Letter from the Chair
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Online Version Princeton NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS Spring 2011 Letter from the Chair n the spring of 2012 Latinists, one multidex- lecturer at the University of Freiburg, will the department is trous linguist, and six join us in the fall as assistant professor of Ischeduled to undergo historians, but (as can be classics and hellenic studies, concentrat- its first academic review expected with faculty) ing on post-classical and Byzantine Greek. since 1996. In such a this is where confusion With this second joint appointment with review a small panel of enters. Our historians the Program in Hellenic Studies, we distinguished scholars regularly teach language further strengthen our ties with Hellenic from other institutions courses, all of us at some Studies and our commitment to the post- gives us a thorough going time teach humanities classical world. over, to praise our virtues, Classicsand other courses, and As to the future, I offer not a crystal to tactfully expose our freshman seminars, not ball but a wish list, and again reconceived sins of commission and to mention many cross - boundaries are involved. First, I would like omission, and to submit listed or jointly taught to balance our strength in post-classical recommendations for im- courses, some of us serve Greek with the revival of mediaeval Latin, provement. Even here in as associated faculty in for which there is both strong support Lake Wobegon we admit other departments and in other departments and healthy signs that in some areas we may Ted Champlin, Chair programs or frequently as of student interest. A new appointment be less above average than in others— program directors (not to mention college in Latin would also relieve our severely uncomfortable though scrutiny may be, masters, university committee members, strained language program—we regularly we all recognize its value and necessity. In etc.). I hasten to define this as a creative turn away students from oversubscribed the following pages you will read as usual confusion—uncertain boundaries offer courses. Second, I would like to reaffirm about the triumphs and adventures of the beckoning vistas of interdisciplinarity and our close ties with the Department of denizens of East Pyne, but I thought that redefinition. Comparative Literature, both through our here I might offer a sketch of the present I can report recent progress on two current excellent faculty with comparative and of a possible future. fronts. We have always had close ties with interests and through the appointment, First some basic statistics, which the Department of Art and Archaeology. eventually, of another Hellenist specializing may not be familiar to all. We are now, in After being hit by retirements, the classical in Greek drama. And third, I would like to university terms, a department of small program there is being rebuilt under the Continued on page 3 to medium size, serving some 36 majors, direction (since 2009) of a distinguished including 22 juniors and 14 seniors, and Roman art historian, Michael Koortbojian, some 35 enrolled graduate students. Each who has proven a good friend of our depart- Inside this issue… year our offerings, which range from ment. This year Michael brought on board small classes and seminars to large lecture Nathan Arrington (A.B. Princeton, Ph.D. News from the Faculty ............................2 courses, tend to enroll over 700 students. Berkeley) as Greek art historian and archae- Faculty Bookshelf ....................................6 Our communal and academic life is made ologist, and he is currently heading a search unimaginably easier by the good work for a third colleague. As a token of our com- Senior Theses 2010 .................................7 of our four office staff, whose individual mitment, the Department of Classics and the praises I sang last year. Our faculty con- Program in Hellenic Studies jointly support Princeton in Israel ....................................8 sists of some 16 academics: 15 professors one half of Nathan’s appointment. Dissertations ...........................................9 (10 full, two associate, three assistant) and Even closer to home, a successful one senior research scholar. search has just added another colleague to Zeitlin Retires ........................................10 As to field, the chair crudely clas- our department. Emmanuel Bourbouhakis Graduate Student News .......................12 sifies our faculty as five Hellenists, four (A.B. McGill, Ph.D. Harvard), currently a 2. Princeton Classics News from the Faculty Yelena Baraz Ted Champlin Marc Domingo Gygax Janet Downie Denis Feeney Andrew Feldherr Yelena Baraz is the setting for another paper soon to M. Satlow for the series Ancient World: After teaching Roman Satire to a great appear, “Sex on Capri”, which investi- Comparative Histories (Wiley-Blackwell). group of undergraduates in the spring, I gates the shocking allegations about his began a year–long sabbatical, supported by retirement there, both more and less than Janet Downie Princeton and a grant from the Loeb Clas- meets the eye. A high point of the year On leave this year, I have been busy with sical Foundation. I am currently a visitor was a research trip to Rhodes in early two projects. First, a book on one of at the Institute for Advanced Study, where September, where (based part of the time, the more experimental pieces of literary I enjoy the peace, the conversations, the naturally, in the Aquagrande Exclusive self-presentation from the ancient world: birch trees that remind me of home, and Deluxe Resort Hotel) I literally stood in “Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi”. An article of course, the food. In July I gave a talk the footsteps of Tiberius and found the related to the dissertation phase of this on Cicero and translation at a conference value of seeing the island through his project—“Portrait d’un Rhéteur: Aelius in Swansea entitled “Author/Translator in eyes. But of course the emperor always Aristide comme initié mystique et athlète the European Tradition”. A longer ver- had to return to Rome, where I think he dans les Discours Sacrés”—has recently sion of the same talk was presented at the proved a cannier ruler than his critics appeared in a volume on Second Sophis- Humboldt University in Berlin in October. make out, using his notorious addiction to tic literature edited by T. Schmidt and P. The visit to Berlin was part of a longer mythology as a potent weapon in winning Fleury for the University of Toronto Press. trip to Germany: for two weeks I worked popularity. I have argued this in a lecture A chapter on the practice of dream inter- in the archive of the Thesaurus Linguae given most recently last year at Trinity pretation in the Hieroi Logoi is forthcom- Latinae (TLL) in Munich, researching the College Hartford—it will appear as a long ing in a volume of essays on dreams and concepts relevant to my book project on paper later this year, and its lessons ap- healing in Greece, from ancient to modern. Roman pride. Incidentally, the last TLL plied to the corridor in East Pyne. Moving into new terrain, I am now inves- articles, including popularis and pone, tigating Imperial-era conceptualizations of appeared last winter. In December, I gave Marc Domingo Gygax landscape as a way of understanding the a talk on Pliny and dreams at Indiana I continued to serve as departmental rep- relationship between literary and visual University in Bloomington. The article resentative of the classics department, and culture in Greco–Roman Asia Minor. In version will appear in Transactions of the in this capacity I was pleased to see a sub- this connection, I have presented papers American Philological Association (TAPA) stantial increase in the number of majors. on myth and landscape in Philostratus’ He- in due course. Currently, I am occupied In the fall I again offered my freshman roicus at the University of Chicago and the with final revisions of my first book on the seminar on “Truth and Objectivity in An- ancient studies seminar at the Institute for cultural and political dimensions of Cicero’s cient and Modern Historiography”, and in Advanced Study. By September, I will be philosophical works. the spring an undergraduate course on the back in the full stream of department life philosophies of the history of Greek and and teaching—with Classical Mythology Edward Champlin Roman historians, as well as a graduate and the Greek novel in the fall semester. Gloomy, reclusive, suspicious, and mis- seminar on Greek historical inscriptions. understood by all—my admiration of the In July I worked in the archive of the Reial Denis Feeney emperor Tiberius has only deepened as I Acadèmia de Bones Lletres of Barcelona I enjoyed a year’s sabbatical (summer pass the halfway point of my chairman- on a paper on the unpublished scholarship 2009-summer 2010), assisted by Guggen- ship. Tiberius loved getting away from of J.A. Llobet i Vall-llosera (1799–1862). heim and ACLS Fellowships. From January it all, years on Rhodes, years ruling the In October I gave a talk at the University to June 2010 I was a visiting fellow at Trin- empire from Capri, relaxation in his of Basel, where I presented part of a new ity College, Cambridge, where I was able to secluded Shangri-La on the coast of research project, undertaken in collabora- catch up with many old friends and began Latium at Sperlonga. In 2010 I followed tion with an economist, on rational choice writing a book on why the Romans had a him. At Sperlonga, Sejanus saved his life theory and mechanisms of voluntary literature in Latin when they really shouldn’t and cemented his position as the second contributions to public goods in the clas- have had one (plus risking a coronary row- man at Rome, for reasons I discuss in sical and Hellenistic polis.