Classics Department Events

The Mosaic of the Wrestlers from Thapsus

2010-02-02T13:46:00.002-07:00

Monday, 22 Feb. 2010, 7 pm
Museum of Natural History at the University of Colorado.
Sponsored by the AIA
Free and open to the public.

The country of Tunisia lays claim to the largest number of Roman mosaics in the world. Four and a half centuries of Roman rule and its influence produced a wealth of these intricate works of art, which are still being discovered. In his lecture, Dr. Nezib ben Lazreg, of the Institut National du Patrimoine in Tunisia, will discuss a mosaic depicting Roman wrestlers, found in the ancient city of Thapsus, 200 km southeast of Carthage. Dr. ben Lazreg took part in excavations in Thapsus from 1997 to 2001, and the wrestlers are part of a series of mosaic portraits of athletes uncovered at the site.

Dr. Nejib ben Lazreg is a researcher with the Institut National du Patrimoine in Tunisia, and also the Curator of the Salakta Archaeological Museum, the Lamta Museum, and the Roman sites in the Sahel region of Tunisia (Lepti Minus, Thapsus, and Sullecthum). He holds his degrees from the Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Tunis (M.A., Ph.D.) and has trained in mosaics conservation with ICCROM. His area of specialization is the mosaics of Roman Tunisia, and he has conducted surveys of the Roman and late Roman pottery kilns in central Tunisia, of Tunisia’s changing coast line through history, and of archaeological maps of Moknine and La Chebba in Tunisia. He has conducted excavations throughout Tunisia, including at Carthage, the Punic necropolis of Erg el Ghazouani, the Punic fort of Ras Drak in El Haouaria, and most recently at Salacta (Sullecthum), Lamta, and Thapsus

Dr. ben Lazreg will be giving a Kress Lecture, courtesy of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in New York, which strives to support the work of scholars in the fields of ancient art.

Bar Kochba under Roman Rule: Inventing Jewish Radicalism

2010-02-01T10:22:00.002-07:00

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010, 7 pm
University of Colorado at Boulder
University Memorial Center, Room 382

Under the Roman rule in Judea and Provincia Judea (64 BCE - 135 CE) the Jewish population revolted a few time against the Roman occupation. This lecture by Professor Menachem Mor (http://www.jewishmovers.org/scholars-and-artists#menachem-mor), Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Haifa, Israel, is devoted to the Bar Kochba revolt: the last revolt against the Romans. The Jewish defeat is the last attempt in which the Jews fought for their freedom. This lecture will examine the participants in the revolt, their political attitude and how we can relate the Bar Kochba revolt to the invention of Jewish radicalism.

Daniel Mendelsohn at Colorado College

2010-01-28T11:31:00.002-07:00

Classicist Daniel Mendelsohn will appear twice at Colorado College on Monday, Feb. 8th. At 3:30, he will discuss his career as a literary translator, and at 7 pm he will read from his work including the recent two volumes of poetry by C.P. Cavafy.

The venues are:

(1) Cornerstone Arts building, Cascade and Cache La Poudre (#80 on the map at http://www.coloradocollege.edu/welcome/campus_map/), film viewing room, for the afternoon discussion.

(2) Palmer Hall, heart of the campus between Cascade and Nevada at San Rafael St. #11 on the map, Gates Common Room on the second floor, for the evening reading.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Mendelsohn (Classics Dept., Bard College, frequent contributor to the New
York Review of Books and the New Yorker--see his current piece on
memoirs, which "all started late one night in 371 A. D." at http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/01/25/100125crbo_books_mendelsohn--published his Cavafy translations last year--review at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Longenbach-t.html.

Professor Edith Hall, Royal Holloway, University of London: Why was _Iphigenia among the Taurians_ so popular in Antiquity?

2010-01-22T10:51:00.008-07:00

Thursday, 4th Feb. 2010, 5 pm
Eaton Humanities 150, Boulder Campus
Reception to follow in HUMN 350

Euripides’ Iphigenia among the Taurians was one of the most popular of all
Greek dramas in antiquity—painted on vases, praised by Aristotle, burlesqued in
Roman Egypt, and surfacing in many other genres of art and literature. This
illustrated lecture asks what it was about the play’s pioneering adventure plot
and appealing characters that made it such a perennial hit.

Edith Hall is Research Professor in Classics and in Drama & Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her work centers on ancient drama and epic and their performance, with attention to music, song, and dance; gender, ethnicity, and social class in the theater; and the history of performances of ancient plays and epic poetry in theater, opera, and film. She has held positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Reading, Oxford, and Durham (where she was Leverhulme Chair of Greek Cultural History until 2006). She has been involved as consultant in professional productions of ancient drama by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, among many others. Her books include Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition Through Tragedy (1989), Greek Tragedy and the British Theatre 1660-1914 (2005, with Fiona Macintosh), The Theatrical Cast of Athens: Interactions between Ancient Greek Drama and Society (2006), The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer's Odyssey (2008), and several edited collections of essays. Her latest works are Greek Tragedy: Suffering under the Sun, due out this month; and a book on Euripides' Iphigenia among the Taurians.

The mission of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) is to disseminate information about Hellenic cilization throughout the United States and Canada. The foundation is generously supporting Prof. Hall's visit through its University Seminars Program. Funding has also been provided by GCAH.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Daira Nocera: Rome and the Emperors: new archaeological evidence for understanding the Imperial Fora

2009-04-08T18:11:00.003-06:00

Wednesday, April 15

Hellems 201, 5 pm

Since 2000, recent archaeological campaigns in the heart of Rome have uncovered a staggering amount of new data that has improved our knowledge not only of imperial construction projects but also of previous phases of occupation in the area of the Roman Forum and the Imperial Fora. These recent excavations have demonstrated how much is still unknown about the area of the Imperial Fora. After a general overview of the Imperial Fora and the latest reconstruction of the Forum of Augustus, Dr. Nocera's presentation will focus on the Flavian intervention in the area with special attention paid to the projects commissioned by the emperor Vespasian on the occasion of the two thousandth anniversary of his birth, currently celebrated by a grand exhibition in Rome. Dr. Nocera will discuss the latest archaeological data for Vespasian's Temple of Peace and the Forum of Nerva.

Free and open to the public!

Dr. Philip de Souza, University College Dublin: Pirates and Politics in the Ancient World

2009-03-31T03:58:00.002-06:00

Monday, 20 April, 7 pm, HUMN 1B50.

Prof.H. Alan Shapiro, Collins Vickers Professor of Archaeology, Johns Hopkins: The Banqueting Hero: Shared Motifs in Greek Sculpture and Vase-Painting

2009-03-06T13:49:00.004-07:00

Tuesday, March 17, 4:30-6:00 pm

Mabel van Duzee Room, Norlin Library, N424B

H. Alan Shapiro has a particular interest in Greek art, myth and religion in the Archaic and Classical periods. He has written numerous studies of Greek vase iconography, including Personifications in Greek Art (1993) and Myth into Art: Poet and Painter in Classical Greece (1994). His interest in the interrelationship among art, religion and politics is best represented in his book Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens ( 1989; Supplement, 1995). He is currently working on a study of hero-cults in fifth-century Athens.

The mission of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) is to disseminate information about Hellenic civilization throughout the United States and Canada. The Foundation is supporting Prof. Shapiro's visit through its University Seminars Program. Prof. Shapiro is also co-curating the Foundation's current art exhibition "Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens" (at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York City through May 9), and he and co-curator Nikolaos Kaltsas (Director of the National Archaeological Museum of Greece) are co-editors of the exhibition catalogue.

Professor H. Alan Shapiro, Collins Vickers Professor of Archaeology, Johns Hopkins University: The Invention of Persia in Classical Athens

2009-03-06T09:37:00.004-07:00

Monday, March 16, 5 pm

Eaton Humanities 150

H. Alan Shapiro has a particular interest in Greek art, myth and religion in the Archaic and Classical periods. He has written numerous studies of Greek vase iconography, including Personifications in Greek Art (1993) and Myth into Art: Poet and Painter in Classical Greece (1994). His interest in the interrelationship in art, religion, and politics is best represented in his book Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens (1989; Supplement 1995). He is currently working on a study of hero cults in fifth-century Athens.

The mission of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) is to disseminate information about Hellenic civilization throughout the United States and Canada. The Foundation is supporting Prof. Shapiro's visit through its University Seminars Program. Prof. Shapiro is also co-curating the Foundation's current art exhibition: "Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens" (at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York City through May 9), and he and co-curator Nikolaos Kaltsas (Director of the National Archaeological Museum of Greece) are co-editors of the exhibition catalogue.

Please join us for a reception following the lecture in Humanities 350.

Prof. Jan Willem Drijvers, University of Groningen: Jovian as New Constantine in the Syriac Julian Romance

2009-02-19T10:31:00.004-07:00

Thursday, March 12, 2009, 5:00 pm, HUMN 1B50

Reception to follow in HUMN 350

Dr. Stephen Heyworth, Oxford University: Propertius 3.4 and 3.5

2009-02-14T10:02:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, March 3rd, 5 pm.
HUMN 250
Everyone is welcome.

Professor Carole Newlands, University of Wisconsin-Madison: Statius' Life of Lucan

2009-01-28T11:34:00.002-07:00

Feb. 5, 5 pm, Hale 230

Everyone is welcome.

Dr. Giuseppe La Bua, University of Rome, La Sapienza: Leges, sed retractatum, quae causa recitandi fuit (Plin. Ep. 8.21)

2009-01-03T21:08:00.003-07:00

Orality and Writing in Pliny's Epistles.

Tuesday, January13, 5 pm, HUMN 250.
Reception to follow in HUMN 350.

Jan Ziolkowski, Harvard University: 'De Laude Scriptorum' From Script to Print, From Print to Bytes

2008-11-11T14:53:00.003-07:00

November 20, 5:30 pm, HUMN 250

Servi Sunt: Immo Homines

2008-10-17T08:36:00.004-06:00

The Classics Department at CU is pleased to announce a
Graduate Student Conference on Slavery in Antiquity to be held
in the Eaton Humanities building, Room 150, on
Saturday, November 15th from 8am to 5pm.

All talks are free and open to the public.

Conference Schedule

All refreshments served in the Eaton Humanities ground
floor lobby. All talks given in Eaton Humanities 150.

8:00-9:00 Breakfast

9:00-11:00 First Panel: Archaeology and Epigraphy

9:00:  Joey Williams (University of Buffalo)
“The Social Variability of Metallurgical Pollution:
Slaves,Metalworking and Exposure to Environmental
Contamination in the Roman World”

9:40: Stacey King (University of Colorado)
“Epigraphic Evidence forAccumulated Wealth Among
the Servi Caesaris and Its Social Implications”

10:20: Smaranda Andrews (Iowa State University)
“Dacian Slaves, Literary and Archaeological Evidence”

11:00-11:30 Morning Break

11:30-12:10 Keynote Speaker Peter Hunt
(University of Colorado): “Slave Culture in Athens”

12:10-1:10 Lunch

1:10-2:30 Second Panel: Republican Rome

1:10: Daniel Walin (University of California, Berkeley)
“The Slave as Author and Object of Humor in Old Comedy”

1:50: Jacob Morton (University of Colorado)
“Character Over Profit: A Look at What the Ancient
Roman Farm Owners Wanted in a Vilicus and Why”

2:30-3:00 Afternoon Break

3:00-4:20 Third Panel: Imperial and Late Antique Rome

3:00: Andrew Clay (University of Colorado)
“Aspects of Roman Slave Trade in Late Antiquity”

3:40: Carey Seal (Princeton University)
“Seneca, Slavery, and the Philosophical Life: Epistle 77”

4:20-5:00 Keynote Speaker Noel Lenski (University of Colorado)
“Jerome’s Life of Malchus as a Slave Narrative”

Stephen Harrison, Corpus Christi College, Oxford: Some Issues in Ovid's Poetic Career

2008-09-19T16:46:00.001-06:00

October 2, 5 pm, HUMN 250

James McKeown, University of Wisconsin Madison: Amores 3.13: Ovid's Least Successful Poem?

2008-02-20T10:13:00.003-07:00

April 2, 5 pm, HUMN 135

Ewen Bowie, Corpus Christi College Oxford: Sacadas' Story

2008-02-12T14:17:00.004-07:00

February 27, 2008, 5 pm, HUMN 135

Few scholars have made lasting and influential contributions to as many areas within classical studies as Professor Ewen Bowie, recently retired from Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Professor Bowie has published widely on Archaic Greek Elegy and Iambus, Athenian Old Comedy, Hellenistic Poetry, and the literature and culture of the Greek world in the first three centuries CE (especially the so-called “Second Sophistic”). He has devoted particular attention to the ancient novel, and his edition of Longus’ Daphnis & Chloe with commentary, for the series Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics, is eagerly awaited. In his lecture, he will draw on interdisciplinary sources to reconstruct the work of the sixth-century BCE elegiac poet and musician Sacadas, whose compositions on Apollo, now lost, were famous in antiquity.

Judson Herrman, Allegheny College: Divided reactions: Athenian politics after Chaeronea

2008-01-25T09:52:00.001-07:00

March 7, 5 pm, HUMN 1B80

Professor Herrman will discuss a newly discovered speech of the fourth century BC in which the Athenian orator Hyperides defends his motion to crown Demosthenes, the foremost politician of the day. In this speech, delivered about four years after Athens lost its independence in foreign policy to Macedon in 338BC, Hyperides defends the hawkish policy of Demosthenes that led to the defeat. The new fragments are strikingly similar to Demosthenes' own defense of his policy, which he presented in his greatest oration, On the Crown, some four years after Hyperides' defense. In this new material Hyperides emerges as a political partner working closely with Demosthenes.

Professor Herrman will focus on this relationship and suggest that it is an example of factional politics in Athens in the 330s.

Laurialan Reitzammer, Stanford University: Sex, Drugs, and Kettle-drums: Euripides' Bacchae and Athenian Religion

2008-01-22T18:19:00.001-07:00

February 11, 5 pm, HUMN 250

Peter Mazur, Trinity College Hartford: Apate in Retrospect: Odyssey 9 and Iliad 22

2008-01-22T18:18:00.001-07:00

February 8, 2008, 5 pm, HUMN 250

Zoe Stamatopoulou, University of Virginia: Hsiodou tout’epos: Hesiodic Moments in Pindar (Isthmian 6, Pythian 2)

2008-01-22T18:16:00.001-07:00

February 4, 2008, 5 pm, HUMN 250

Pauline LeVen, Princeton University: Old Songs for New Gods, or New Songs for Old Gods?: Paeans in the Fourth Century BC

2008-01-22T18:05:00.001-07:00

February 1, 2008, 5 pm, HUMN 250

John Gibert, University of Colorado: The New Sappho

2007-12-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

October 10th, 3 pm, HUMN 345

Philip Hardie, Cambridge University: Dido and the Plots of Fama

2007-12-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

October 2nd, 5 pm, HUMN 250