An item in the Telegraph about binge drinking in the UK includes, inter alia:

Dr Phil Withington, a Cambridge University lecturer, claims the drunkenness on Britain’s streets is a reflection of the binge-drinking fun enjoyed by these Oxbridge students.

He said: “These classically-educated students emulated the carousing drinking camaraderie of Ancient Greek and Roman culture.

“They played Latin drinking games, invented initiations rites, and drinking became integral to male bonding and a social norm.

• via: Oxbridge students ‘invented binge drinking 400 years ago’

… er, well, I guess nihil novum and all that … other than letting women in on the ‘social norm’ side of things …

• biome, n. October 26, 2011 Oxford English Dictionary
• catachresis October 27, 2011 (Merriam-Webster)
• animadvert October 26, 2011 (Dictionary.com)
• perdition October 27, 2011 (Dictionary.com)

• Roman supply camp found at Olfen on the Lippe October 26, 2011 Adrian Murdoch
• Broglio di Trebisacce. Rivelata la natura di acropoli templare del sito October 26, 2011 Martina Calogero
• Il Cnr ricostruisce virtualmente la tomba etrusca Regolini Galassi October 26, 2011 Martina Calogero
• Guess Who October 26, 2011 (N.S. Gill)
• Sooner or Later October 26, 2011 Michael Gilleland
• An Annoyance October 26, 2011 Michael Gilleland
• The Sword in the Stone (Disney, dir. Wolfgang Reitherman, 1963) October 26, 2011  (Juliette)
• ROMA – ARCHEOLOGIA Straordinari i risultati degli ultimi scavi della Sapienza. La Prima casa di Augusto torna alla luce sul Palatino. IL MESSAGGERO (26/10/2011), p. 1. October 26, 2011 Martin G. Conde
• New Gabii Project publications: infant tombs and a new Latin inscription October 26, 2011 Gabii Project
• Antiquities in the Trash October 26, 2011 dpettegrew
• Sophocles: Antigone Reader Submission: Title by Mary Morris. October 26, 2011 (Better Book Titles)
• The difficulty of orientation: trying to learn about Isis October 26, 2011 Roger Pearse
• Corruption Fosters Illicit Antiquity Trade? October 26, 2011 Paul Barford
• Papyri Groninganae online October 25, 2011 G.W. Schwendner

• Round-Up: October 25 October 25, 2011 (Laura Gibbs)
• Open Access Journal: Herculaneum Archaeology October 25, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
• Epigraphy Workshop week 2 October 25, 2011 
• Epigraphy Workshop week 3 October 25, 2011
• Can you excavate love? October 25, 2011 Katy Meyers
• Hannibal and Kocaeli, part 2 October 25, 2011  (Jim Davila)
• Papyri Groninganae online October 25, 2011 G.W. Schwendner
• Why Cumontian Mithras studies are dead October 25, 2011 Roger Pearse
• APA Blog : CFP: Crowned Victor: Competition and Games in the Ancient World October 25, 2011 
• Perpetuating Corruption October 25, 2011 Dave Welsh

ante diem vii kalendas novembres

• ludi Victoriae Sullanae (day 1) — games held in honour of Victoria commemorating Sulla’s defeat of the Samnites in 82 B.C.
• 1656 B.C. — Noah enters the ark (this must be Bishop Ussher again)
• 31 A.D. — suicide of Apicata, wife of the disgraced Praetorian Praefect Sejanus
• ca 250 A.D. — martyrdom of Lucian and Marcian
• 1852 — during a “violent storm” at Athens, one of the columns of the “Temple of Jupiter Olympus” was toppled (perhaps portrayed here?)

Doing a bit of catching up:

• <a title="the worthless word for the day is: bibliopole [fr. L. bibliopola, bookseller today's wwftd is... bibliopole October 21, 2011 wwftd
  
• today’s wwftd is… herpetical October 25, 2011 wwftd
  
• pediculous October 25, 2011 (Merriam-Webster)
• anomie: October 22, 2011 (Dictionary.com)
• anoesis:  October 24, 2011 (Dictionary.com)
• exodus October 20, 2011 (Merriam-Webster)

Around the Classical blogosphere and environs hesterno die (seems like some are missing …):

• Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor: Minoans and Mycenaeans abroad October 24, 2011 History of the Ancient World
• Classical Precariousness vs. Modern Risk: Lessons in Prudence from the Battle of Salamis October 24, 2011 History of the Ancient World
• Setting the Record Straight October 24, 2011 Dave Welsh
• My Piece on Property and Heritage October 24, 2011 noreply@blogger.com (Derek Fincham)
• Open Access Journal: Cahiers des études anciennes October 24, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
• Birth of the Future Flavian Emperor Domitian October 24, 2011 (N.S. Gill)
• Bibliography: Method and Theory in Classical Archaeology October 24, 2011 classicslibrarian
• Open Access Journal: Leeds International Classical Studies October 24, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
• Retirement Planning October 24, 2011 Michael Gilleland
• The anatomy of a mercenary: from Archilochoas to Alexander October 24, 2011 History of the Ancient World
• Happy Birthday to the Emperor Domitian – My Favorite Roman Emperor October 25, 2011 Jennifer Lockett

Adrian Murdoch continues the series with the guy who pretty much has the title ‘most boring emperor ever’:

• #39 Florianus: Emperors of Rome

From BMCR:

• 2011.10.50: Il calamo della memoria. Riuso di testi e mestiere letterario nella tarda antichità. IV (Raccolta delle relazioni discusse nel IV incontro internazionale di Trieste, Biblioteca Statale, 28-30 aprile 2010). Polymnia, 13
• 2011.10.49: The Cave of the Cyclops: Mesolithic and Neolithic Networks in the Northern Aegean, Greece. Vol. II: Bone Tool Industries, Dietary Resources and the Paleoenvironment, and Archeometrical Studies. Prehistory monographs, 31
• 2011.10.48: I Sofisti. Pensatori, 18
• 2011.10.47: Geoponika: Farm Work. A Modern Translation of the Roman and Byzantine Farming Handbook
• 2011.10.46: Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within
• 2011.10.45: Wille und Handlung in der Philosophie der Kaiserzeit und Spätantike. Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, Bd 287
• 2011.10.44: Filostrato Maggiore. La Pinacoteca. Aesthetica, 71
• 2011.10.43: Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria
• 2011.10.42: The Consul at Rome: the Civil Functions of the Consuls in the Roman Republic
• 2011.10.41: Soldiering for God: Christianity and the Roman Army. History of Warfare 61
• 2011.10.40: Body, Disease and Treatment in a Changing World: Latin Texts and Contexts in Ancient and Medieval Medicine
• 2011.10.39: Aristophanes’ Comedy of Names: a Study of Speaking Names in Aristophanes. Sozomena: Studies in the Recovery of Ancient Texts 8
• 2011.10.38: The Encyclopedia of Roman Imperial Coins, 2nd Edition
• 2011.10.37: Die Perserkriege. Beck’sche Reihe 2705
• 2011.10.36: Technē in Aristotle’s Ethics: Crafting the Moral Life
• 2011.10.35: Gloses et commentaire du livre XI du Contra Proclum de Jean Philopon. Autour de la Matière première du monde. Philosophia antiqua 125
• 2011.10.34: Kolb on Kennell on Kolb, Tatort ‘Troia’: Geschichte, Mythen, Politik
• 2011.10.33: The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life
• 2011.10.32: The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity
• 2011.10.31: La corruption à la fin de la république romaine (IIe-Ier s. av. J.-C.): aspects politiques et financiers. Historia Einzelschriften 200

From the popular press:

• The Complete Plays of Sophocles – A New Translation October 23, 2011
•  The Women of Masada [The Dovekeepers ... fiction]October 22, 2011
•  A Scholar Takes a Literary Tour—and Wonders Why? [written by a classicist] October 22, 2011
• On Homer, fine-tuning ‘The Iliad’ and being the rock star of translators [interview with Mitchell]  October 20, 2011
•  Author interview: Madeline Miller October 20, 2011
• The Iliad by Homer translated by Stephen Mitchell: review  October 20, 2011
• Mad — or Just Angry? [Caligula] October 20, 2011
• Victor Davis Hanson on The End of Sparta October 19, 2011
• ‘On the nature of Universe’ released in Persian October 19, 2011

I might have missed a couple:

• Diogenes of Babylon: A Stoic on Music and Ethics October 23, 2011 History of the Ancient World
• Snow White’s Apple And Claudius’ Mushrooms: A Look at the Use of Poison in the Early Roman Empire October 23, 2011 History of the Ancient World
• Pirates, Warfare and Failing States in Ancient Greece October 23, 2011 History of the Ancient World
• Roma. Nerone in mostra ai Fori e al Colosseo October 23, 2011 Romano Maria Levante
• Whose Translation Is It, Anyway? October 24, 2011 J.L. Wall
• Math Homework October 23, 2011
• Has another Pompeii wall collapsed? October 22, 2011 Mary Beard
• Roman military camp at Olfen on the Lippe October 23, 2011 Adrian Murdoch
• Brutus Lost October 23, 2011 (N.S. Gill)
• Greek Heroes in Popular Culture Through Time – OpenLearn – Open University October 23, 2011 
• Shipwrecks, amphora and DNA offer clues to ancient trade October 23, 2011 Past Horizons
• explorator 14.27 October 23, 2011 david meadows
• Advice for Students October 23, 2011 Michael Gilleland
• A Matter of Life and Death: Gladiatorial Games, Sacrificial Ritual and Literary Allusion October 23, 2011 History of the Ancient World
• Bredon Coin Hoard – Should Questions be Asked? October 23, 2011 Paul Barford
• Fragments of Sappho October 23, 2011 Myrmicat Forever
• Stephen Mitchell’s Iliad and the college classroom October 22, 2011 Korinna
• Round-Up: October 22 October 22, 2011  (Laura Gibbs)
• 10/21/11 PHD comic: ‘Occupy Academia’ October 22, 2011
• Gastrophobia – Unbearable. October 22, 2011

Found this one lurking in the bottom of my mailbox because I had vain hopes it might get some coverage in the major English speaking press, what with it being about damnatio memoriae and all that … here’s the basic story from the Bucharest Herald:

An inscription carved in stone, proving the political conflict between Roman emperors Geta and Caracalla, and how the latter tried to erase the former’s name from history, was discovered in the town of Alba Iulia, Mediafax reports.

The stone was found by archeologists from the local museum, during digs in the ruins of the building that served as HQ to the officers of the 13th Legion Gemina, located in present-day park Custozza, the head of the National Unity Museum of Alba Iulia, Gabriel Rustoiu announced.

On the stone inscription, the name of co-emperor Geta, actually Publius Septimius Geta, was erased by Emperor Caracalla – “Marcus Aurelius Antoninus” – his brother.

The two sons of Emperor Septimius Severus jointly ruled the Roman Empire after their father’s death in 211 AD, but the same year Caracalla kills Geta and orders his name to be erased from all records.

“Political disputes in the Roman Empire often ended with the death of an opponent… An even tougher sentence, in Romans’ eyes, was the so-called «damnatio memoriae», erasing one’s name from history,” Gabriel Rustoiu explains.

The Alba Iulia fortress was built at the beginning of the 18th Century (between 1714 and 1738), on the ruins of a Roman fort and of a medieval citadel.

• Inscription proving the conflict between Roman emperors Geta and Caracalla was discovered at Alba Iulia

What was really difficult for this one was finding a photo of the stone … there seems to be plenty of coverage, but very little with the actual stone in the photo. Citynews.ro comes through, however:

• Marturii arheologice: Razbunare politica in anticul Apulum

… here is the best one of the lot … there are three others at the original page … the line that has been erased can be clearly discerned:

… looking at the photos, just in case you’re wondering, the stone seems to be dated to March/April of 206 A.D. when Albinus and Aemilianus were consuls –  that’s the “PRILES ALBINO [E]T AEM” in the last capitalized line.

Around the Blogosphere:

• Damnatio Memoriae: Geta (Dorothy King)

Nice coverage of the second ’round’ of the the Classics Renewed conference at Brown last week:

For a dead language, Latin showed an awful lot of life at last week’s “Classics Renewed” conference on the poetry and prose of late antiquity. The conference, which ran from Thursday to Saturday, brought 19 speakers from four continents to the Annmary Brown Memorial.

Brown played host to the second of two parts of the conference, which began at Rice University in March. At the close of the discussion, conference organizers Scott McGill of Rice University and Joseph Pucci, associate professor of classics, associate professor of comparative literature and lecturer in the Program in Medieval Studies, said they may turn the conference’s lectures into a book.

The majority of attendees were classicists, though graduate and undergraduate students also attended.

Robin McGill GS said the conference offered an exciting venue for sharing ideas with other scholars. Other attendees said the novelty of the topic made it particularly interesting.

The relevance of the topic to contemporary society and the expansion of the field came up frequently in discussion.

As speaker Mark Vessey of the University of British Columbia put it, “20 or 30 years ago, you had to be a bit odd to get into late antiquity.”

Recently, late antiquity’s role as a bridge between the classical period and the early middle ages — between classics and Christianity — has elevated its importance in academic scholarship. Because it represents a period of transition, late Latin poetry is more disjointed than the staid genres of classical poetry that precede it. At times, it is also both sexually and socio-politically explicit — in one lecture, James Uden of Boston University explored parallels between late Latin poetry and 20th century Beat poetry.

Several conference participants stressed a particular sexiness to the works discussed, jokingly commenting that the paintings of nude women gracing the walls of the Annmary Brown Memorial would make good cover images for the proposed book based on the conference. Because late Latin authors hailed from a combination of Christian, pagan and secular backgrounds, their works offer unique perspectives on the relationships between individuals and lovers, as well as individuals and God.

Scott McGill — whose book on the concept of plagiarism in ancient Rome and its implications for contemporary society will come out next year — referred to the conference as a “Late Antique Woodstock.”

He said late antiquity has traditionally been overlooked in this country.

Conference participants stressed that late Latin antiquity is a new field, which, as Vessey put it, “is only just beginning to be measured out.”

The conference proved that centuries later, ancient material can continue to deliver fresh insight. “Latin isn’t dead,” Pucci said, “It’s not spoken, but it isn’t dead. Any language that can allow you access to a culture isn’t dead.”

• via: ‘Late antique Woodstock’ brings Latin to life (Brown Daily Herald)

Michael Helfeld puts an interesting spin  on things in a Southern New Hampshire University press release:

It was 7 p.m. on a quiet autumn evening, when I received a call from my alma mater asking me for a donation. When I told the young lady that I had graduated with a degree in Classics, she was perplexed: “Classical music?” she asked. “No”, I replied, “Greco-Roman history.” “Ah, ok, that must be interesting stuff!” she said, and of course, I concurred.

Nowadays, I try to use the expression “ancient history” as a way to refer to my field, but it too often meets with perplexed responses. My friends and family don’t see any practicality in what I study, and yet I see it day after day in the events that transpire around me.

As a history instructor, I relish the fact that in Renaissance Italy (ca. 1350-1550 CE) humanists were often employed in matters of state; their historical research was considered indispensable. And what were scholars like Francesco Petrarch and Lorenzo Valla studying but ancient Greece and Rome? Studying antiquity provides us with the ability to understand our fast-paced world. As Socrates once said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” That’s why I want to offer two examples of how knowledge of the ancient past helped me understand the present.

Sometimes a Statue Isn’t Just a Statue
It was the fall of 2009 in Montreal, when Dawson College announced that it was going to repair the famous Notre Dame De La Garde statue on their roof. The college used to belong to the Congregation of Notre Dame, and it had once formed an intricate part of Quebec’s Catholic landscape. Religion is a hot button issue in the province. When Dawson made this announcement, a debate ensued about the statue’s return. One Montrealer remarked that as “a non-Catholic, non-believer,” he “was not alone in feeling utterly repudiated and excluded by the government’s urgent reaffirmation of the link between church and state.” But why all the fuss about a statue?

The whole affair reminded me of a story found in the Mishnah, a Jewish legal text written around 200 CE. It tells us that a Rabbi was bathing in the (Roman) “bathhouse of Aphrodite,” when an observer asked him how it was that a Jew could be relaxing in front of pagan statuary. After all, the 10 Commandments state that only Yahweh could be worshipped. The Rabbi explained that the statues of Aphrodite were not consecrated images imbued with religious power, but mere decorations. How else could one explain bathers relieving themselves in front of them?

This example of cultural interaction in the Roman Empire allowed me to think constructively about a modern debate; I could see how people saw Dawson’s statue not as mere decoration, but as an active symbol of faith. I found myself better equipped to engage my fellow citizens over a thorny issue.

Rome, Byzantium, Immigration and Community
My second example comes from an experience I had while writing this article. I was listening to NPR on my way home from work. Gary Leitzell, the mayor of Dayton, OH, was being interviewed on the “Here and Now” program about his city’s immigration policy. In the context of a stalled economy and the passing of a controversial bill by the State of Arizona, illegal immigration has become a major issue. Dayton had just approved the “Welcome Dayton Immigrant-Friendly City Plan,” designed to promote citizenship and economic development.

To my surprise, there were two references to ancient history in the interview! Firstly, while defending his city’s decision, he referred to Rome’s legal distinctions between citizens and foreigners. Then, he mentioned that ancient Byzantium (Istanbul) had outlasted Rome because it “was more international in its acceptance of trade and people.” Leitzell was trying to show how Dayton could grow demographically and economically by welcoming foreign workers and businesses.

A grounding in ancient history would allow the listener to understand and even critique Leitzell’s use of the past and his city’s position. I found myself able to do just this, and to know I could engage in dialogue with the mayor of Dayton and anyone else interested in building good, just, and sustainable communities.

In Conclusion
Today, antiquity only seems to be popular when mystery is involved: the enigmatic Dead Sea Scrolls speak about the apocalypse, battling angels, and the war between darkness and light. The Scrolls were recently digitized, and they have received over a million hits in just one week! And yet, the value of history does not only reside in its ability to stir our imaginations. The experiences, travails, and wisdom of our ancestors can serve us in a more pragmatic way: they can help us understand a present laced with nuance and permeated with detail. And this means that ancient history is not merely “ancient history.”

• via: Not-So-Ancient History

The Telegraph seems to be one of the only newspapers mentioning this … the salient excerpts:

Severe flooding led to tourists being shut out of the 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre as well as the nearby Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, and the ancient Roman port of Ostia, west of the capital.

The Colosseum was particularly badly affected, with water pouring into the underground tunnels and galleries where gladiators and wild animals once waited before being hoisted into the ancient arena on wooden lifts for staged fights.

At one point the tunnels, which were only recently opened to the public, were submerged to a depth of 15ft, officials said.

The severity of the flooding of the amphitheatre was “unheard of and extraordinary”, said Francesco Giro, a senior heritage official.

He said it evoked the ancient Roman practise of inundating the Colosseum with water in order to stage mock naval battles between gladiators and slaves.

“Following the exceptional weather that hit the capital, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Palatine, the Baths of Caracalla and the excavations at Ostia are closed to the public,” Rome’s archeological department said in a statement.

It was not clear when the sites, which attract millions of visitors a year, would be reopened. Engineers carried out checks to make sure none of the structures had been seriously weakened.

The torrential rain also brought down two large pine trees on the Appian Way, the ancient Roman road, lined with mausoleums and catacombs, which led from the imperial capital to the Adriatic coast.

[...]

The Circus Maximus, where Roman chariots once raced, was so extensively flooded that a man was photographed paddling a kayak across it.

• Severe flooding shuts Colosseum

UPDATE (a few minutes later): tip o’ the pileus to @scotartt on Twitter for pointing me to Martin Conde’s set of photos of the flooding: Rome, Flooded – Torrential Rainstorm – Roman and the Imperial Forums, Coloseum Valley and the Circus Maximus Underwater. Dott.ssa Astrid D’Eredita` / Fotos: Claudio Valletti / La Repubblica.it

This might be a little specialized for some folk (like me) since the presentations are all in Greek … the ASCSA has four talks:

• “Exploring Greek Manuscripts in the Gennadius Library”

A couple days’ worth … some appear to have disappeared amidst computer problems at school and IOS5 installation nuttiness:

• Freaky Friday: Hannibal vs Ulysses Grant vs Uber Cool Hipster October 21, 2011
• Open Access Journal: Iris Online October 21, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
• Leigh Hunt on Book Catalogues October 21, 2011 Michael Gilleland
• Friday Funnies–Ancient Style! October 21, 2011  (Vicky Alvear Shecter)
• Tyranical governments and people. Conference October 21, 2011 constantinakatsari
• Alexander in Afghanistan October 21, 2011 Uncle P
• A postscript to “Chasing Aphrodite” October 21, 2011 (Derek Fincham)
• The Goddess Goes Home Following years of haggling over its… October 21, 2011 (author unknown)
• “Chasing Aphrodite” Fall Book Tour comes to NYC October 17, 2011 SAFECORNER
• Round-Up: October 20 October 20, 2011  (Laura Gibbs)
• Rome, Flooded – Torrential Rainstorm – Roman and the Imperial Forums, Coloseum Valley and the Circus Maximus Underwater. Dott.ssa Astrid D’Eredita` / Fotos: Claudio Valletti / La Repubblica.it (20/10/2011). October 20, 2011 Martin G. Conde
• On This Day (October 20) October 20, 2011 Eric
• Greek plays: Lysistrata redux (BBC, 1964) October 21, 2011 Amanda Wrigley

Seen on the Classicists list:

ANIMATING ANTIQUITY: HARRYHAUSEN AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

Wednesday 9th November 2011, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

National Media Museum, Bradford, BD1 1NQ

Co-organised by Steve Green and Penny Goodman (Leeds)

The conference takes a ‘Janus-like’ approach to the relationship between Ray Harryhausen’s films and the classical world of myth by exploring not only the influence of the ancient world on Harryhausen but also the ways in which Harryhausen in his turn has shaped popular imaginings of the classical world in more recent times and media.

Further details about the event, in terms of speakers, paper abstracts and conference schedule, are available from a dedicated website: http://enduringcreatures.blogspot.com/.

We are now inviting delegates to book a place at this conference by using the University of Leeds online payment service. You can access this by going to store.leeds.ac.uk and then choosing ‘Product Catalogue’, followed by ‘Faculty of Arts’ and then ‘Classics Harryhausen Conference’. The direct link seems to be:
http://store.leeds.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&catid=345&modid=1&prodid=2438&deptid=26&prodvarid=0

If anyone has any further questions, please feel free to contact either Steve Green (s.j.green AT leeds.ac.uk) or Penny Goodman (p.j.goodman AT leeds.ac.uk)

Seen on the Classicists list:

CALL FOR PAPERS
Masks, Echoes, Shadows: Locating Classical Receptions in the Cinema
29 May 2012, Institute of Classical Studies, London

Cinema’s fascination with the classical past can take many forms. In recent years, scholarly and popular attention has mostly been directed at films that recreate and reconstruct the narratives of ancient history and mythology, such as Gladiator and Clash of the Titans. Alongside these high-profile titles, though, are a wide range of other films whose relationship to antiquity may be much more intangible and ephemeral. Whether identifying Homeric references in O Brother, Where art Thou? or Mike Leigh’s Naked, assessing Star Wars’ debt to Roman history, or examining the recurrence of the Oedipus story in the cinema, there are a multitude of ways in which shadows of the past can be detected, classical motifs can be masked and unmasked, and echoes of ancient texts or events can reverberate. Recent publications by scholars such as Martin Winkler and Simon Goldhill have advanced this area of classical reception studies, but the underlying theoretical issues require further attention.

For example:

· What is at stake in making such connections? How far can we go in claiming a relationship between a film and a classical text, or idea?

· Whose reading bears the most authority, and how far can the relationship between ancient and modern be stretched before it becomes implausible or irrelevant?

· How do such propositions intersect with existing frameworks for classical reception study?

This one-day colloquium therefore aims to bring together scholars and students of classics and film in order to discuss new research in this area. We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers on classical connections (broadly conceived) in any films which are, by and large, not set in antiquity (whether a historical or mythical ancient world) and which are not readily understood as adaptations of ancient texts (although a key area of debate will be the questioning of what constitutes an adaptation); we would expect all contributors to engage with the theoretical implications of their chosen case studies.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to both colloquium organisers by Friday December 16, 2011.

Organisers:

Anastasia Bakogianni, Open University (a.bakogianni AT open.ac.uk)

and

Joanna Paul, Open University (Joanna.Paul AT open.ac.uk)

Seen on the Classicists list:

APA 144th Annual Meeting: 3-6 January 2013, Seattle, WA
Campanian Cultures: Poetics, Location and Identity
Panel Organizers: Ian Fielding (Warwick); Carole Newlands (UC-Boulder)

The region of Campania was an important point of intersection between the cultures of antiquity. As the center of the Greek colonial presence in mainland Italy, Campania later became a focus for Roman interest in Hellenistic culture. For educated individuals like Cicero, Seneca and Pliny the Younger, the region was associated with artistic and intellectual pursuits, but also with the pursuit of luxury and excess. The history of Campania’s relationship with Rome has been traced in e.g. D’Arms 1970, Frederiksen 1984, Lomas 1993 and Leiwo 1994. The purpose of this panel is to prompt new inquiries into Campania’s distinctive multicultural identity.

With the wealth of textual and material evidence from ancient Campania, this panel will allow specialists from across a broad disciplinary spectrum to examine the interaction of different forms of cultural practice in the development of local identity. Papers might seek (1) to situate literary representations of Campania within their social and historical contexts, or (2) to consider how those representations were themselves influential in cultivating the region’s identity.

Significant issues to be considered include, for (1): how distinct were the individual towns and cities within Campania, and what kind of relationships existed between them? For instance, the strong sense of Greekness maintained in Naples has been shown to have an important bearing on the poetry of Statius, a native of the city. But is it possible to account for cultural variations between texts from Naples and texts from the surrounding area? For (2): how can the literary representations of specific loci within Campania be seen to figure the local and trans-local (Greek, Roman, Oscan) aspects of the region’s identity? Virgil, for example, depicts places such as Cumae and Lake Avernus in terms of the Greek literary tradition, and his association with the Bay of Naples continued to attract poetic imitators, such as Silius Italicus.

Contributors are invited to consider not only Campania’s development before and during the Roman period, but also its reception in later traditions of antiquity. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, long after the decline of its material resources, the area around Baiae retained much of the cultural significance it had held in the classical period. Through an examination of Campania’s varied cultural legacy, this panel aims to further our appreciation of its importance for the history of classical literature.

Abstracts must be received in the APA office by February 1, 2012. Please send an anonymous abstract as a PDF attachment to apameetings AT sas.upenn.edu. Be sure to mention the title of the panel and provide complete contact information and any AV requests in the body of your email. All submissions will be reviewed anonymously. You will be notified of our decision by March 1, 2012.

Seen on the Classicists list:

CALL FOR PAPERS: TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE

A panel to be held at the Seventh Celtic Classics Conference, with, and at,
L’Université de Bordeaux III and the Ausonius Institute, Bordeaux, 5th-8th
September 2012.

Confirmed speakers include: James McGlew (Rutgers), Ivan Jordovic
(University of Novi Sad), Greg Anderson (Ohio State University), Claudia de
Oliveira-Gomes (Université François-Rabelais, Tours), Efrem Zambon (Venice).

Cruel oppressors or popular heroes? Distant figureheads or approachable
rulers? Exploitative regimes or protectors of the masses? The relationship
between tyrannical rulers and the people has been a topic of contention
among ancient and modern historians alike. This panel will consider rulers
and regimes from archaic Greece to imperial Rome, and across the
Mediterranean, to explore the interdependence between tyrannical and
autocratic rulers and the people, and the ways in which their interactions
influenced political forms and institutions.

Please submit proposals for 40-minute papers, including a title and an
abstract of no more than 250 words, by 15th January 2012; submissions from
postgraduate students are also welcome. The languages of the conference are
English and French, and submissions are invited in either language.

Proposals (and all queries) should be sent to Dr Sian Lewis
(sl50 AT st-andrews.ac.uk), School of Classics, University of St Andrews, St
Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom, KY16 9AL.

Seen on the Classicists list:

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Long Reach of Antiquity

April 27-28, 2012

Columbia University

Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Leonard Barkan (Princeton University, Comparative Literature)
Prof. Joseph Farrell (University of Pennsylvania, Classics)

This conference addresses the legacy of Greece and Rome in the
literary arts from Classical Antiquity to Early Modernity. Graduate
students and post-doctoral fellows in Departments of Classics,
Comparative Literature, Italian, French, Spanish, German, English, and
Philosophy, among others, are invited to submit abstracts of up to 250
words for papers of approximately twenty minutes to
reachofantiquity AT columbia.edu by November 1, 2011. Abstracts should be
formatted as either Word or PDF documents and should include
departmental and institutional affiliation.

Seen on the Classics list:

Crowned Victor: Competition and Games in the Ancient World
4th Annual Center for Ancient Studies Graduate Conference
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Friday, March 2 to Saturday, March 3, 2012
Submission Deadline: January 7, 2012

The graduate students of the University of Pennsylvania seek abstracts
for the fourth annual Center for Ancient Studies graduate student
conference. This conference aims to explore the theme of competition
in the ancient world. Competition was a key component of many aspects
of life in the ancient world and was found in areas people in the 21st
century might not expect. We plan to focus on the role of competition
and its associations with society at large, be it in the form of games
or sports, interactions between members of a community, rivalries
between communities, or the way culture and literature channeled
competition. Our goal in presenting this conference will be to compare
how competition manifested itself in the disparate societies of the
ancient world and highlight similarities across cultures.
The conference invites papers on topics involving competition such as
(but, of course, not limited to):

Conspicuous consumption and status competition
Games as education
Competition as a structural force in society
Political competition
Ancient theories of competition
Competition and literature
Ideologies of competition
Sports and diplomacy
Place of athletes in the community

Submissions are welcome from graduate students working on ancient
topics in such fields as: Ancient History, Anthropology, Archaeology,
Art History, East Asian Studies, Classics, Egyptology, Linguistics,
Middle Eastern Studies, Near Eastern Studies, Pre-Columbian Studies,
Religious Studies, and South Asian Studies.

If you are interested in presenting a paper, please submit a 250-word
abstract for a 15 minute talk by January 7, 2012 including your
contact information (including name, institution, and e-mail) to
Arthur T. Jones at ancient AT sas.upenn.edu. Speakers will be notified of
the status of their submissions by January 15, 2012.