Spring 2018 www.classics.ox.ac.uk FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER

PLUS! HOW CLASSICS IMAGINING CHANGES LIVES... POSTCARDS FROM ALUMNI THEART AND THE DIVINE RISE OF WORLD RELIGIONS...

EXCAVATION AT APHRODISIAS: GOING VIRAL IN EXCITING FINDS IN 2017 AFGHANISTAN

ANACHRONISM COLLECTIVE CLASSICS OUTREACH AND ANTIQUITY MEMORIES STUDENT PROFILES CLASSICAL AND THE GREEK 2018 PUBLIC LECTURES ACROSTICS CITY-STATE 2 | FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER 2018 WWW.CLASSICS.OX.AC.UK | 3

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR GANDHARA

It has been another the Faculty’s ab initio language teaching published by OUP later this year. Michael busy and exciting CONNECTIONS programme. I am proud and delighted to Vickers has published Aristophanes and Prof Peter Stewart year in the faculty. report that alumni helped us raise more than Alcibiades: Echoes of Contemporary History We have taught Latin £50,000 to support three new Graduate in Athenian Comedy and Not just Porridge: and Greek ab initio to Teaching Assistants. We are enormously English Literati at Table. he Classical Art Research Gandharan sculptures seemed somehow Above: Gandharan relief sculpture from Hund a record number of grateful to everyone who responded to the Centre’s work ranges very to reflect the legacy of Alexander the on the River Indus, showing the story of the undergraduates. Our graduate students appeal, and to all those who have supported Earlier in the year the Outreach Room widely across the art of the Great, who had conquered Gandhara Trojan Horse. It closely resembles a Roman have delivered papers at local, national our activities in different ways this year. hosted our most successful public exhibition sarcophagus lid in the Ashmolean Museum. ancient world. Even so, the and whose ‘Graeco-Bactrian’ and ‘Indo- and international meetings. Distinguished Thank you for your generosity towards the to date: The Hidden Gospels of Abba T The story was probably reinvented as a tale of Centre’s youngest project reaches far Greek’ successors periodically controlled scholars have visited from all over the world next generation of classicists. Garima. These unique, lavishly illustrated one of the Buddha’s past lives. British Museum, beyond the normal scope of classical the region. Rudyard Kipling, whose father to deliver lectures and seminars. We have gospels, written in Ge‘ez (the language c. 2nd century AD. studies. The ancient region of Gandhara curated the early Gandharan sculpture © TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, held conferences on a diversity of subjects In our summer campaign, we then of the Ethiopian Church) some time roughly equates to the northern tip of collection in Lahore, expressed a common CREATIVE COMMONS BY-NC-SA 4.0 LICENCE ranging from divine narratives in ancient asked for your help with a visionary new between 350 and 650 CE, were discovered Pakistan, around the Peshawar Valley. view of these works in the opening pages Greece and the Near East to problems of project: a bridging scheme which will recently in the Abba Garima Monastery in This is the area once known as the North- of Kim, where he refers to the ‘figures of Against this background the Classical chronology in Gandharan art. help to close the gap between school and the Ethiopian Highlands and beautifully Oxford for students from less advantaged published by Judith McKenzie et al. Current West Frontier. In the early centuries AD, the Greco-Buddhist sculptures done… by Art Research Centre carried out proof of Gandhara was part of the Kushan Empire, concept work on Gandharan art in 2013 The Alumni Day in March offered talks on backgrounds. Through your donations you exhibitions include Jas Elsner’s Those Who forgotten workmen whose hands were which flourished at the same time as the with a grant from the OUP John Fell literature, history and archaeology, and a have put us in the position to hold the Follow: in touch with religious diversity feeling, and not unskilfully, for the Roman Empire. The great Kushan ruler, Fund. In autumn 2016 the three- fascinating panel discussion of all the things bridging course for the first time in 2018, in Oxford, which opened in November to mysteriously transmitted Grecian THE Kanishka, was a contemporary of Hadrian year Gandhara Connections classicists do in later life. It was a special and I expect to be able to report on it in the coincide with his Ashmolean exhibition touch.’ PHENOMENON OF next newsletter. Imagining the Divine and is accompanied and Antoninus Pius, and probably sent CLASSICAL AFFINITIES project was launched thanks pleasure to see alumni of all generations Nowadays most researchers envoys to the latter. They were separated IN GANDHARAN ART to the support of the Bagri sharing their interests and exchanging email by a series of public lectures. If you are in We have also launched the Connections by several thousand kilometres and a are more hesitant about REMAINS A PUZZLE, EVEN Foundation and the Neil addresses. On 18 October members of the Oxford with an hour to spare, do visit us! to Classics Fund. This fund, which will common adversary – the Parthians – but attributing the classical AFTER 150 YEARS OF Kreitman Foundation. Its faculty went to Edinburgh with a roadshow focus on outreach activities, support for linked by maritime trade routes. appearance of Gandharan SCHOLARSHIP AND aim is to create and host of talks and a reception for alumni and undergraduates, and support for graduate sculpture to the region’s DEBATE online resources for the study friends north of the border. In December we students on a three-year cycle, will enable It was in this period that the large Greek past rather than ongoing, of Gandharan art and its classical welcomed alumni and friends to a Christmas the faculty to support current and future Prof Tobias Reinhardt Buddhist population of Gandhara exploded contemporary contacts with the links, and to stimulate new research and party in the Ioannou Centre, where Tim classical scholars across the University when Chair of the Faculty Board into archaeological visibility with the Roman world. There is increasing attention insights on the subject through events Rood introduced his Leverhulme-funded they need it most. For more information, construction of monumental monasteries to other cross-cultural links, such as those and publications. The ‘connections’ of the project on Anachronism and Antiquity. see the faculty website. and stupas (relic shrines) intended to with India. It is important to avoid heavy- project are modern as well as ancient: it convert worldly wealth into religious handed use of cultural labels – ‘Greek’, Members of the Faculty have published offers a forum for anyone interested in Colleagues emeriti have been no less busy DURING THE LONG VACATION THE merit. The monuments were covered in ‘Roman’ – and the nebulous impression numerous books and articles this year and the subject, and brings together a thinly this year than those in past. Among many IOANNOU CENTRE UNDERWENT sculptures – initially in stone, and later of an influence emanating from the won numerous awards. Inter alia, Bruno spread international community of curators highlights, Roger Tomlin published the REFURBISHMENT TO CREATE FOUR often in stucco – representing the Buddha, Mediterranean world and falling on the Currie has published Homer’s Allusive and academics in Asian and classical writing-tablets recently excavated, with ADDITIONAL OFFICES AND A NEW religious narratives, and other figures from passive inhabitants of Central Asia. We Art and Andrew Meadows Egyptian Coin archaeology, numismatics, Sanskrit, art much publicity, in the City of London in SEMINAR ROOM. BY REFURBISHING Buddhist cosmology (some excellent pieces need to understand better the mechanisms Hoards I: The Ptolemies. Stephen Harrison history, and Buddhology. Roman London’s First Voices: writing tablets are on display in the Ashmolean Museum). of interaction between distant traditions has been awarded a Leverhulme Major THE OLD ADMIN OFFICES ON from the Bloomberg excavations, 2010– When, in the later nineteenth century, the whose shared ‘artistic DNA’ defies logic. With this critical mass of shared interests, Research Fellowship for his project ‘Love THE GROUND FLOOR (INCLUDING 14. Some of Fergus Millar’s recent articles classically educated European soldiers and communication and debate, we aim to and the Soul: Apuleius’ tale of Cupid and THE REMOVAL OF ASBESTOS) have been collected as Empire, Church and administrators of the Raj rediscovered Yet the phenomenon of classical affinities reanimate the study of Gandharan art. Our Psyche in European Culture since 1600’. WE ARE ABLE TO HOUSE ALL THE Society in the Late Roman Near East. Peter these works, they were astonished by their in Gandharan art remains a puzzle, even online resources will be built up between Andrew Wilson and Alan Bowman co-edited LANGUAGE TEACHING STAFF IN Parsons edited a group of unpublished echoes of classical art: the same repertoire after 150 years of scholarship and debate, now and 2020. They already include the Trade, Commerce, and the State in the ONE BUILDING FOR THE FIRST TIME papyri including a fragment of the lost novel of naturalistic conventions; similar poses as do many other fundamental questions new GAB (Gandharan Art Bibliography) and Roman World in the series Oxford Studies ‘Incredible Things beyond Thule’ and the AND HAVE CREATED A SPECIFIC and compositions; similar gestures and about its character and development. recordings of past lectures and workshops. in the Roman Economy. Marguerite Ronin minutes of a show-trial before the Emperor HUB FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING. types of dress; characters like Hercules There is more popular interest in The events programme involves an annual has won a Marie Curie Research Fellowship Hadrian. or satyrs converted into Buddhist this field than ever before, but international workshop in Oxford, the for her project ‘The Exploitation of the demigods. Even the impassive, the ‘crossroads of Asia’, as proceedings of which will be published in Countryside in the Western Roman Empire Michael Winterbottom has completed transcendental face of Gandhara has been called, lies a free online e-book (the first, Problems (C2 BC–C2 AD)’. Armand d’Angour has a long-term project on William of the Buddha, whose at the intersection of many of Chronology in Gandharan Art, will be won a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Public Malmesbury. Miriam Griffin published anthropomorphic disciplines and languages published in the spring). To find out more Engagement with Research for his project Cicero on Life and Death (the alert will representation probably and rejuvenating its study please check our project webpages and ‘Ancient Greek Music – hearing long-lost spot the hommage). Peter Brown brought started in Gandhara, requires a collaborative join the Gandhara Connection email list: sounds’. out several articles on ancient drama and seems to have adapted effort. www.carc.ox.ac.uk/GandharaConnections. its reception in early modern Europe. Ewen classical conventions. In the last newsletter, you may remember Bowie has published his commentary on To these nineteenth Left: ‘Atlas’ figure from Jamal Garhi. Ashmolean Museum, c. 2nd century AD. that my predecessor, Teresa Morgan, Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe. Oswyn Murray’s Such supporting figures relate to atlantes in classical art, but have a more notable century eyes, the wrote to ask for your help in developing The Symposion: Drinking Greek Style will be resemblance to Hercules. © THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 4 | FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER 2018 WWW.CLASSICS.OX.AC.UK | 5

The excavation of the pool was supervised by our own THE SUCCESSFUL Andrew Wilson, and generously funded by Mica PARTNERSHIP OF THE TURKISH Ertegun, with handsome support from the Friends of MINISTRY OF CULTURE, NEW Aphrodisias Trust in London, the Augustus Foundation and the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation. POOL YORK UNIVERSITY AND OXFORD UNIVERSITY IN THIS PROJECT WAS The South Agora at Aphrodisias opens • VALIDATED WHEN APHRODISIAS WAS EXCAVATION AT APHRODISIAS off the Tetrapylon Street to the west 1 2 FORMALLY INSCRIBED AS A UNESCO Aphrodisias in Caria, a well-preserved Greek city of the Roman period in and is dominated by a long pool, partly WORLD HERITAGE SITE AT THE 41ST South West Turkey, continues to favour its investigators with remarkable excavated in the 1980s. SESSION OF THE WORLD HERITAGE IN 2017 COMMITTEE HELD IN KRAKOW, archaeology. Our two-month season in July and August 2017 saw rich Test trenches in 2012 revealed planting Prof Bert Smith • POLAND, ON 10 JULY 2017 finds and important results. A team of archaeologists from Oxford and NYU trenches for palm trees, and a five-year project – The Mica and Ahmet Ertegun South worked on a variety of projects, but the main focus was on excavating the Agora Pool Project – was completed in 2017. Tetrapylon Street and the South Agora. 2 • The excavation of the pool was completed as planned in August 2017 and brought a sharp light to bear on ancient and medieval STREET life in the centre of the site. The Tetrapylon Street was a key urban artery in the city of • The South Agora was in fact a sumptuous public park laid out in Aphrodisias. Its excavation is bringing new information about the Tiberian period (AD 14–37) with a 170m-long ornamental the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman history of the city. pool at its centre surrounded by palm trees and marble colonnades. The pool was completely renovated in c. AD 500 • The specific aim in 2017 was to investigate further the post- and was kept functioning into the early seventh century. It was Byzantine bath building discovered in 2016. then gradually filled in on both sides, with successive layers of rubble and debris from the surrounding buildings. • As exposed this year, the bath house consists of four rooms and a praefurnium (furnace) on its east side: a water chamber • Dense and important finds came from the lowest of these or built water tank; a large hot room with a hypocaust floor; layers, close to the pool floor. The range is impressive: pottery, a smaller chamber, possibly a tepid room; and a changing lamps, roof tiles, wooden planks, marble architecture, statuary, room (apodyterium) with benches on two walls. inscriptions, bronze coins, reliquary crosses, lead tablets, gold- The Tetrapylon Street glass ornaments, and a variety of iron weapons. • The bath house was first constructed in the Seljuk period (11th-12th centuries), and was adjusted and enlarged • Among several high-quality finds of marble portrait statuary – through Ottoman times. an Aphrodisian speciality – two pieces are of special importance: • Finds in 2017 include remarkable fragments from the hot 1. A remarkably preserved bearded male portrait head, probably chamber of moulded Seljuk plaster decoration with a swirling of a provincial governor, has the hairstyle and technique of flower pattern. the Theodosian period (c. AD 400). It also bears a tiny covert Christian three-letter inscription added by the sculptor on Work in 2017 was supervised by our own Ine Jacobs, and funded by the its neck under or ‘behind’ the long beard: 'XMG'. This was an Headley Trust, the Friends of Aphrodisias Trust in London, the Malcolm abbreviation of the Greek for ‘Christ was born to Mary’ that Hewitt Wiener Foundation, and the British Institute at Ankara. Seljuk fragments marked emphatically the faith of the person writing it. 2. The second find is a masterpiece from the very end of ancient statue production. It has a stubble beard, bald skull, and a Constantinopolitan ‘mop’ hairstyle of the early sixth century AD. The portrait combines personal truthfulness in its unflinching baldness with the best contemporary fashion in its deeply drilled crown of curls. Even the very last statues at Aphrodisias remained undiminished in technique and effect.

TAIL Among these rich finds was one more unexpected discovery: a horse’s tail of blue-grey marble, excavated on the south side of the pool. • It was found to join break-to-break to the rear of the blue-grey marble horse and group of Troilos and Achilles excavated earlier in the Basilica and now mounted in the Aphrodisias Museum. • The tail was carved in one piece with the body of the horse – a bravura sculptural performance in a huge block of difficult local marble.

The 2017 campaign at Aphrodisias produced an abundance of exciting finds on the street and in the pool, and their excavation and thorough documentation were due to the extraordinary hard work of our graduate student team and local workforce. 6 | FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER 2018 WWW.CLASSICS.OX.AC.UK | 7

COLLECTIVE MEMORIES CURIOUS CLASSICS AND THE GREEK CITY-STATE ACROSTICS Dr Matthew Robinson Prof Rosalind Thomas code-breaking competition interesting things emerge. That Ovid in his for schoolchildren may not be Metamorphoses gleefully rebuffs the advice the most obvious source of Horace gives to poets in his Ars Poetica is A inspiration for research into Latin well established: but further evidence can poetry, but in my case it has opened up be found. Horace urges poets not to begin a whole new approach to classical texts. at the beginning of a story, since a promise My son’s interest in the National Cipher to sing of such laughably overambitious Challenge led to us both getting to grips with topics as the entire Trojan war can only

PHOTOGRAPH: SIGNE ISAGER PHOTOGRAPH: the programming language Python, which result in terrible anti-climax, which Horace makes doing complicated computational illustrates with a proverb 'the mountains are things with letters and words extremely in labour, but all that is born is a ridiculous e live in a period in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Josephus’ spread their traditions. This links plausibly to simple. Some weeks later, I was reading mouse (ridiculus mus)'. When Ovid begins which globalisation and Jewish Antiquities: but despite their an anxiety about the loss of these traditions about some supposed Vergilian acrostics at the beginning of his story, which covers resurgent nationalism titles, it would be a mistake to interpret in the massive expansion of the Greek and telestics (words formed by the first and not the entire Trojan war but rather the or localism are them - or other local history – simply as world with Alexander’s conquests. As for W last letters of a series of lines respectively), The Acrostic Rotas-Sator Square entire history of the universe, it is again no frequently in the news, and subject to antiquarianism, that is to say disembodied the Athenians, they did not write histories and I wondered whether it might be (2nd/3rd century AD). Such acrostic/ coincidence that we find an acrosticMUS in earnest discussion. The ‘new localism’, learning without political or cultural of their own city at the height of their fifth- possible with Python to write a program to palindromic squares are found across the the margins (1.14–16). as it is called, raises profound questions purpose. century confidence, but only when they search out other acrostics and telestics in Roman empire. YALE UNIVERSITY GALLERY ART YALE about regional solidarity, ethnic identity were aware of past greatness from the mid Greek and Latin literature. It was, and I did, These examples, and many others, lead Rather, local history writing can be and the relation of communities to their fourth century onwards. Strikingly, and the results have been fascinating. The true path probably lies somewhere in me to believe that ancient readers were intensely bound to a sense of historical experience. In the ancient Greek these works presented as history between. The Greeks and Romans were on the look-out for acrostics, just as they resurgent local pride, or a world the Persian Wars helped crystallise tales which we would dismiss Of course, a computer-generated list of certainly familiar with acrostics: we find were for allusions. Such an approach, sense of loss or fear of loss; LOCAL HISTORY a particular form of Hellenism; there is an as myths; and a substantial possible acrostics and telestics is only them explicitly marked in inscriptions, and however, has consequences: it necessitates a need to consolidate WRITING CAN BE equally important phenomenon in the rise number of traditional tales the start of the process, since we have to discussed by classical authors; and they reconsideration of the infamous and wildly and represent one’s of the writing of histories of city-states INTENSELY BOUND TO with folk-tale elements decide whether any of these acrostics and were said to be the hallmark of the oracular inappropriate acrostic at the heart of community to the and regions. These are the polis histories, A SENSE OF RESURGENT were retold in such telestics are meaningful. Many apparently Sibylline books; but ultimately the decision Vergil's 'Sibylline song', the Fourth Eclogue. wider world in order island histories and histories of ethnos LOCAL PRIDE, OR A histories – the kind of tale significant letter-sequences can arise as to whether to accept an acrostic comes As the celebration of the miraculous child to preserve, explain, states, conventionally called ‘local histories’, we meet in Herodotus’ fortuitously, as we can clearly see from down to whether one can make a plausible who will inaugurate the return of a Golden or raise status, or to SENSE OF LOSS OR which became increasingly popular from Histories (eg the Ionian English-language acrostics that appear in case for its significance. So for example, Age reaches its climax, we find the acrostic proclaim its contributions FEAR OF LOSS... the fourth century and into the Hellenistic take-over of Erythrae using classical texts, whether that be DUNCES when the ex-love poet Ovid first introduces CACATA ('excreted', or 'excreted upon') at to the wider Greek world world. The book I have just finished writing witchcraft and a poisoned bull). in the Georgics (1.419–24) or DUDS in amor into his epic Metamorphoses at 4.47-52, which might suggest that this in a bid to maintain a decent examines this historiography, asking what These polis and island histories Lucretius (3.702–5). Conspiracy theorists 1.452ff., a theme that will prove as central new age is not so golden after all. Mere standing. These histories, whether such histories were like, what they did for were not all bare chronicles. This does much may shudder to find the FBI and CIA within a to the poem’s content as it is to its title, it coincidence rather than encoded message, they were of islands, cities, or regions, were the community, and why writers began to to explain why they went on being read, and few lines of each other in Met. 5 (5.656–8 is no coincidence that the first four lines surely? After the National Cipher Challenge, written within and for active political and record information about the history and why Dionysius of Halicarnassus said they and 670–2); those of a rustic bent may of this highly significant passage spell I’m not so certain... social communities – for Boiotia or Miletus, present practices of their own community. had charm and attraction, full of implausible fancy they hear a final bovine farewell in the out his cognomen NASO in a telestic; no This is an activity which is, after all, neither Rhodes or Pontic Herakleia. but much-loved tales. MOO telestic that brings the Eclogues to a coincidence either that Vergil, who begins Below: Mountain giving birth to a mouse. A natural nor inevitable. close (10.70–2); but for most of us this is The Cycladic island of Paros, for instance, Writing a history of your own community the Aeneid singing of 'arms and a man' woodcut, from Steinhöwel’s 1477/48 edition all just the curious result of chance. of Aesop’s Fables, published in Augsburg. The remains of such histories are very produced carefully inscribed accounts is an act of self-definition and a careful (arma virumque), at the moment that he actually extensive. They offer the usual problems about the poet Archilochus, the island’s proclamation of a certain view of that It can be harder to draw the line when introduces the 'man' at involved in dealing with fragments, but the main claim to Panhellenic fame: this small community. It can be calculated and it comes to Latin words, however; and 1.92 also introduces the fragments are often rewarding and very island produced three island historians (at selective, and must affect the way the group scholarly approaches have diverged wildly. ARMA too in a telestic. surprising. Later writers such as Plutarch, least), and an Aristotelian Constitution. sees itself. These works are an invaluable For example, in 1899, one scholar published Pausanias and Athenaeus plundered The island of Samos had at least twelve testimony to the way each community a list of thousands of acrostics he had These are both well- them, as did lexicographers and scholiasts historians (almost all from the Hellenistic crafted its unique identity within the wider unearthed in a range of Latin poems that studied passages, but these seeking to elucidate a literary text. From period), and the fragments indicate a world of the late classical and Hellenistic spanned several centuries, only to declare telestics have not been the core Greek world, mainland Greece powerful urge to maintain their status as period. As the recently discovered Salmakis them all – with one late and anonymous noticed before, because no and the settlements around the Aegean, a major player in Greek affairs in the past, inscription asked (c.150 BC), ‘what is the exception – to be the meaningless result one has been looking for Mediterranean and Black Sea, we hear of and to preserve information about their pride of Halicarnassus?’, and it proceeded of chance; in the same year, but at the them. But once we start around 500 named authors of polis and religious places and customs. Fragments to elaborate on Halicarnassus’ contributions opposite extreme, another scholar had reading Latin literature regional histories, and there are more from from other poleis elaborated lovingly on to Greek culture. Many other cities had found hidden messages everywhere, few of with an eye on the edges further afield as well as many which have local practices, customs and festivals in a done this already.

which, however, were in recognisable Latin. of the text, all sorts of CENTRE MUNICH DIGITISATION sunk without trace. We have fully surviving manner which one can only link to solid local examples in the Roman Antiquities of pride in place, and a desire to preserve and Image: The Salmakis Inscription on Halicarnassus 8 | FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER 2018 WWW.CLASSICS.OX.AC.UK | 9

IMAGINING THE DIVINE: ART AND THE RISE OF WORLD RELIGIONS WAS A MAJOR EXHIBITION HELD AT THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD FROM OCTOBER 2017 TO FEBRUARY 2018. EXHIBITION CATALOGUES IMAGINING THE DIVINE: ARE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE FROM THE ART AND THE RISE OF WORLD RELIGIONS MUSEUM Prof Jas Elsner

ne of the more exciting trends Religion has been a fundamental force for Islamic, and Western history, Imagining the in Classics in the last few constructing identity from antiquity to the Divine demonstrates the relevance of the decades is the subject’s move contemporary world. The transformation religions’ past for the present. Obeyond the narrower reaches of ancient cults into religious systems with of Greek and Latin philology, history or a universal claim that we recognise now THE BIRTH OF THE IMAGE OF CHRIST archaeology into larger vistas of the reception as world religions took place in the first AND JEWISH ANICONISM and the transformation of the ancient millennium AD. This exhibition shows that traditions. For the last four years a team the creative impetus for both the emergence The exhibition starts in the Roman world. of doctoral students, and much of the visual In the first centuries AD, the space of postdocs and curators IT IS EASY TO ASSUME THAT distinctiveness of cultural interaction between the Roman and have been working on THE MAJOR RELIGIONS OF THE the world religions Parthian/Sasanian empires in the eastern the development of art WORLD ARE FIXED ENTITIES, were produced by Mediterranean, Asia Minor and the near and specifically the rise DISTINCT FROM EACH OTHER IN contexts of cultural East proved an extraordinary melting pot of the iconographies MANY RESPECTS...WE SHOW THAT encounter. Imagining for the creation of new religions and the major figures of the great epic poems the in Byzantine Christianity) led to innovations Mahabharata and Ramayana respectively). THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW such as the rise of calligraphy and ornament. we now recognise as THIS HAS NEVER BEEN THE CASE. the Divine highlights re-invention of old ones. New religions like that of Serapis or Jesus competed with Avatars could project political messages, so VISUAL LANGUAGE: THE ISLAMIC The introduction of an ornamental visual familiar in the world RELIGIOUS IMAGES, EVEN THE MOST the co-existence of the WORLD religions. The team, emerging major world older ones that reinvented themselves, that the third avatar, Varaha – a boar who language attests to early Islam’s creative ICONIC ONES, ARE THE PRODUCT At the periphery of the Roman and Sasanian known as the Empires of religions, as well as like that of Dionysus or Judaism after the rescued the Earth from the primordial ocean stance on religious art in an act of self- OF ENCOUNTER: DIALOGUE, empires, the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula Faith Project, generously numerous exchanges fall of the Temple in 70 AD. In the process – became a potent metaphor for dynasts’ differentiation from the visual environment INFLUENCE AND DIFFERENTIATION. converted to Islam in the 7th century AD. funded by a grant from of images and ideas of competition with other cults, including own successes in protecting their kingdoms of contemporary religious culture. Within a hundred years, they conquered the Leverhulme Trust, has been based at points of contact and cultural borders processes of appropriation and assimilation, from worldly dangers. Creativity born of the surrounding territories and extended in Oxford at Wolfson College and at the between late antique and early medieval and ultimately the exclusion of the range religious encounter is explicit in the identity the new Islamic empire over a vast region THE ARRIVAL OF CHRISTIANITY: THE British Museum. A major exhibition, entitled civilizations. of late antique religions, Christianity and of the ninth avatar of Vishnu, the Buddha, stretching from Spain to the Indus Valley. The BRITISH ISLES Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of Judaism flourished. The show concentrates whose successful religion was thus offered Umayyads of Syria and the early Abbasids The exhibition will end in the British Isles. World Religions at the Ashmolean Museum This unprecedented show explores first on the breadth of Roman visual models the option of being appropriated wholesale of Baghdad developed a rich and varied Visual markers of Christianity spread across from 19 October 2017 to 18 February the development of the images that that influenced the creation of the image of into Hinduism! visual culture that was deeply indebted the pre-Christian sacred landscape of the 2018 will chart the project’s results, drawing became central to the world religions of Christ. It then pursues the struggle between not only to the Sasanians and Romans, but early medieval British Isles. Believers at on wonderful objects from a number of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and iconic and aniconic trends in Judaism, as a THE CREATION OF THE also to the local artistic traditions of their the edge of the Christian world received national and private collections in the UK Judaism. The imagery still used by these minority religion without a supporting state. ANTHROPOMORPHIC BUDDHA: many conquered lands. Early Islamic art missionaries, adopted religious practices, including the British Museum, the British belief systems today is evidence for the MATHURA AND GANDHARA therefore cannot be reduced to a simple and appropriated symbols from Rome, Library, the V&A, the National Museums development of distinct religious identities THE TEN AVATARS OF VISHNU: For centuries after his death, the person decorative aniconism. Competition with a transforming them to accord with their own of Scotland and the Oxford collections. in the first millennium. Emblematic visual HINDUISM IN SOUTH ASIA of the Buddha was not depicted in art. visually charged religious environment cultural and aesthetic traditions. Now part A second exhibition, entitled Those Who forms, such as the figures of Buddha or In Hinduism, the god Vishnu is believed to Although elaborate depictions of the (with both three-dimensional carved of a Christian network, artists created new Follow, at the Outreach Room in the Ioannou Christ, or Islamic aniconism, only evolved have re-incarnated himself upon the earth events of his life were created, a idols as in Arabian paganism expressions of religious belief by combining Centre on St Giles, running concurrently, will in dialogue with a variety of coexisting ten times in a series of so-called avatars. space was left where the Buddha and two-dimensional British and foreign textual, visual and chart the religious spaces and practices of visualisations of the sacred. As late antique The exhibition shows how the religious would stand. But, in the late 1st painted or relief icons as narrative traditions. the same range of religions in contemporary believers appropriated concept of the avatars century AD in Mathura and Oxfordshire. some competing Gandhara, simultaneously and models and rejected negotiated between Imagining the Divine sets out to explore the creation of a independently, worshippers others, they created A FEW VISUAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EXHIBITION: the creation of the art of some of the major cult of Vishnu, created the first images of compelling and long- This page from top: Scroll drawing showing the ten avatars of Vishnu, Andhra Predesh, world’s great religious traditions – the on the one hand, the Buddha. This dramatic lived representations of shift took place in a India, c.1771–79, Watercolour on paper, 26x113cm, Victoria and Albert Museum faiths we now know as Buddhist, Christian, faith, but also revealed and the polytheist Jewish, Muslim and Hindu – in the long late understanding context where the religion Left: Temple statue of Dionysus, Cyrene, Libya, 2nd century, The British Museum their indebtedness was challenged by new ideas antiquity, the first millennium AD. It is easy of divinity as Centre top: Panels with New Testament scenes c.420–30 Rome(?), Carved ivory, to a multitude of and foreign cultures and where to assume that the major religions of the contemporaneous distributed in H 7.5cm, The British Museum world are fixed entities, distinct from each numerous local cults artists could draw on diverse religious ideas and inspirations. While Mathura sat at Centre bottom: Sculpture of Varaha, the Boar Incarnation of Vishnu, Madhya Oradesh or other in many respects, notably in their arts. images. By demonstrating in late antique India, on Bihar, c.850–950, carved stone, H 64.8cm, Ashmoloean Museum, University of Oxford We show that this has never been the case, the other. The avatars are the border of the Kushan empire the extent of cultural and religious and was home to diverse Indian Right: Depiction of Christ, Hinton St Mary (Dorset), 4th century, The British but that religious images, even the most interaction across mental and physical the principal gods of a series of successful iconic ones, are the product of encounter: religions which became assimilated to the cults, in Gandhara a multi-ethnic Museum borders, we aim to replace the model of and multi-lingual community dialogue, influence and differentiation. static civilisations and empires with a more overarching worship of Vishnu in the course Bottom left: Rama, Cast bronze, 14th century, Deccan, Ashmoloean Museum, of the first millennium AD – including, for prevailed which had Greek, University of Oxford Image right: Byzantine censer, Constantinople, fluid vision of communication. Bridging the instance, the heroes Krishna and Rama (the Roman, and Chinese artistic Turkey, 602–610 AD, The British Museum traditional divides between Classical, Asian, models at its disposal. 10 | FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER 2018 WWW.CLASSICS.OX.AC.UK | 11

ANACHRONISM AND ANTIQUITY GOING VIRAL IN Prof Llewelyn Morgan EXPLORING TEMPORALITY AND ANACHRONISM IN THE Dr Carol Atack TEXTS AND CULTURE OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY AFGHANISTAN

erodotus may have been the father failure to distinguish between n Afghan newspaper is not some- but a bit also of our The project is led of history, and Thucydides may society then and now when by Professor Tim where I would have expected to fundamental impulse as continue to inspire analyses of asserting the value of historical Rood, supported by find myself published a few years teachers to share things Hpolitical crisis, but current models exemplars of great men. Modern two post-doctoral Aback, but earlier this year I had we find interesting. of the history of history suggest that they, along historiography avoids this charge researchers, the honour of seeing my words translated with other writers of antiquity, displayed a lack by acknowledging change in Dr Tom Phillips and into Persian for Ettela’at Ruz in Kabul, Earlier this year, at any of temporal awareness. As they attempted to link temporal regimes, and their Dr Carol Atack, Afghanistan’s only independent newspaper. rate, a British-Afghan friend stimulated to significance and respect, financial and together events in different times and different own place within them. But with contributions a blog by pointing out to me something otherwise, in a wider world dominated by A comprehensive account of how these places without an accurate synchronised and one can see similar claims for from Professor fascinating I had not noticed about Afghan the West. John Marincola. Tom words ended up as Ettela’at Ruz’s most banknotes. At the top right-hand corner universal chronographical framework (something methodological innovation in the To my surprise, this esoteric discussion of brings his expertise popular article in March 2017 would of each note there is a tiny reproduction that would be developed by later scholars), ancient historians themselves, Greek coins and twentieth-century Afghan on Hellenistic involve a book I wrote about the Buddhas of a Greek coin, specifically one side of the historians of antiquity risked the failure to whether in Herodotus’ critiques history went viral in the UK, picked up by a intellectual culture of Bamiyan in 2012 and the friends and a tetradrachm of Eucratides, one of the recognise error in their work. However, the of mythography or Polybius’ critiques of his and poetics to an popular tech site called Hacker News, and issues this subject introduced me to. A Greco-Bactrian kings who ruled in this part research currently being undertaken by the predecessors. exploration of the self- bringing 10,000 visitors to my blog for shorter version of the story has more to of the world, in the wake of Alexander, in Anachronism and Antiquity project, based in the conscious retelling of the month of March as compared to the The Anachronism and Antiquity project is therefore do with a blog that I started keeping after the third and second centuries BC. Among Faculty of Classics and funded by the Leverhulme myth in Hellenistic epic, 1,500 I can normally expect. But it was a challenging historiographic models that rely on finishing my Bamiyan book. It was initially numismatists it is a celebrated design, Trust, shows that their temporal awareness was while Carol is working special feeling when the Persian translation assumptions of temporal primitivism in ancient on the manipulation of designed to promote it, and I followed up an image of the two Dioscuri Castor and more complex and detailed than currently believed. on the Ettela’at Ruz website became literature, and investigating how ancient authors temporal structures in the various Central Asian adventurers, in most Polydeuces, mounted, with the words their most read article of the month. This A prime exhibit here is the historical inscription understand and make use of the past. While the Platonic dialogues. Tim in ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΕΥΚΡΑΤΙΔΟΥ, 'of the great history may be interesting for us; but it known as the Marmor Parium or the Parium term ‘anachronism’ itself emerges in Byzantine turn continues his work king Eucratides,' surrounding the figures. is potentially essential information for Chronicle, which was produced on the island of scholarship in late antiquity, writers from on Greek historiography To my surprise this esoteric and its reception history. Afghans themselves. Paros and lists events in the history of Athenian Herodotus onwards had already identified a series discussion of Greek coins and But what is this coin doing on an Afghan politics and culture from Deucalion and the of problems with using the past that we would As well as working banknote? As I explained in my blog, it is flood to 264/3 BCE. A large fragment of this label anachronism. Writers across many genres individually on our twentieth-century Afghan the seal of the Da Afghanistan Bank, the The Afghan newspaper who published inscription has long been held in the Ashmolean certainly reshaped the past, creating convenient specialist interests, we are history went viral in the UK, central bank of Afghanistan, and was added me, Ettela’at, is run on a shoestring synchronicities that scholars of later antiquity to the notes in 1979, around the time of Museum; early modern commentaries on it writing an introduction to picked up by a popular tech by committed, courageous journalists found problematic, such as the meeting of Dido and anachronism and antiquity the Soviet invasion. But the seal itself, so I show the development of terminology for who represent the best hope for a anachronism (‘parachronism’ and ‘prochronism’) Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid, or the claim reported by together. We will be site called Hacker News, and am led to believe, dates back to the original presenting initial findings healthy, pluralistic civil society in as its errors and even authenticity were debated. Herodotus that the battles of Himera and Salamis establishment of the Bank in 1939, and from our research at a bringing 10,000 visitors to my this troubled country. I mentioned But recent scholarship on this intriguing survival happened on the same day; and the idea that Solon this makes it a very meaningful choice. At conference to be held at and Croesus could have met is doubted by Plutarch. blog for the month of March... least two relevant things were happening earlier that writing about Afghanistan has shown how the layout of its entries implies a Florida State University Ancient authors also transferred practices from in Afghanistan in 1939: one was the has alerted me to many new issues, sophisticated awareness of transitions between in March 2018, and different temporal regimes; even this error-ridden a newer date to an older one (and vice versa, or later in 2018 we will archaeological investigation of the country and here is one: I am trying to help chronicle appears to display an understanding of even both simultaneously; the democratic king of host a seminar series in cases also Classicists, for whom I hadn’t had led by the French, with stunning discoveries them to raise money to ensure their the problems of historical knowledge. Athenian tragedy takes democracy back in time Oxford, which will focus space in the book. Since then, however, I’ve at Begram, Hadda and elsewhere. This future. If you’d like to help too, and monarchy forwards), a process most explicit in more on the relationship found myself blogging, once a month or so, ancient, non-Islamic history of Afghanistan, you can contribute here: https:// Ancient writers, with their interest in relating Isocrates’ accounts of Athens. Ideas and behaviour between anachronism about Roman and Greek poetry, the history in the process of being unearthed, was www.gofundme.com/etilaatroz. the lives and deeds of great men, are thought might be appropriate at one time, but not another, and the reception of and architecture of my college, and lots of starting to play a role in official expression to exhibit anachronism in another sense, in their leading to concerns that change over time might the classical past. You things in between. What my blog offers of Afghan identity. At the same My blog is also a cause close to can read more about render old examples useless. to me is an arena for chasing time Afghanistan, under the my heart, and may be read here: The relevance of ancient our work-in-progress ideas that interest me but modernising campaigns at the project’s blog at https://llewelynmorgan.com. examples drawn from may or may not grow into of king Zahir Shah, was anachronismandantiquity. simpler societies was a academic publications. seeking to establish itself wordpress.com. worry to classical educators In the 1,500 words as an equal player in the writing in many genres; Above: Frontispiece of of a typical blog I can international community, when Socrates offers a Chandler's Marmora pursue a 'mindworm' to a nation state with all the simple, minimal polis as an Oxoniensia 1763 (OUP). a satisfactory conclusion, necessary institutions, exemplar (Plato Republic II), Left: Jacoby’s drawing or I can develop more fully including such essentials of the Paros section of Glaucon complains that it is an idea I only had room to as a National Bank. This Bank the Marmor Parium a city for pigs, not people, (IG XII.5 444), from sketch in a lecture. There is a was thus from the beginning and therefore of little value his 1904 Das marmor bit of outreach in this (schoolchildren an outward-looking organisation, in their inquiry into justice. Parium (Weidmannsche interested in Classics can catch an and the coin of a Greek king, as a logo, Buchhandlung) accessible glimpse of academic work), expressed perfectly Afghanistan’s claim 12 | FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER 2018 @oxfordclassics WWW.CLASSICS.OX.AC.UK | 13

CLASSICS OUTREACH STUDENT PROFILES PROGRAMME TWO STUDENTS SHARE THEIR OXFORD STORIES NEFELI PIREE ILIOU In my project I intend to produce a synthesis of Roman Epirote agricultural systems, DPhil in Classical Archaeology, 1st Year combining excavation evidence with surface AN EASTERN ROMAN LANDED GENTRY? ROMAN survey data and studying Roman rural sites VILLAS, FARMS AND VILLAGES IN EPIRUS, 2ND in Greece from social, economic and cultural CENTURY BC – 5TH CENTURY AD perspectives and in dialogue with other provincial examples. This work will investigate The ancient Roman countryside was a busy place: farmers went to the spread and nature of villa culture and from their homes and villages, tending to their orchards, their eastwards of Italy and how villas along with sheep, their bees, and frequently visiting local land-based tycoons new and pre-existing farms, villages and estates contributed to an at their luxuriously decorated villas. The villas were cultured Epirote network of cities and ports, such as Nicopolis. By exploring OxLAT students after leisurely retreats, competitively charged social environments their final lesson. Valete the little-studied Roman Greek countryside, this project will shed and the bases of productions, from oleo-culture to fish-salting discipuli discipulaeque! light on how incorporation into the Roman Empire transformed and sulphur mining, run through large-scale human labour. The the Hellenistic rural sphere and uncover the Epirote countryside’s fruits of these industries were transported across the Roman role in the larger socio-economic networks that underlay the Mediterranean, feeding concentrations of soldiers and bustling transition from the Hellenistic into the Roman worlds and came to cities. While the Roman world is known for its big cities, the characterise the Empire. OXLAT TEACHING SCHEME NEW majority of the population lived in the countryside. Rural dwellers often worked in villa-centred networks that contributed to the Regular readers of the newsletter will be familiar with the OxLat Teaching Scheme, whereby the OUTREACH Below: Nefeli at the Roman city of Nicopolis, observing the interior economic and cultural dynamism which made possible the world’s of a small nymphaeum faculty (thanks to a generous grant from the Stonehouse Educational Foundation) offers free OFFICER first city boom. tuition in Latin language and literature to state school students in Years 9 and 10 (13-15 year My name is olds). The tuition runs ab initio through to GCSE. Villa culture and villa-based economies were studied in the Qasim Alli, and I Western Mediterranean. In the East, ‘Old Greece’ was long The first cohort (comprising 25 students from 15 schools across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, started as the new seen as the culturally superior but decadent remnants of Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire) started in January 2015. The last two and a half Outreach Officer Classical Greece, with little change over the Roman period. This years have passed very quickly (tempus fugit after all!) and the students have now sat their for the faculty in September 2017. perception has been changing, but the Eastern countryside has GCSE examinations after many months of intensive work. Despite the challenging nature of I studied Classical Civilisation at a lacked attention. My research as a Master’s student at Oxford the work, this cohort achieved absolutely stellar results, including 15 x A*; 4 x A; and 1 x B. state school in South London, showed that 21st-century rural rescue archaeology has led before going on to do my BA and to the unearthing of Roman villa-like estates in Greece. Villas Although the Latin teachers and I were sad to see our first cohort of students go, we do MPhil in Classics at Cambridge. not have to say goodbye completely as Trinity College have very generously organised a worked with farms and villages towards a new exploitation of I’m excited to become part of the the countryside, especially in Epirus (modern north-western curriculum enrichment programme in Classics for students who have completed the OxLAT Oxford faculty's amazing Classics course. This ‘Advanced Programme in Classics and the Ancient World’ (organised by Dr Gail Greece & southern Albania), where the phenomenon’s origins outreach, and am keen to bring might lie. Trimble and Dr Peter Haarer) offers our OxLAT alumni the opportunity to extend their Latin my own enthusiasm and ideas language skills post-GCSE and encourage them to explore other areas of Classics and the to encouraging students from a ancient world: literature, ancient history, archaeology, and beginners’ Ancient Greek. variety of backgrounds to consider ROBERTA BERARDI argued mainly that it was still too much dependent on Demosthenes and had no Applications for the 2017–2019 cohort opened in March 2017 and we again received a Classics. DPhil in Classical Languages and Literature, 2nd Year distinctive new elements. Kremmydas’ and very high level of interest, with applications from more than 60 students across 10 schools Look out for our new monthly Tempest’s recent book 'Hellenistic oratory: in the Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire area. We were thoroughly impressed 'FRAGMENTS OF HELLENISTIC ORATORS: TEXT, podcast, VoxPop, which hopes to continuity and change' provides, on the other by the high level of enthusiasm and ability from all applicants; competition was very, very TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY.' bridge the gap between Classics hand, a more open-minded approach to the strong, making it difficult for the selection panel to decide who should be offered a place on As I always say when introducing my current DPhil project, if at universities and Classics as subject, which underlines some aspects of the Scheme. Lessons for this cohort (consisting of 25 students from 7 schools) started in we were in a library looking for a collection of fragments of experienced by everyone else. originality, of 'change', alongside those of July and we have very much enjoyed beginning the Latin-learning journey all over again with Hellenistic orators, the results of our research would be extremely We’re kicking off with two continuity (hence the title). While the book our bunch of fresh recruits. disappointing, as at the moment such a work simply does not exist. episodes in December, one on presents an important reconsideration of Hellenistic oratory, no Of course we have had to disappoint some applicants, and although we are loath to have to Ovid to align with the 2000th There are multiple reasons for this: oratory in the Hellenistic age role has been given to the actual personalities: the orators, the turn away enthusiastic learners, it is gratifying and encouraging to know that there is such anniversary of the poet’s death, has been seen for a long time as a minor aspect of the social, people who delivered and/ or wrote the speeches whose nature a high level of demand and interest in learning Classical languages and about the ancient and one on Christmas and Classics. political and literary scenery. Furthermore, the myth according to we want to study. world more generally. Another aspect of the OxLat Scheme is to help schools introduce and The podcast features Oxford which oratory quite mysteriously dissolved itself after the battle A major question still remains: who were the Hellenistic orators? embed Latin and Classical Civilisation into their timetable, and the OxLat team look forward academics and students and aims of Chaeronea in 338, retreating suddenly in the anonymity of As a step towards answering this question, my DPhil project will to supporting schools to achieve this goal, so that even more students have the opportunity to be accessible and interesting for rhetorical schools, was widely accepted and taken for granted by consist in the first comprehensive commented edition of these to explore this diverse and inspiring subject area. audiences of any or no Classical centuries of Classical scholarship: it is only recently that the need fragments – mostly transmitted by indirect tradition in both Greek background. For more updates, for a re-evaluation of oratory in the period has been recognised. Emma Searle follow us on Facebook and twitter and Latin, but also sometimes preserved on papyrus – aiming to DPhil Ancient History @oxfordclassics! In 1972 Wooten in his doctoral thesis tried to write an account reassess the role of oratory and to shed new light on its forms in OxLAT Teaching Scheme Co-ordinator of the situation of oratory in the Hellenistic period, although he the Hellenistic age.

PHOTOGRAPHS © EMMA SEARLE 14 | FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER 2018 WWW.CLASSICS.OX.AC.UK | 15 WANT TO SHARE YOUR STORY? EMAIL TO REQUEST A POSTCARD: HUMANITIES@ DEVOFF.OX.AC.UK LIVES CHANGED BY I had a 36-year career as a public servant in the Bank of England ending as Chief Cashier and a Deputy Director. Latin, Greek and Ancient History are an CLASSICS... incomparable training in analysis and understanding how men and women behave in a wide range of Last summer we invited our alumni and alumnae to share their thoughts — via a supplied postcard — on circumstances. Also I met my wife – also an the difference that the study of Classics has made to their lives. Although our alumni span seven decades Oxford classicist! Every time I visit an art gallery, read a poem, go to the theatre; and over seventy countries, these differences have had a lot in common, and it has been fascinating to G Kentfield, 1959 I value my knowledge of Classics. see similar themes emerge from such a broad range of life experiences (it has also been fascinating to Jennie Wood, 2008 read some of the more unusual ones!). The Faculty plans to use these stories to inspire current and future classical scholars, so please do keep the postcards coming. Here is just a brief taste of some of the replies we have already received… IMAGES: THE BRITISH MUSEUM, APART FROM BOWL WITH KUFIC FROM THE BRITISH MUSEUM, APART IMAGES: MUSEUM AND ALBERT VICTORIA TOP): SCRIPT (THIS PAGE

After a degree in 'Greats' and two years National Service I applied for a job in Shell. The rigour of learning the Latin and Someone had told me that Henry Deterding, the Greek languages and wrestling with the powerful head of Shell in the later thirties had said challenges of Ancient History taught me to that 'he liked people who had learned Latin and think more clearly and to communicate more Greek; they sell more oil'! Anyway, I was accepted. clearly in English. Peter Sterwin, 1948 Nicholas Barber, 1959

Mods required you to process large amount of information If 'the limits of my language are swiftly and accurately. Greats assumed precision The absolute the limits of my world', then the and accuracy and required you to organise and intellectual rigour and sheer Classics have extended my world Mappa Mundi. Our geographically analyse relatively complex material. I used both quantity of work set me up perfectly in every direction. diverse alumni now span skills every day of my working life. more than 70 countries for life outside academia. Graham Dyer, 1957 Roger Barnes, 1957 Jeremy Westhead, 1995 16 | FACULTY OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER 2018

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THE FOWLER LECTURE 2018: TRINITY TERM LECTURES

LIVY'S FALISCAN SCHOOLMASTER Sybille Haynes Lecture PROFESSOR CHRISTINA S KRAUS PROFESSOR GIOVANNA BAGNASCO 3 MAY 2018, 5PM (UNIVERSITY OF MILAN), ON 'TARQUINIA AND THE ORIGIN OF OPEN TO ALL, FREE OF CHARGE ETRUSCAN RELIGION’ Lecture Theatre, Stelios Ioannou Classics Centre, 66 St Giles, Oxford 23 APRIL 2018, 5PM, IOANNOU The lecture will be followed by drinks in the Centre at 6pm, and a dinner (three courses with CENTRE wine, followed by coffee and dessert, and priced at £45) in Jesus at 7.30pm. Those who wish to attend the dinner should contact Professor D’Angour ([email protected]). Gaisford Lecture (Greek language & literature) Livy, the Roman historian of the 1st century BC, tells this story about the war against the DR NICK LOWE (RHUL) Italian town of Falerii Veteres in 395 BC: 17 MAY 2018, 5PM, IOANNOU CENTRE It was the custom of the Faliscans to employ the same person as the master and as the attendant of their children; several boys used David Lewis Lecture to be entrusted to one man's care. … This PROFESSOR WERNER ECK (UNIVERSITY man had started the practice of taking the OF COLOGNE) boys outside the gates for games and exercise, 23 MAY 2018, 5PM, IOANNOU CENTRE and he kept up the practice after the war had begun …. Seizing a favourable opportunity, he kept up the games and the conversations Lectures are free and open to all. There longer than usual, and went on till he was in is no need to book, just turn up! the midst of the Roman outposts. He then took them into the camp and up to Camillus. There he aggravated his villainous act by a still FOR ALL THE LATEST NEWS, EVENTS, more villainous utterance: he had, he said, LECTURES AND PODCASTS PLEASE given Falerii into the hands of the Romans, VISIT THE FACULTY WEBSITE: since those boys, whose fathers were at the head of affairs in the city, were now placed CLASSICS.OX.AC.UK in their power. Camillus replied: ‘You, villain, have not come with your villainous offer to a nation or a commander like yourself. … These men you, as far as you could, have vanquished by an unprecedented act of villainy; I shall vanquish them by Roman arts, by courage and strategy and force of arms.’ He then ordered him to be stripped and his The School-Teacher Punished hands tied behind his back, and delivered him up to the boys to be taken back to Falerii, IMAGE FROM H A GUERBER THE STORY OF THE giving them rods with which to scourge the ROMANS (AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 1896) traitor into the city (trans. Roberts).

Professor Christina S Kraus will deliver the 18th Fowler Lecture, ‘Livy’s Faliscan Schoolmaster’, on Livy’s narrative and historiographical approaches to this edifying tale. Professor Kraus is the Thomas A. Thacher Professor of Latin at Yale University. She was Tutorial Fellow at Oriel College Oxford before taking up her position at Yale in 2004. Her You can listen to a research interests embrace historiography, Latin prose style, and the theory and practice series of fascinating of commentaries. She co-founded the Yale Initiative for the Study of Antiquity and the lectures, see what Premodern world (now ARCHAIA), and has recently published (with C A Stray) Classical classics alumni are Commentaries: Explorations in a Scholarly Genre (Oxford 2016). doing now, and mu ch more!

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