most grateful to the 145 scholars who have agreed to support this venture by giving, or responding to, papers; among these are Roger Bagnall, Anthony Grafton, Edith Hall, Stephen Hinds, Walter Scheidel, and Caroline Vout, who will give plenary lectures.

They are grateful also to the sponsors who have offered their financial support for this new venture: Cambridge University Press, the Cambridge Philological Society, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, Princeton University Press, Trinity College, Cambridge and the Institute of the Ancient World.

All our colleagues in the study of the ancient world are cordially invited to join us in this triennial national celebration of Classics in a year when we will all be needing to reaffirm the vitality and abiding value of the subject we love. For booking see:

http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/seminars_conferences/triennial_conference/registration/

CONF: Classics Seminars at Edinburgh 2010/11

Seen on the Classicists list (please direct any queries to the folks mentioned in the item and not to rogueclassicism):

Please find below the revised Semester 2 programme of Classics Research Seminars at Edinburgh. All seminars take place on Wednesdays at 5.10pm in the Meadows Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor, Medical School, Teviot Place, Doorway 4, unless otherwise stated. All are welcome to attend. For further information please contact Ursula Rothe (ursula.rothe AT ed.ac.uk).

Edinburgh Classics Research Seminar 2010/11: Semester 2

19th January
Prof. STEPHEN MITCHELL (Exeter)
‘Caracalla in Ankara AD 215’

26th January
Dr. JAMES HOWARD JOHNSTON (Oxford)
‘Reflections on the last great war of antiquity 603-630’

2nd February
Dr. LISA HAU (Glasgow)
‘Tykhe in Polybius – new answers to an old question’

9th February
Prof. STEPHEN HALLIWELL (St. Andrews)
‘Is there a Greek concept of fiction?’

23rd February
Dr. JENNIFER INGLEHEART (Durham)
‘Speaking names: the significance of naming in Catullus’

2nd March
Prof. INEKE SLUITER (Leiden)
‘Free speech and the marketplace of ideas’

9th March
Prof. NICO ROYMANS (VU Amsterdam)
‘The Batavians between Germania and Rome. The emergence of a military people’

16th March
Dr. DYFRI J. R. WILLIAMS (British Museum)
‘Refiguring the Parthenon sculptures’

30th March
Dr. DENNIS PAUSCH (Giessen/Edinburgh)
Title tba

20th April
Dr. ROBERTA TOMBER (British Museum)
‘Rome’s eastern trade – from the Red Sea to the Bay of Bengal’

27th April
Dr. JANET DELAINE (Oxford)
‘Reflections on Trajan’s Pantheon’

CFP: Teaching uncomfortable subjects in the classics classroom

Seen on the Classicists list (please direct any queries to the folks mentioned in the item and not to rogueclassicism):

Teaching uncomfortable subjects in the classics classroom
Fiona McHardy and Nancy Rabinowitz, editors

We invite submissions of abstracts for a volume on teaching uncomfortable
subjects in the classics classroom, to be submitted to Ohio State
University Press. International contributions are actively sought. The
volume is built around an APA workshop with the same name which took place
at the 2011 meeting. This workshop itself grew out of a panel at the
Feminism and Classics V conference, in particular the paper by Sharon James
(later published in Cloelia) on teaching rape in the classics classroom.
The topic of rape generated a great deal of interest, and the desire to
keep the conversation going led to further roundtables and panels in the UK
and the US.

But the issues are much broader than rape, and the APA workshop in 2011
expanded the discussion to encompass a wider range of issues potentially
uncomfortable for teachers or for students or for both, including crime,
pedophilia, domestic violence, abortion, suicide, homophobia, slavery, and
racial ‘jokes’ where some students will have had personal experiences that
might generate distress or make discussion difficult. The emphasis of the
session was on stimulating discussion to raise awareness of unforeseen
difficulties and to share strategies for dealing with those difficulties.
We would like to include that emphasis in this volume.

In the US there has been an effort, spurred on by the Ford Foundation’s
grants, to have what they call “difficult dialogues.” The program
description was aimed at classes “designed to promote academic freedom and
religious, cultural, and political pluralism on college and university
campuses in the United States.” But political topics are not the only ones
that provoke difficult dialogues. We welcome other ideas about how
classical texts might raise controversial issues and allow the opportunity
to discuss them.

Questions we will consider: what makes something difficult to talk about?
How much do we know about our students’ experiences? How much is it
appropriate for us to know? How much can we challenge our students in the
classroom when we are unsure of their experiences? Is it appropriate to
single out students to discuss topics related to their own experiences
(e.g. should we call on the one student of color to talk about race?) How
can we help students work through trauma without overstepping our bounds?
How can tutors be supported in dealing with crisis situations? What are the
personal and professional risks that we might run in opening up such topics
for conversation?

Please send a one-page abstract to f.mchardy AT roehampton.ac.uk or
nrabinow AT hamilton.edu by February 28, 2011; papers will be 5-6000 words in

length. We plan to send the completed volume to OSU by December 1, 2011.

CONF: Emotions and Ancient Greek History seminar at Oxford

Seen on the Classicists list (please direct any queries to the folks mentioned in the item and not to rogueclassicism):

Please find below the programme of the seminar on emotions and ancient Greek history at Oxford this term.

Emotions and Ancient Greek History

Chrysi Kotsifou and Georgy Kantor

Tuesdays, 5 pm, Lecture Theatre

Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies

66 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LU

Week 1, 18 January: Chrysi Kotsifou (University of Oxford), ‘Womanly weakness and manly moderation: the use and abuse of pity in fourth century petitions.’

Week 2, 25 January: Simon Hornblower (University of Oxford), ‘Emotions and the Greek gods’

Week 3, 1 February: AngelosChaniotis (IAS, Princeton), ‘Emotional display in public life in the Hellenistic period’

Week 4, 8 February: Ed Sanders (Royal Holloway), ‘Approaching a nameless emotion: the construction of sexual jealousy in Classical Athens’

Week 5, 15 February: John Tait (University College London), ‘Osiris in a Whirlwind: looking for change in the representation of emotion in Egypt through two and a half millennia.’

Week 6, 22 February: Nicole Belayche (École pratique des hautes etudes), "The ‘possible’ body of the gods: from imitation to ritual confection of their nature"

Week 7, 1 March: David Frankfurter (Boston University), "Desperation and the Magic of Appeal: Representations of Women’s Emotions in the Voices of Magical Texts and Votive Images"

Week 8, 8 March: Lene Rubinstein (Royal Holloway), ‘Evoking anger through pity: portraits of the vulnerable and defenceless in Attic oratory’

Books About Alexander the Great

Tip o’ the pileus to James Romm who passes along this link to a nice review article by Tom Holland of a number of recent books relating to Alexander the Great:

• Book Review: Books About Alexander the Great – WSJ.com.

Some Greco-Roman Graffiti in Egypt

A couple of interesting items from Mary Beard:

• The Colossi of Memnon? When are graffiti not graffiti?.

• The face of Paris — and Cleopatra

Crayfish Signet Ring From Farindola

A very interesting find from Farindola which was mentioned on the Classics list back in November and curiously never made it to the English press. Here’s the version from Abruzzo24ore (tip o’ the pileus to Laval Hunsucker who brought this to everyone’s attention and posted the links I reference below):

Un pregevole anello-sigillo in oro con iscrizione è stato rinvenuto a Farindola, in località Cupoli Superiore-S. Giusta, proveniente dai resti di una villa romana, emersa durante i lavori abusivi per la costruzione di un fabbricato. L’importante reperto archeologico è stato recuperto grazie alla collaborazione del Comandante Massimiliano Di Pietro e dei Marescialli Columbaro e Lattanzio della Stazione Carabinieri di Penne, che a settembre scorso hanno coadiuvato Andrea Staffa, Funzionario della Soprintedenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Abruzzo, nell’intervento di tutela a salvaguardia dei resti della villa romana.
Questa era stata in parte danneggiata perché i lavori di realizzazione del fabbricato non avevano ottenuto il parere preventivo della Soprintendenza, che aveva sequestrato il cantiere.

IL REPERTO

Il castone di anello-sigillo in oro, del diametro di 9/7 millimetri e spessore di 3, raffigura un gambero di fiume rinvenuto proprio nell’area della villa, in particolare sul margine della grande cisterna.
L’oggetto reca sul fronte e sul retro i nomi della coppia di proprietari Iunius Auriclianus e Rectina, schiava di un Petronius, forse moglie e marito, oltre che la suggestiva immagine di un gambero di fiume. La grafia delle lettere data l’oggetto ad epoca tardo-antica (secoli IV-V d.C.), ed è suggestivo ipotizzare che i due personaggi dell’anello fossero i conduttori o proprietari della villa, e che forse nella grande vasca della cisterna si allevassero proprio i gamberi.
L’eccezionale reperto documenta le fasi tardoantiche di una grande villa del territorio dei Vestini, rimasta abitata sin quasi verso la fine dell’Impero Romano, ad evidente testimonianza dell’importanza anche economica di questa zona ancora in quest’epoca così tarda.

• via: Farindola, rinvenuto importante reperto archeologico romano – Cronaca Pescara – Abruzzo24ore.tv.

The skinny is that they found a gold signet ring with a crayfish depicted on it belonging to a pair of folks involved in crayfish farming or the like. The ring itself was found on the edge of a cistern which was apparently the target of some illegal excavations.  The personalities  in question seem to be a husband-wife pair, one Junius Auriclianus and Rectina, who is described as a ‘slave’ (freedwoman, surely) of a certain Petronius.

Abruzzo24 includes a nice photo of one side of the ring (whence comes the ‘slave’ identification of Rectina):

The other side can be seen in a photo from Futurocommune:

• Rinvenuto a Farindola anello-sigillo di epoca romana

There’s a similar, but smaller version at Leggimini Quoditiano:

• Farindola, trovato anello sigillo in oro di epoca romana

Not sure what we can read into the ‘fish farming’ side of this … it would appear that such ventures were more for ‘extravagance’ purposes than commercial. The index of James Higginbottham’s Piscinae: Artificial Fishponds in Roman Italy (via Amazon) doesn’t have an entry for crawfish or shrimp, interestingly enough. I note the book is available at Questia in toto … might be worth the free trial.

UPDATE/QUERY: does anyone know whether these images have been ‘reversed’? Wouldn’t a signet ring have everything in the ‘opposite direction’?  Wouldn’t the ‘impression’ part be in high relief?

Videocast: The Quality of Life in Classical Antiquity

A good one to watch on a snowy day like today (for me, anyway) … Interesting talk by Walter Scheidel (in two parts … 58 minutes):

via Videocast: The Quality of Life in Classical Antiquity | The American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Coin Hoard from Cumbria

If the find was made back in April, I’m not sure why they don’t give us the identity of some of the emperors on the coins … from the News and Star:

John Murray, 66, was amazed to find 308 Roman coins, some thought to be nearly 2,000 years old. The hoard was concealed in a smashed pot a few feet below the ground at Beckfoot, near Silloth.

It is the second major Roman find in Cumbria, following the Crosby Garrett helmet which was unearthed by a metal detectorist last May.

Bearing the heads of various emperors, the coins have been taken to the British Museum for restoration and analysis.

And they have been officially classed as treasure.

Mr Murray, of Beckfoot, said he made the find by accident as he walked home after an ‘unsuccessful’ hunt.

He said: “The farmer had been ploughing and he’d hit some big stones. We knew there was Roman activity in the area, so I went to have a look – but there was nothing.

“So I decided to go home for some lunch. I was walking diagonally across the field when I heard the metal detector make a nice noise.”

Just a foot below the surface the first coin appeared and the machine revealed more was to come. As the treasure kept emerging, Mr Murray called Maryport’s Senhouse Roman Museum to alert them to his discovery.

He added: “There was a big uprising in Europe at one stage and all the Roman soldiers were called over to fight. I think someone probably buried these coins thinking they’d be able to come back and get them.”

Discovered on April 10, 2010, the coins have been classed as Crown property under the Treasure Act of 1996.

They were officially granted that status following a treasure trove inquest heard by north and west Cumbria David Roberts at Whitehaven Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

When they have been valued, Mr Murray and the owner of the field will find out if they are due any reward.

“Archaeology takes up a lot of my time these days,” said Mr Murray. “I got into it by taking part in digs at Vindolanda fort. I like the history side of it – somebody owned those coins and I’m asking what happened to him.”

• via Cumbrian man unearths Roman treasures in field near Silloth | News and Star.

Mary Beard Gets Quizzical

Going deeper into my mailbox, I’m finding all sorts of things I meant to post … Back in December, e.g., the Guardian  Review had a quiz with questions from various authors, including Mary Beard. Ecce:

1 A “new” poem of which “Greek Muse” was found in 2004, written on the scrap paper packed into an Egyptian mummy – complaining about the onset of middle age, and of knees too stiff to dance?

2 A politician who fell foul of the Emperor Augustus and killed himself – and one of the most famous poets of the 1st century BC. His only poem to survive (celebrating Julius Caesar) was discovered on an Egyptian rubbish dump in 1978. Who is he?

3 2010 saw the first publication of a lost essay by one of the most famous ancient doctors. “On the avoidance of pain” was about the loss of his books in a fire in 192AD and it turned up on a manuscript in a library in Thessaloniki. Who was the author?

via The Guardian Review literary quiz | Books | The Guardian.

If you’re stumped, the answers are somewhere on this page (I confess to having forgotten #2) …

Also Seen: Modern Men v. Their Greek Counterparts

This one’s making the rounds in various forms (just in Australian newspapers for now, I think)  … first, some context:

It’s a brave man who asks, ‘Why are men these days such losers?’ But self proclaimed ‘manthropologist’ Peter McAllister, is doing just that.The archaeologist and author is convinced he knows why men just aren’t what they used to be and he says there’s no shortage of people lining up to hear the answer.”My experience has been if you discuss the topic with women, their immediate response is, well, duh!”Mr McAllister uses archaeology, anthropology and evolutionary psychology to explain that men these days just aren’t cutting it compared to their counterparts 2,000 years ago.

Then further down we get:

Mr McAllister says the Ancient Greeks had the right formula.

“The Greek trireme rowers about 2,000 years ago set records and travelled at speeds that trained athletes and rowers can’t even get close to today. The reality is they were very small in stature compared to modern men these days,” he said.

• via The role of men in the modern world | Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Not sure where he gets this ‘can’t get close to today’ … when they did the reconstruction of the Olympias, the researchers matched (and corroborated) speeds mentioned in various ancient sources. A graph at the Trireme Trust from their various trials of the ship suggests it was possible for the crew to approach the 10 knot range (17-18 km/h or so). If you want to compare “trained athletes”, eights in competition generally average about 22 km/h in the 2000m event.

In other words, yet another bit of sensationalism citing the ancient world which doesn’t really pan out …

Action Athena Comix!

Another comic we’ll be adding to our Classical Blogosphere list (along with Prometheus and Piled Higher and Deeper):

Introducing… Action Athena | Sunoikisis.

… here’s the blurb from the initial installment:

Today is the premiere of Sunoikisis comic strip starring “Action Athena”!  After today, the Sunoikisis blog will be updated every Monday with a new strip chronicling the adventures of the Goddess Athena. Athena is filled with skills Wisdom and War, but when she is forced find a job, she realizes that getting by in “real world,” is a bit tougher than she imagined…

… looks promising!

Video of the Moment: Aeschylus’ Inspiration?

Not bad …

Greek and Roman Precedent in a Polygamy Case in Canada

An excerpt from the Star:

But John Witte Jr., a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., said the origins of polygamy in the West extend far beyond religion.

“The prohibitions against polygamy are pre-Christian and post-Christian in their formulation,” said Witte, who was testifying for the federal government.

“Pre-Christian in that we have these formulations in Greek texts and pre-Christian Roman law. And post-Christian in that the architects of modern liberalism are making clear that if you want to respect rights, if you want to respect dignity, it is critical to maintain the institution of monogamy and prohibit and criminalize the institution of polygamy.”

Witte traced the history of marriage back to ancient Greece and Rome, and he said Western cultures have consistently promoted monogamy and denounced polygamy for 2,500 years.

He said ancient Greek and Roman philosophers described monogamous marriage as “natural and necessary” to foster mutual love, respect and companionship among husbands and wives.

In contrast, he said the Roman emperors who established the first anti-polygamy laws in the third century denounced the practice as “unnatural and dangerous,” placing it in the same category as rape and incest. In some cases, polygamy was punishable by death.

Witte said those early beliefs about marriage have informed every Western culture since, from early Christians, the Catholic and Protestant churches, the Enlightenment— which eschewed religion and Christianity — and modern-day England and America.

“The Greeks and Romans are in many ways the forefathers and foremothers of our Western civilization,” he said.

“We received from them ideas of liberty, ideas of constitutional order, ideas of rights. … It is a fundamental part of who we are as Western people.”

• via Reason — not religion — behind ban on polygamy, prof tells B.C. court | The Star.

Foremother?

Building a Roman Villa

Interesting project for Channel 4 in the UK … I’ve always wondered what the Romans used to make concrete forms; perhaps this series will give me an idea …

• Rome wasn’t built in a day: Channel 4 series build Roman villa using ancient methods | Mail Online.

Cartledge and Romm on Alexander (part 5)

How Great a General was Alexander? Good discussion here …

• via How Great a General was Alexander? |Forbes.

Master’s in Classics @ Notre Dame

Brief item from the South Bend Tribune:

The University of Notre Dame is launching a new master’s degree program in classics.

The program will admit two to three students per year, beginning next fall. Full tuition scholarships and stipends are available, and the application deadline for the first cohort is Jan. 15.

Students in the new degree program will take 36 credits over two years and may choose from several areas of emphasis, including language and literature, history and archaeology, late antiquity and philosophy.

For more information and details about how to apply, visit classics.nd.edu/graduate-students/ma-in-classics.

via Notre Dame adds master’s degree in classics | South Bend Tribune.