Seen on various lists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
‘Diodorus Siculus: shared myths, world community, and universal history’
An international conference at the University of Glasgow, 31st Aug. – 2nd Sep. 2011
Conference Website: http://ldab.arts.kuleuven.be/diodorus/
Diodorus Siculus, the most voluminous historian to survive from classical antiquity, is an important but neglected author. Not only is he our main source for significant periods of Greek, Roman and Sicilian history, he is also one of the few preserved ancient universal historians and one of the only two Hellenistic historians whose work is extant in any substantial part. Moreover, his /Bibliotheke/, because it is largely based on the works of his predecessors, is a source for the study of many lost Greek historians.
That he has rarely been studied in his own right, despite all of this, is the result of the traditional view that he was a slavish compiler of earlier works. Although Diodorus, like many other ancient historiographers, has been the subject of a (partial) rehabilitation, the question of his independence remains a controversial one.
This conference will be, as far as we know, the first international gathering on the author and our aim is to bring together scholars interested in the study of Diodorus in order to clarify our understanding of this crucial, but enigmatic and often misunderstood historian.
We welcome papers which – through either traditional or newer approaches – will increase our understanding of how and why Diodorus researched, organized and wrote the /Bibliotheke /: e.g. his views on history, myth, and the human condition, his relationship with his sources, his compositional and narrative techniques, his value as a historical source, his place within the tradition of ancient history writing, or any other issue that will enhance our comprehension of the /Bibliotheke/ as a work of Hellenistic historiography and Diodorus’ role as its author.
The conference proceedings will be published as a volume in the /Studia Hellenistica /series (Peeters publishers).
Confirmed keynote speakers:
John Marincola, Florida State University
Catherine Rubincam, University of Toronto
Kenneth Sacks, Brown University
Abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words.
Deadline for expressions of interest: 30 June 2010
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 30 September 2010
Abstracts should be submitted by email to one of the three conference organisers:
Lisa Irene Hau, University of Glasgow: l.hau AT classics.arts.gla.ac.uk
Alexander Meeus, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven: alexander.meeus AT arts.kuleuven.be
Brian Sheridan, National University of Ireland, Maynooth: brian.sheridan AT nuim.ie
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