CALL FOR PAPERS
Oratory and Politics in the Roman Republic
An international conference to be held in Oxford on 1-3 September 2010
Oratory played a central part in the political life of the Roman Republic,
where popular decision-making and aristocratic dominance intersected to create
a fertile environment for persuasive speech. This conference brings together a
group of leading international scholars to explore this phenomenon. The aim of
our discussions is to clarify the workings of oratory within a dynamic
political system as it was transformed from city state to empire. In so doing,
we will explore public speech as a near-universal activity of the elite, a
normal part of political business as well as a source of authority and
prestige, in which competence was required and skill rewarded. This broad
understanding of oratory, drawing on fragments of speeches and evidence about
occasions of performance as well as complete surviving texts, will enable us to
transcend a purely textual reading of Roman oratory, which focuses necessarily
on the surviving speeches of Cicero.
Key themes include the careers, styles and methods of individual orators;
public speaking and political decision-making; the relationship between
oratorical skills and political career; the criteria for oratorical success and
failure; forensic oratory and politics; performance space; gesture and
delivery; developments and implications (also political) of differing
oratorical styles; rhetorical training; the dissemination of written versions
of speeches and their possible political influence.
The following speakers are confirmed:
Dr Valentina Arena
Dr Henriette van der Blom
Dr John Dugan
Professor Harriet I. Flower
Professor Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp
Professor Martin Jehne
Professor Robert Morstein-Marx
Professor Francisco Pina Polo
Dr Jonathan Prag
Ms Amy Russell
Professor Christopher Smith
Professor Catherine Steel
Professor Jeffrey Tatum
If you are interested in giving a paper, please send an abstract (max. 300
words) to both organisers (see below) before 30 April 2009. Please note that
the conference is due to take place in 2010.
If you are interested in participating in the conference, but do not wish to
give a paper, do email both of us too and we will send you further information
once available.
Conference organisers:
Prof. Catherine Steel (Glasgow) and Dr Henriette van der Blom (Oxford)
Contact details:
Prof. Catherine Steel
Department of Classics
65 Oakfield Avenue
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
UK
Email: c.steel AT classics.arts.gla.ac.uk
Dr Henriette van der Blom
Merton College
Merton Street
Oxford OX1 4JD
UK
Email: henriette.vanderblom AT classics.ox.ac.uk
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