Somewhat strange item from the Greek Reporter:

The Federal Court of New York has acquitted Socrates after 2,410 years. During a historic trial, with ancient Greek characteristics and contemporary views, presented from their legal and humoristic side at the same time, hundreds of people had the chance to experience a wonderful “performance” of the truth, the law and the Greek heritage. Alexander S. Onassis Foundation was in charge of the transfer of Socrates’ trial to one of the most representative court rooms of American Justice, succeeding in ensuring the participation of top judges and acclaimed lawyers of New York’s legal elite. During this Manhattan trial, which was not actually a representation but a new version, all charges against Socrates were examined. The case dated back to 399 BC, when Athenians had to decide if Socrates was “guilty” or “not guilty”, concerning charges for “impiety against Gods” and “corruption of young people’.

Archbishop Demetrios of America stated: “The presentation of Socrates’ trial was very interesting as far as defence, advocacy and accusation are concerned. Important views were presented, with elements of intelligent speech and clever references. The Onassis Foundation will release a DVD of the trial, which will also be published on the internet”.

• via New York Court Acquits Socrates After 2,410 Years! | USA.GreekReporter.com.

Seen on various lists:

Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values VII

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values were established as a biennial venue in which scholars
could investigate the diverse aspects of Greek and Roman values. Each colloquium focuses on a single
theme, which participants explore from a diversity of perspectives and disciplines. A collection of
papers from the first colloquium, held at Leiden in 2000, was published in 2003 under the title
‘Andreia’— Manliness and Courage in Classical Antiquity, edd. Ralph M. Rosen and Ineke Sluiter.
This was followed by Free Speech in Classical Antiquity, (2005), City, Countryside, and the Spatial
Organization of Value in Classical Antiquity (2006), KAKOS: Badness and Anti-Values in Classical
Antiquity (2008), Valuing Others in Classical Antiquity (2010), and Aesthetic Value in Classical
Antiquity (in preparation).

The topic of the seventh colloquium, to be held at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, June
15-16, 2012, will be:

Valuing Antiquity in Antiquity

Short description of the topic:

The ‘classical tradition’ is no invention of modernity. Already in ancient Greece and Rome, the
privileging of the ancient over the present and future played an integral role in social and cultural
discourses of every period. In this colloquium we want to examine this temporal organization of value
and the mechanisms by which it was produced and sustained—in other words, ancient valuations of
antiquity as expressions of lived value-systems. How did specific Greek and Roman communities use
notions of antiquity to define themselves or others? What models from the past proved most
acceptable or desirable (or not) for political practice or for self-fashioning? What groups were the
main agents, or audiences, of such discourses on the value of antiquity, and what were their priorities
and their motivations? What were the differences between Roman and Greek approaches, or between
antiquarianism, genealogy, classicism, nostalgia, canonization and their opposites? How did temporal
systems for ascribing value intersect with the organization of space, the production of narrative, or the
espousal and application of aesthetic criteria?

For the seventh Penn-Leiden colloquium, we invite abstracts for papers (30 minutes) that address ‘the
past in the past’ along these lines. We hope to bring together researchers in all areas of classical
studies, including literature, philosophy, linguistics, history, and visual and material culture, and hope
to discover the significant points of intersection and difference between these areas of focus.

Selected papers will be considered for publication by Brill Publishers. Those interested in presenting a
paper are requested to submit a 1-page abstract, by email (preferable) or regular mail, by Friday
November 18th, 2011.

Contact (please copy both with email correspondence):

Dr. Christoph Pieper
Classics Department
University of Leiden
P.O.Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
Email: c.pieper TA hum.leidenuniv.nl
Phone: +31 (71) 527 2673

Prof. James Ker
Department of Classical Studies
University of Pennsylvania
201 Cohen Hall
Philadelphia PA 19104-6304
USA
Email: jker TA sas.upenn.edu
Phone: +1 (215) 898 3027

Seen on the Classicists list:

Beyond Self-Sufficiency

Households, City-States and Markets in the Ancient Greek World
Durham, 2nd-5th July 2011

The Department of Classics and Ancient History, Durham University, will be
holding an international conference on 2nd-5th July 2011, Beyond Self-
Sufficiency: Households, City-States and Markets in the Ancient Greek
World.

This conference will draw on the expertise of scholars working in a
variety of disciplines, including archaeology, numismatics, epigraphy and
history to examine a controversial topic of Greek economic history: the
issue of self-sufficiency. Many scholars still subscribe to the view held
by Hasebroek and Finley that the Greeks, from the level of individual
households to entire city-states, aimed at self-sufficiency and minimal
participation in markets. However, the validity of this view has not been
rigorously tested from a variety of methodological approaches. By
examining this problem from a number of angles, this conference represents
a major step towards clarifying one of the central problems in Greek
economic history.

A limited number of places are available for participants, so it is
recommended that those who wish to attend contact the organisers as soon
as possible; the conference fees are as follows:

Standard: £10 daily rate/ £40 full conference
Concession: £8 daily rate/ £30 full conference

Please direct your enquiries to:

Mark Woolmer (mark.woolmer TA durham.ac.uk)
or
David Lewis (d.m.lewis TA durham.ac.uk)

Programme:

Saturday 2nd July

(1) 5pm-6pm E.M. Harris (Durham University)
Markets in the Ancient Greek World: A Typology

(2) 6pm-7pm J.K. Davies (Liverpool University)
Markets and Market-places in Ancient Greece

Sunday 3rd July

(3) 9am-10am C. Pébarthe (University of Bordeaux)
Beyond The Ancient Economy, ancient economics

(4) 10am-11am P. Acton (independent scholar)
The Household Mode of Production: Political Ideology or Economic
Rationality?

(5) 11:30-12:30 B. Ault (SUNY Buffalo)
Households and Self-Sufficiency

(6) 12:30-1:30 B. Tsakirgis (Vanderbilt University)
Whole Cloth: Exploring the Question of Self-Sufficiency through the
evidence for Textile Manufacture and Purchase in Greek Houses

(7) 3-4pm J.H. Kroll (Oxford University)
Changes in Athenian Weights Standards and Their Implications for Athenian
Trade

(8) 4-5pm S. Psoma (University of Athens)
Weight-Standards in Coinage outside Athens and Trade between Poleis

Monday 4th July

(9) 9-10am M. Lawall (University of Manitoba)
Transport Amphoras as Evidence for Motivation and Market Behaviour in the
Economies of Classical and Hellenistic Greece

(10) 10-11am C. Tzochev (independent scholar)
The Export of Thasian Amphoras and Markets in the Black Sea Region

(11) 11:30-12:30 T. Panagou (University of Athens)
Patterns of Amphora Stamp Distribution. Tracking Down Export Tendencies

(12) 12:30-1:30 M. Woolmer (Durham University)
Honours and Rewards for Merchants

(13) 3-4pm D. Lewis (Durham University)
The market for slaves from the Persian Empire in the fifth and fourth
century Aegean

(14) 4-5pm G. Kron (University of Victoria)
Classical Athenian Trade in comparative perspective: Literary and
archaeological evidence, demand and infrastructure

Tuesday 5th July

(15) 9am-10am A. Bresson (University of Chicago)
Markets and the Role of the State

(16) 10-11am P. Van Alfen (American Numismatic Society)
An Overview of Commodities in Long-Distance Trade c. 500-300 BCE

Adrian Murdoch continues the series with a look at the guy who isn’t a character from Harry Potter (although some search engines seem to think so):

• #20 Septimius Severus: Emperors of Rome

ante diem xvi kalendas junias

• 218 A.D. — Elagabalus recognized as emperor at Emesa

[note in passing for fans of The Office (North American version) … remember the episode called ‘Launch Party‘ where Michael ended up taking a pizza delivery boy hostage because the pizza joint didn’t honour his coupons? Didn’t the pizza guy in that episode (Kevin McHale look exactly like this bust of Elagabalus?]