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NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS Spring 2013 Letter from the ChairClassics rate, and very successful job placement, Philological Association, and winning fame given the state of the market. for his blogs. Michael Flower has been pro- The overall assessment of the under- moted to Lecturer with the rank of Profes- graduate program is extremely positive, sor, an exalted title shared with Nobel lau- leaving the impression that undergradu- reates, ambassadors, foundation heads and ate majors are very well cared for: they that crowd. Joshua Katz’s extraordinary are well advised, they work hard, are well teaching has been honored with a Cotsen taught, and they are generally quite happy Faculty Fellowship, to develop new courses and free to explore other curricular and and train graduate students over the next extra-curricular interests. They also go on three years. Brent Shaw has just published to land good jobs and to be accepted in fine another long, weighty and magisterial graduate programs in an impressive array book, the second in two years. But pride of fields. of place is reserved for the equally prolific Consider the above condensation to be Bob Kaster and his book on the Appian passed to you sub rosa, with the immortal Way, which has won 4.3 stars on Ama- caveat of my mentor, Francis Urquhart, zon.com and a reader’s recommendation “You might very well think that; I couldn’t that it is (hint) “a great gift for the Latin possibly comment.” teacher or budding classicist.” Ted Champlin, Chair Were there any criticisms? I couldn’t Many more details about the faculty’s o resume. When I wrote last year’s possibly comment, except perhaps to say achievements appear on their webpages, installment of this Letter, the Report that all were offered in the most construc- accessible through the departmental web- Tof our distinguished Academic tive manner imaginable; that many took up site. No question in my mind: all of the 16 Review Committee—the first in 16 years— and helped to clarify problems raised in our children here in Lake Wobegon are above had been received by the Dean but not by Self-Study; that all were taken seriously average, and collectively they are the prime us. In due course it was passed on to the and acted upon where possible; and that reason for the situation so well described in Department, and in due course I submit- the committee’s weightiest advice involved the second paragraph above. ted the required Chair’s Response to the not criticisms but questions and sugges- ■ Review. My problem here is to distill the tions about the future nature, purpose, and contents of the Report for you while main- shape of the whole enterprise, questions taining deniability. Thus: shared by all Classics departments in this Inside this issue… The department emerges as high millennium. functioning and without factions, where More on these matters in next year’s News from the Faculty ...... 2 business is conducted with civility and a Newsletter. As usual, you will find a range Senior Theses 2012 ...... 6 large degree of consensus. The level of of delights, undergraduate, graduate, and citizenship is excellent in terms of teaching professorial in the following pages. I focus Graduate Student News ...... 6 and administration, all the more notable here on the faculty. What strikes me is how Dissertations ...... 7 given the strong scholarly productivity of modest their reports are, or rather how the faculty. out-of-date since they were submitted a Ovid Onsite ...... 8 The graduate program is very healthy, month ago. Thus, Yelena Baraz also holds Faculty Bookshelf ...... 9 with a high number of applications, an a prestigious Bicentennial Preceptorship, impressive yield of almost 100% on offers which includes a year’s leave to pursue Q&A: Classics Alumni Spotlight ...... 10 of admission, high stipends and abundant her scholarship. Denis Feeney is now Lectures & Events ...... 11 additional support, excellent completion enthroned as President of the American 2. Princeton Classics News from the Faculty
Yelena Baraz Emmanuel Bourbouhakis Michael Brumbaugh Marc Domingo Gygax Janet Downie Denis Feeney
Yelena Baraz writing, a topic of abiding interest for me. a Genre.” And throughout the year I have The highlights of 2012 included the pub- I spent the hiatus between the two semes- been at work on my book project on king- lication, in April, of my book, A Written ters in Rome, mostly reading, revising, ship ideology in Kallimachos’ Hymns. Republic: Cicero’s Philosophical Politics, by (and a little sailing in Sardinia) with the Princeton University Press, accompanying exception of a paper I gave on authorial in- Marc Domingo Gygax Princeton Alumni on a cruise in the Medi- dependence in medieval Byzantium at the In the spring, I again taught the lecture- terranean at the end of June, and giving European-wide conference on Byzantine course “The Greek World in the Hellenis- papers on both Senecas: the Younger at a literature hosted by Durham University, in tic Age”, and precepted for the first time conference on Latin philosophy at Colum- the U.K., in late July. I resumed teaching, for Andrew Feldherr’s “The Other Side of bia in March, and the Elder at a declama- and writing, in the fall, escaping only once Rome.” In May, I hosted Vicente Ramon, tion conference held in Montpellier, France, to participate in a three-day workshop (University of Zaragoza), with whom in November. It was also an exciting year on “Dreams in Byzantine Literature” I am collaborating in the international in teaching. In the spring, I taught Latin hosted by the Dumbarton Oaks Center for research project “Irreligiosidad, agnosti- prose composition to a great group of Byzantine Studies, in Washington, D.C. cismo y ateísmo en la Grecia antigua”, a graduate students, (we all learned a lot Finally, I joined Forbes College as a faculty project financed by the Spanish Ministry of about style), at the same time as teaching advisor in the fall of 2012, which I am Economy and Finance, and in July I visited intensive beginning Latin. In the fall I was enjoying a great deal. Needless to say, my Arjan Zuiderhoek in Ghent to prepare one of six faculty members that together table remains strewn with diverse proj- our common project “Benefactors and the teach in a great course known as the HUM ects underway—look for these in the next Polis: Origins and Development of the sequence (I learned a lot about early Chris- newsletter! Public Gift in the Greek Cities from the tianity and medieval literature, and also Homeric World to Great Antiquity.” This quite a bit about lecturing by watching my Michael Brumbaugh project, which brings together colleagues colleagues three times a week). Another Leaving behind an idyllic commune from UC London, Hannover, Cambridge, first in 2012 involved editing. The panel dedicated to intellectual discovery in the Freiburg, Groningen, Utrecht, Berkeley that I had organized, together with Chris wilds of the Pacific Northwest, I ventured and Connecticut, aims at examining for the van den Berg of Amherst College, at the through the American interior to reach the first time, public gift-giving in the Greek APA meeting in January 2012 on the sub- legendary East Pyne. Luckily I suffered polis from a truly longue durée perspective. ject of “Intertextuality and its Discontents” no epic misfortunes en route and my new In the fall semester 2012-13, I was on leave attracted so much interest that the two of colleagues threw open the gates to wel- and could focus on research, working on us set about putting together a special issue come me. Before leaving Reed College I papers on Elias Bickerman, 19th century of the American Journal of Philology devot- was able to see my thesis student defend historiography, financial challenges in 4th ed to the topic. Thanks to the timely work her work on a topic of great interest to me, century Athens and Plutarch. Articles on of all the authors and readers involved, it is “Songs of Cyrene: Genre in Pindar and “Lycia” and “Gift-Giving and Power-Rela- due to appear in the spring of 2013. Callimachus.” Switching gears from Greek tionships in Greek Social Praxis and Public praise to Latin abuse, I had the pleasure Discourse” appeared. In January and Feb- Emmanuel Bourbouhakis of teaching an undergraduate seminar in ruary I gave talks on the origins of Greek The novelty and excitement of being at the fall on Horace’s Satires and Epodes. tyranny at The College of New Jersey and Princeton sustained itself through 2012, so On the research front, I began the year on an inscription from Cos at the Institute that much of what was news for me would with a paper at the APA on the much for Advanced Study. have seemed somewhat ordinary to those discussed epilogue to Kallimachos’ Hymn long familiar with life and work here. Still, to Apollo, “Kallimachos and the Euphrates: Janet Downie in the spring and fall of 2012 I was able to Trashing the Seleukid Nile.” The annual In spring 2012, I taught across the spec- teach courses which bear the distinct Late meeting of the Classical Association of the trum of undergraduate Greek, leading one Antique and Byzantine stamp I brought Pacific Northwest (CAPN) afforded me talented and committed group of students with me to the classics department: the the opportunity to present some thoughts through the second half of Hansen and first was an undergraduate seminar on the on epiphany and mimesis in Hellenistic Quinn to their first foray into “real Greek” language and literature of the post-classical poetry. I also gave a paper at CAMWS (Lysias 1) and another equally impressive Greek world, designed to introduce classics on Plato’s conception of the hymn and group along the banks of the Ilissos to the majors to the broadening and diversifying the state of the genre during the classical supra-celestial spheres of Plato’s Phaedrus. registers of Greek writing in the Eastern period. The summer saw the completion For the academic year 2012-13, I am on Mediterranean from the 2nd to the 7th of an article on the Hadrianic court poet leave as a Solmsen Fellow at the Institute centuries; the second a graduate seminar Mesomedes, “Making the Hymn: Meso- for Research in the Humanities at the Uni- on Late Antique and Byzantine historical medean Narrative and the Interpretation of versity of Wisconsin-Madison, making the Princeton Classics 3.
Andrew Feldherr Harriet Flower Michael Flower Andrew Ford Constanze Güthenke Brooke Holmes most of this very stimulating and collegial Rome and Campania [see “To Rome For on the topic of “Historicizing Religion, interdisciplinary environment—and the Ovid” on page 8 –Ed.]. A generous grant Sacralizing History.” I am also working on city’s lakes! My current project is a book from Princeton’s 250th Anniversary Fund, editing a second edition of The Cambridge on “heroic landscapes,” in which I inves- made it possible to “upgrade” an upper Companion to the Roman Republic (2004), tigate how Trojan War mythology func- level Latin course on Ovid’s poetry by which will include three completely new tioned as part of the visual, experiential focusing specifically on his engagement chapters, as well as an introduction that and imaginary geography of Asia Minor with the changing urban landscape of Au- will address scholarship and debates in the in the imperial period. As the book takes gustan Rome. Even for people who already field of republican history over the past shape, it has been exciting to have the knew the city, like my invaluable teaching decade. conversation and feedback of artists and assistants, Dawn LaValle and Madeleine scholars working across the humanities, Jones, the trip was a revelation, and we Michael Flower many of whom are interested in questions hope to be able to find funds that will allow If it is true that happiness consists of the of landscape and memory in a variety of us to repeat the experience with differ- fulfillment of youthful aspirations (to times, places, and modes. I am also happy ent topics and destinations. My research misquote Freud), then I should currently to report that the Aristides project is in its has been focused increasingly on Sallust, be in good spirits. As an undergraduate I final stages: At the Limits of Art: Reading to be the subject of a lecture series I look hoped someday to write a book about my Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi will be pub- forward to presenting next year at Bristol favorite author, and this summer saw the lished by Oxford in summer 2013. (and the topic for a memorable graduate publication of Xenophon’s Anabasis or The seminar last fall). Also on the horizon is a Expedition of Cyrus in the series Oxford Denis Feeney planned trip to a conference on ekphrasis Approaches to Classical Literature. I set I have been enjoying some new classes. In in Saõ Paolo over the summer—my first my sights on a broad audience with the spring 2012, together with Andrew Ford, visit to Latin America since an ill-advised primary aim of opening up various new I taught a graduate seminar on Ancient two-month stint as an exchange student in ways of reading and interpreting Xeno- Literary Criticism, which was a really Paraguay when I was eleven. phon’s most famous work, which is the enjoyable experience; in fall 2012 I taught only autobiographical narrative to survive Classical Mythology for the first time, and Harriet I. Flower from ancient Greece. By a happy coinci- discovered what a challenge it is to present I was on leave for the first semester of 2012 dence, shortly afterwards I was invited to the texts and concepts of classical mythol- and spent my time researching the cult of edit a Cambridge Companion to Xenophon. ogy to a mixed group of students, some the lares, ubiquitous dancing gods of place, My hope is that both books will contribute of whom already know a great deal while who are to be found in many settings, both to the ongoing resurgence of interest in others are new to the ancient world alto- in Roman towns and in the countryside. one of the most innovative (yet currently gether. In March 2012, Harriet Flower and My main focus is on the lares compitales underappreciated) writers of antiquity I escorted a group of graduate students to (and their annual festival of Compitalia), (Xenophon invented several new genres of attend the annual Spring School on Roman whose crossroads shrines articulated the prose literature). Last spring I taught one religion in Erfurt, run by Jörg Rüpke. In local neighborhoods in Roman cities, as of my favorite subjects, an undergraduate June I attended a conference on Horace’s well as the points where the boundaries of seminar called Ancient Sparta: Myth and lyric poetry at Lyon. After giving a paper estates met in the countryside. My study Reality. Unfortunately, too much of the there on Horace’s “Metaurus” Odes (4.4), I will be entitled The Dancing Lares and former passes for the latter; and one goal of went to Le Marche in the company of Ales- the Serpent in the Garden. In the fall, I my scholarship has been to correct perva- sandro Barchiesi and Lorenzo Carnevali, started my third year as master of Mathey sive misconceptions about the Spartans. A trying to find the sites of the battles of College, one of Princeton’s six residential Blackwell Companion to Ancient Sparta is Sentinum and Metaurus; although the colleges for undergraduates, which houses due out next winter, in which my contribu- quest was (probably) unsuccessful, the about 550 students drawn from all four tion proposes a new model for understand- company, drives, and lunches were memo- years of undergraduate study, as well as ten ing the Spartan religious system. Last but rable. I published a paper on Catullus in resident graduate students and a faculty by no means least, this fall I taught Greek a Cambridge University Press volume fellow in residence. I gave lectures at the 101 to a very enthusiastic and congenial edited by Tony Woodman and I.M.Le.M. Florida State University (Tallahassee) and group of undergraduates. DuQuesnay, together with a number of at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, book reviews. MD). With Denis Feeney and a group of Andrew Ford Princeton graduate students, I participated Teaching brought surprising rewards from Andrew Feldherr in the 13th International Spring School old standbys. My spring 2012 300-level The highlight of last year for me was the on Ancient Religions in the Max-Weber- class on Homer was one of those wonderful chance to lead a class on a week’s tour of Kolleg at Erfurt University (Germany), Continued on page 4 4. Princeton Classics
News from the Faculty Continued from page 3
Bob Kaster Joshua Katz Nino Luraghi Brent Shaw Christian Wildberg alignments of the stars; a small group and on the horizon for spring 2013, when I will One of the highlights of the year was I pored over seven books of the Iliad and also be professeure invitée at the University being awarded, with Constanze Güthenke, the latest criticism in fantastic discussions. of Geneva. two grants to internationalize our program In fall 2012, I reprised my course on Clas- In other news, my colleague Brooke in Greek literature, one for a two-year sical Rhetoric in translation to an eager and Holmes and I won a sizeable Global Col- graduate seminar exchange with Oxford, varied crowd. With superb assistance from laborative Network Fund research grant at the other for the formation of a more ambi- Leon Grek, we had a great time reading Princeton. This grant for “Postclassicisms” tious network involving seven international Aristotle and watching the Presidential allows us to embark on a three-year project institutions and organized around the campaign. The coming term features a with the aim of building an international theme of “Postclassicisms.” The biggest reprise of our 200-level tragedy class on network of scholars in the field of “antiqui- highlight of the year, however, was being the Medea, and a happy return to begin- ty after antiquity”, with participants in the awarded tenure in the spring. ning Greek with 102. Publications last year U.S., U.K., Italy, Germany, and Australia. included a chapter on “Dionysus’ Many Our first very successful workshop took Bob Kaster Names in Aristophanes’ Frogs,” in A Differ- place in Princeton in January 2013, and we I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s mix of ent God? Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, are planning a range of further events for teaching and research, while continuing to ed. Renate Schlesier from De Gruyter. I this coming year. The project, to our de- shepherd our graduate students as director also continued my reading around and light, is complemented by a two-year grant of graduate studies. On the undergraduate reviewing, tackling M.L. West’s controver- to establish a Princeton-Oxford graduate side, the classroom has and will be the site sial The Making of the Iliad in Bryn Mawr research collaboration, analogous to the of all intro Latin all the time, with Latin Classical Review 2012-08-09 and Stephen joint seminars and visits hosted already by 101 in the fall just past, and ‘turbo Latin’— Halliwell’s Between Ecstasy and Truth: In- our Program in the Ancient World. twenty-four weeks’ worth of lessons packed terpretations of Greek Poetics from Homer to into twelve—coming in spring. At the Longinus (Oxford, 2011) for an interesting Brooke Holmes other extreme, the year-long dissertation online journal, the Notre Dame Philosophi- I am happy to report the publication of writers’ seminar, for our most advanced cal Reviews (11/13/2012). An important two books this past year, Gender: Antiquity grads, has provided both an opportunity new editio maior of Aristotle’s Poetics was and Its Legacy and a co-edited volume, to learn from the work of half a dozen published by Leonardo Tarán and Dimitri Dynamic Reading: Studies in the Reception diverse dissertators and a really gratifying Gutas, which I reviewed in Classical World of Epicureanism; the latter included a co- window on their unfailingly constructive (online) in October 2012. Finally, I kept written introduction and an article I wrote and collegial give-and-take. On the writing my hand in the good old-fashioned print on Gilles Deleuze’s reading of Lucretius. front, the start of the year brought the journals, reviewing M. Kivilo’s “Early An article on Galen’s commentary on the North American release of my OCT of Greek Poets’ Lives” for Classical Review Hippocratic text Epidemics II also ap- Macrobius’s Saturnalia, followed in the 62.2 (2012) pp. 352-54. Lectures included peared. spring by The Appian Way: Ghost Road, Cambridge, The Center for Hellenic It was another busy year for travel Queen of Roads, a fun travelogue for the Studies in Washington D.C., and Oxford in the U.S. and abroad. I gave lectures at University of Chicago Press’s “Culture (whither I am about to depart as I write). Columbia University, Trinity University, Trails” series, and the only book I’ll ever the University of Chicago, the University write that will cause me to be interviewed Constanze Güthenke of Georgia, and the University of California on NPR. But the real progress came with a I have in 2012, enjoyed a split sabbatical: Irvine, and I delivered the keynote address different project: the manuscript work for a semester’s maternity leave, followed by at the graduate conference “Mens Insana” the OCT of Suetonius’ Caesars is now all a regular research leave spent in Geneva, at UCLA in November. I also presented at but done, and it provided the material for Switzerland, during which I am working conferences in Philadelphia, Chicago, New participating in an immensely rewarding on completing a book on German classi- Haven, Santa Barbara, Oxford, Berlin, and working group organized over the sum- cal scholarship and its rhetoric in the long Paris, as well as on a panel I co-organized mer in Berlin by Tony Grafton and Glenn 19th century. When not writing in the with Mark Payne on the “Ancient Non- Most. As for the part of the manuscript calm environment of Geneva’s university Human” at the annual SLSA conference in work that isn’t quite finished: alas, that library, I have given talks in Basel, Paris Milwaukee. I had a fantastic time partici- will require a trip in June to libraries in and London. In London, I was invited as pating in two events in ancient philosophy, Rome, Florence, Paris, and London. It’s a a keynote speaker at the Annual Anglo- the Mayweek Seminar in Cambridge (on dirty job, etc. American Historians’ Conference whose the Anonymous Londinensis medical chosen theme, in the Olympics year, was papyrus), and the Collegium Phenomeno- Joshua Katz ‘Ancients and Moderns’. More talks in logicum in Città di Castello, Italy, on “Bios: Highlights of the year 2012 included lead- London, Vienna, and the Netherlands are The Greek Concept of Life.” ing fifteen extraordinary freshmen through Princeton Classics 5. the history and practice of wordplay, read- It took a lot of work to develop, and I am Thomas Jefferson and one of my personal ing Old Persian with a group of first-rate looking forward to observing its impact on heroes, Benjamin Franklin, was a great graduate students, and being featured in our graduate program. honor indeed. the Random House book The Best 300 Pro- My teaching included a new course on fessors. My talks covered topics from ludic Brent Shaw slavery in the Roman world; the enjoy- linguistics (Northwestern) to divine vowels My most enjoyable moments of the year able experience, as always, helping Denis in Greek and elsewhere (Santiago de Com- were the ones connected with the tour Feeney teach Latin 108, and a graduate postela and UCLA), via Saussure’s Vedic of Israel on which I took the graduate seminar on the Roman Family. Another anagrams (American Oriental Society) students in the Program in the Ancient pedagogical highlight was sharing the and a new sound law in Old Irish (Copen- World (PAW) in fall 2012. There were PAW graduate seminar on ethnicity in the hagen); I also had gigs of various sorts at more than a few sites and experiences ancient Mediterranean with Nino Luraghi. the American Philological Association, at worthy of recollection, but one that I will Columbia, and across Princeton’s campus. not soon forget was entering the claus- Christian Wildberg Among my publications is the introduction trophobic and dark confines of a deep Originally, I had planned to spend my aca- to the volume The Muse at Play: Riddles tunnel under Jerusalem, and struggling demic leave in 2012-13 abroad but then, and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry, in for nearly an hour to find its end. Among for various good reasons, decided against which I argue for the existence of a signifi- the conferences I participated in, the most it. And so, I am enjoying my freedom right cant Sibylline acrostic in Aeneid 6. I was interesting was a session on Sir Moses here in Princeton. I am now a kind of visit- elected to the APA’s Nominating Commit- Finley’s influence on the writing of ancient ing scholar in my own department. Nice. tee, joined the editorial boards of Kraty- history held as part of the Association of You might think this puts me in a position los and the Princeton University Library Ancient Historians (AAH) proceedings at similar to the one Lucretius imagines at Chronicle, and was named a member of the Durham, NC, an account of which should the beginning of Book 2: “Pleasant it is, newly formed Advisory Council of the Mrs. appear some time next year in the Ameri- when on the great sea the winds trouble Giles Whiting Foundation. I continue to can Journal of Philology. the waters, to gaze from shore upon an- spend more time than is healthy worrying, I have finally managed to finish read- other’s great tribulation, etc.” But you are in meetings and in private, about the future ing proofs for the next book, Bringing in wrong; such lowly tickles of satisfaction of Firestone Library. the Sheaves, which should appear in 2013; would never occur to me… instead, the and most of the work has been completed pursuit of more refined forms of pleasure Nino Luraghi for the fourth edition of the global history took me further and farther afield. Last I am looking back on a quiet year, spent textbook, Worlds Together, Worlds Apart. summer was spent in Greece, where I teaching, seeing various articles through The greatest academic recognition that I had again convened our annual classical the press, and adding the final touches to received in the past year was my election philosophy reading group, this time at others. Highlights include an article in to the American Philosophical Society. the Norwegian Institute in Athens. I then Chiron on a new inscription from Messene, Going to Philadelphia to sign a member- educated myself by visiting numerous referring to events that Polybius himself ship book that includes the signatures of Continued on page 9 witnessed, co-authored with Anna Mag- netto from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. I have spent a great deal of time Living Latin in Rome, Paideia Institute by Madeline McMahon editing The Splendors and Miseries of Rul- ing Alone, a collection of essays on monar- attended the Living Latin in Rome program at the Paideia Institute. The six-week chy in ancient Greece, mostly by German summer course combined Latin texts and Roman remains in an exciting way. We colleagues. Hopes of seeing it under the I began our day by reading selections from classical, medieval, or renaissance authors Christmas tree have been disappointed, and and visited related sites in the afternoon. In the early evenings we gathered for a session it is expected out any day now. Teaching of casual spoken Latin sub arboribus. These sessions forced me to think of Latin as not included a return to Latin after some years, merely a written language, but also a spoken and lived one and helped me feel more at with a course on Livy, the Greek history home in the language. Reading Latin sources in the midst of material remains further proseminar, which offers me the distinct brought the texts to life. It was also a pleasure to work with, and get to know several pleasure of getting acquainted with our classically inclined Princetonians in a different environment. I would like to thank the new cohorts of graduate students. In the department for its generous financial support! ■ fall, I had the privilege of team-teaching a seminar on ethnicity in the ancient world with Brent Shaw, which included a field trip to Israel, with site visits led by local archaeologists, and culminating in a joint session with Princeton/Oxford students (at Oxford), where they had an opportunity to present their work. Finally, in my course on Lysias, (which was actually mostly devoted to Demosthenes), I taught the best group of Hellenists at Princeton so far. I cannot con- clude this retrospective, without mentioning that in 2012 the Program in the Ancient World established a partnership with the Scuola Normale for an exchange of gradu- ate students, which begins in fall of 2013. 6. Princeton Classics Graduate Student News Richard M. Adam Hanna Gołĉb friends on a two week road trip around Elegiac Mourning: Lament and Roman I joined Princeton Classics in the fall, and the Ionian Coast, where I used my flaw- Funeral Ritual In Latin Love Elegy since then I have been enjoying all the full Turkish and intricate knowledge of goods our program has to offer, including bargaining for delicious street food. I went Aaron Bembenek a field trip to Israel, and a student confer- on a river cruise on the Nile, conquered The Drafts of Ezra Pounds’ Women of ence on ancient ethnicity at Oxford. Also, I two pyramids, and negotiated a late night Trachis Volumes I & II have published a paper titled “Bacchylides’ street deal in Edfu, whereby two horse- Spartan dithyramb in the light of choral men embarked on a 90-minute journey projection” in Eos XCIX 2012. to procure a box of beers to complement Elizabeth W. Butterworth the group’s falafel dinner. I excavated in Civil Discord in Civil Discourse: From Amanda Klause Sveti Nikole in Macedonia and studied the Invective to Insinuation in Horace’s Satires I inscriptions, which I have edited for pub- I am a first year graduate student. The lication. I am a rotating Field Supervisor past year has been an exciting one. While at the 2012-13 emergency excavations in Julie Chang still finishing my degree at Swarthmore Pylos where a new roof is being erected at Radegund’s Cross: Relic As Power in College, I learned that my paper “Man- the Palace of Nestor, and also do the GIS sura dabo monimenta per aevum: The Merovingian Gaul work. I worked on editing the Oxyrhyn- Metamorphoses as Museum” was awarded chus papyri at Oxford for a fourth straight Honorable Mention in the undergraduate Alexander M. Craig year over the summer, visited Naples, division of the Winkler Memorial Prize. I Ischia, Pompeii, London, and Vienna for Disassembling an Art: The Components graduated in May, and spent the summer research, and in my free time ended up in of Techne in Hippocrates and Galen working at Connecticut-based theater a hospital in Transylvania with a spot of company ARTFARM. I joined the clas- severe pneumonia. I completed two articles Katharine L. Diaz sics department in the fall. I was lucky to for the forthcoming Brill’s Companion to travel with the PAW seminar to Israel for Soror Imperatoris: An Historical Analysis of the Greek Language on Consonant Change a week in late October, and then to Oxford the Roles of Octavia Minor and Metrical Laws and presented a paper for the Oxford-Princeton Colloquium on early Greek epigrams in Athens. where I presented a paper. Zachary M. Flowerman Alexander’s Letters: An Epistolary Brahm Kleinman Alex Petkas Biography of Alexander the Great Since the publication of the last newslet- To start off 2012, I finished my M.A. in ter, I have kept myself busy with pa- (A Work of Fiction) classics at McGill University, completing a pers (studying narrative technique in thesis on ambitus (electoral bribery) in the Thucydides’ Sicilian Expedition; ethnicity Dana Flynn late Roman Republic. After a fun summer and memory in the sources on the “revolt” in Montreal, I started the Ph.D. program From Rome on Fire to Rome Restored: of Gainas 400 AD) and general exams in Classics (ancient history track), and Vespasian and his Imperial Building (Greek History, Greek Literature). In the have had a great time so far. The highlight Program summer of 2012, after more than ten years of my semester was definitely the ancient of studying Latin, I finally visited Rome ethnicity seminar trip to Israel, where we for a week. I went with high expectations, Georgios Gittis got to visit a variety of sites, including the and was anything but disappointed. I’ve Vergil and Poetic Translation beautiful ruins of Scythopolis, an ancient also spent the fall learning the basics of the city heavily damaged by an earthquake in important Late Antique language Syriac, 749 A.D. More importantly, we ate lots Abigail Hammer with Professor Emmanuel Papoutsakis in of delicious hummus and falafel. I’ve also The Orphic Hymns: A New Translation the Near Eastern Studies department. I just come back from the lovely Princeton- hope to set aside a little time for this in the Oxford exchange conference in Oxford, spring as well, alongside studies for the Elias Hicks where I presented a paper on Sullan Latin Literature general exam. The Peloponnesian War and the American propaganda and ethnic stereotyping of the War in Vietnam: Missed Opportunities in Samnites. For now, I’m looking forward to Peace and Diplomacy an exciting semester filled with interesting Mali Skotheim courses on Polybius, Roman history and In 2012, I fell madly in love with the Chari- tion, a Greek mime set on the Malabar coast Emily Kirkegaard numismatics. of India from the 2nd century AD. I was Byzantium in Carolingian Eyes: Strategies Simon Oswald pleased to have a chance to present my work of Competition and Distinction on the Charition at the PAW conference I have been on sabbatical, initially as the on Ethnicity and Religious Identity in the 2011-12 Thomas Day Seymour Fellow at Ancient World at Oxford. With general ex- the American School of Classical Studies in ams fading in the rear view mirror and the Athens, and as the Edward Capps Fellow dissertation proposal on the horizon, I am in 2012-13. I have managed to visit sites eager to find out if I can grow this passion and museums all over the Greek mainland Senior Theses project into a dissertation on bilingualism and islands, and begin working on my and foreign language in Greek literature. 2012 dissertation exploring the early history of Greek metrical inscriptions. I led my ■ Princeton Classics 7.
Dissertations Petra Laohakul Adam Gitner Aikaterini Tsolakidou Reworking Moschus’ Europa: Horace and the Greek Language: Aspects of The Helix of Dionysus: Musical Imagery in New Translations Literary Bilingualism Later Euripidean Drama
While classicists are better informed than My dissertation explores the area of late Alexandra Mannix ever about the significance of bilingualism Euripidean lyrics and music. Focusing on A Free Translation of Euripides’ Hippolytus in the ancient world, its contribution to the references to song and dance contained Latin literature has not fully benefited from in the choral and monodic lyrics of four Hannah M. Marek new linguistic and historical perspectives. major later Euripidean plays, the Tro- Sculpting Roman Identity: Roman Making use of a multidisciplinary body of jan Women, the Phoenician Women, the Instrumentalization of Greek Sculpture research on multilingualism, my disserta- Hypsipyle and the Helen, its aim is to show from Marcellus to Augustus tion investigates Horace’s many-sided re- that such lyrics engage in a fundamental lationship with Greek, and the Greeks. By and systematic reflection on tragedy’s placing him more fully in the context of the internal musical discourse and poetics, and Pauline C. Nguyen cultural and linguistic diversity of the Late to further our understanding of the tragic Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Attitudes Republic, it reassesses the range of bilin- genre’s self-inception and self-conception Toward Nature: Creation Accounts gual interaction in Horace’s poetry and its as a form of song and mousikê. All four contribution to his style and achievement. dramas are complex, modern, experimen- Hana T. Passen Each chapter addresses a distinct linguistic tal, and are often thought to evade generic Achieving Civic Devotion: Negotiating the phenomenon that has left its mark on Hor- labels and to only tenuously conform to the ace’s poetry: lexical borrowings from both formal and emotional requirements of trag- Relationship Between the Individual and poetic and colloquial registers, syntactic edy. My dissertation shows that the lyrics the State in Plato’s Republic, Athens, and interference, and linguistic purism. These of the plays engage in a systematic quest Sparta foreign elements enrich the texture of for the original voice of tragic song. I fur- Horace’s poetry in many ways, for instance ther trace a recurrent move that becomes Arielle K. Patrick by creating oppositions between proximity an integral part of Euripidean musical The Princeps and His Publicist: Public and distance that are central to Latin lyric, discourse and poetics: that of present- Relations in the Neronian Empire recreating voices from everyday life, and ing tragic song as new and distinctively alluding to an elevated foreign presence. Dionysiac, and at the same time as an old, primary form of music. This characteristic Nathan C. Pell Rose Maclean Euripidean move is a gesture of legitimi- Vergilian Metrics: Methods for Analysis Cultural Exchange in Roman Society: Freed zation and redemption of the new music Slaves and Social Values poetics; at the same time, this gesture of Risa T. Reid cultural appropriation allows tragedy to The Power to Heal or the Power to Divide: My dissertation, Cultural Exchange in represent itself as the master song-form, An Examination of the Origins of Race in conscious of its belatedness in the Greek Roman Society: Freed Slaves and Social Classical Greco-Roman Medicine Values, is a study of the cultural dialogue tradition but also capable of positioning that took place between freedmen and the its mousikê at the very beginning of the Roman elite during the early Empire. I ap- poetic traditions that are evoked in the Bonita L. Robinson ply the techniques of close reading to both tragic lyrics. I thus argue that Euripides Imagining the Meretrix: Prostitutes and epigraphic and literary texts to identify claims for his medium a place of priority Power in Latin Literature points of exchange between these two sub- in the hierarchy of the Greek poetic canon, casting his poetry as the Ur-form of poetry cultures within Roman culture, particularly Hannah Sayen around the concepts of citizenship, honor, and music from which all other song-forms arose. The Emperor and the Secretary: What the glory, and personal virtue. I conclude that Corpus Juris Civilis and The Secret History freed slaves, who occupied a unique posi- of Procopius Reveal About Imperial Ideology tion in Roman society, also made a unique John Tully contribution to the evolution of elite ideol- Networks, Hegemony, and Multipolarity in in the Age of Justinian ogy as it responded to the rise of monarchy. the Hellenistic Cyclades In particular, freedmen cultivated quali- Jessica J. Yao ties like loyalty and obedience as means The connected studies in this dissertation Fighting Words: The Military-Poetic of positive self-definition in their funerary draw on insights from network theory and Complex and the Rise of a Roman Literature and honorific monuments. As the upper international relations theory to reframe orders struggled to adapt existing tradi- our economic, social, and political nar- Sean Yi tions to a new political environment that ratives of the Cyclades in the Hellenistic was founded on a basic power imbalance period. First, it synthesizes recent work An Epicurean Investigation of the Swerve between ruler and subject, they found in on the Hellenistic coinages of the islands, freed culture an important model for how including the first study of the coinage of to locate legitimate honor in deference to a Paros, to identify previously unrecognized central authority. sub-regional island numismatic networks. Senior Theses Second, study of the proxeny network in Continued on page 9 2012 8. Princeton Classics To R o m e f o r O v i d by Andrew Feldherr
ast spring, with the support of the 250th Anniversary Fund for Innovation in Undergraduate Education and a Cotsen LTeaching Fellowship, I was able to realize a career-long ambition by leading a class to Rome (with the help of my teaching assistants Madeleine Jones and Dawn LaValle). The occasion was an upper level Latin course on Ovid, focus- ing specifically on his response to transformations in the visual culture of Augustan Rome. We read selections from the entire range of the poet’s work that either described actual monuments in the city or depicted similar scenes to those represented in contemporary art. Each student was assigned a passage of Ovid to present to the class while we were in Princeton, and a report on a related site during the trip. Then, as the final exercise, a term paper was required, exploring connections between the two. I was able to accept 15 students in the course, from senior classics concentrators, sacrificing the treasured thesis-writing mo- ments of spring break, to freshmen just discovering the depart- ment. We had nine days in Italy in all; five in Rome itself and three at the Villa Vergiliana in Cumae, which was our base for En route to Galleria Borghese in Rome. visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the museum (and pizzerie) of Naples. Topics for reports included the splendidly re-displayed frescoes from the ancient Villa Farnesina, Tiberius’ grotto at Sperlonga, Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, and, yes, the painted brothels of Pompeii. Not only was the trip a delight and a revelation, even for people who already knew the city, but the papers were as a group, a model of sophisticated thinking and dedicated research. And the whole experience has given me a new ambition for the remainder of my career, to find the resources to make such courses a regular part of our program (and to go to Rome again as often as possible!).
Christopher Cochran, Rosaria Munda, and Paul Fanto in Naples.
At the Vatican Museum Front row: Sarah Rose, Patrick Roche, Molly O’Neill, Rosalie Stoner, Sophie Tyack. Middle Row: Christopher Cochran, Dawn LaValle, Andrew Feldherr, James Corran, Rosaria Munda, Cameron Hough, Daniel Rattner, Petra Laohakul Back Row: Neil Hannan, Adam Safadi, Stuart Chessman Madeleine Jones. Missing from group: Paul Fanto, photographer! Andrew Feldherr, lecturing with group, Pompeii.
■ Princeton Classics 9. Faculty Bookshelf
A Written Republic: Cicero’s Xenophon’s Anabasis, or Gender: Antiquity & Its Legacy Philosphical Politics The Expedition of Cyrus (Ancients & Moderns) by Yelena Baraz by Michael Flower by Brooke Holmes Princeton University Press Oxford University Press Oxford University Press 2012 2012 2012
When Cicero turned to writing his Xenophon’s Anabasis, or The Expedi- Gender has now become a pervasive topic philosophical encyclopedia during his tion of Cyrus, is one of the most exciting in the humanities and social sciences. Yet forced retirement under Caesar, he was historical narratives to have survived from despite its familiarity within universities acutely aware that this was a controversial ancient Greece. It tells the story of Cyrus, and colleges, some have argued that the undertaking for a Roman statesman, given a charismatic Persian prince, who in 401 radical debates which first characterized Romans’ frequent hostility to philosophy as BC enlisted thousands of Greek mercenar- gender studies have become ghettoized or foreign and incompatible with one’s duty ies in an attempt to seize the vast Persian marginalized—so that gender no longer as a citizen. How are we to understand empire for himself. Cyrus was killed in a makes the impact on creative thinking and Cicero’s decision to pursue philosophy in great battle, and Xenophon, an Athenian ideas that it once did. Holmes argues that the context of the political, intellectual, aristocrat, found himself in the unexpected much writing on gender in the classical and cultural life of the late Roman repub- position of leading the Greeks from the age fails to place those ancient ideas within lic? Yelena Baraz takes up this question vicinity of Babylon in modern Iraq back their proper historical contexts. By re- and makes the case that philosophy for to the Greek cities in Turkey. This book examining ancient notions of sexual differ- Cicero was not a retreat from politics but a unveils the literary artistry and narrative ence, bodies, culture, and identity, Holmes continuation of politics by other means, an strategies that have gone into shaping one shows that Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, alternative way of living a political life and of the greatest survival stories of all time. Epicureans, and others force us to reassess serving the state under newly restricted what is at stake in present-day discussions conditions. about gender.
Faculty News Dissertations Continued from page 5 Continued from page 7 museums and archeological sites on Crete the Cyclades confirms the historical validity hegemons. Each study individually allows and other Greek islands. Since last fall, I of the Cyclades as a unit at this time, and more space for islander agency, regional have been working happily on a new text demonstrates the systemic centrality of complexity, and the diversity of the island and translation of the mysterious, and Delos to communication both inside and experience than has previously been com- enigmatic Corpus Hermeticum. Also on across the Hellenistic Cyclades. Third, it mon. Cumulatively, the result is a richer the front burner is a handbook of Neo- re-conceptualizes the sanctuary of Delos pattern of narratives which are more con- platonism, and the admittedly somewhat as a locus of socially embedded competi- sistent with our current understanding of tedious task of turning a stack of papers, tive display, and argues that dedications the environmental constraints inherent in read the previous year, into respectable were required for patrons to maintain their Cycladic life; which are embedded in the publications. Apart from the Michael- relevance, but rarely, if ever, could grant varying regional and sub-regional econom- Frede-Lecture at the National and Kapo- primacy. Finally, a reanalysis of Rhodian ic and social structures here identified; and distrian University of Athens last June, I activity in the Hellenistic Cyclades presents which allow for more diverse diachronic have decided, for the time being, to stay Rhodes as one of several contemporane- engagement by a range of internal and away from the lecture and conference cir- ously active competing powers, rather external powers. cus. Sorry, make that ‘circuit’. than one of a succession of uncontested ■ ■ 10. Princeton Classics Q&A with Joy Connolly Nancy Barthelemy interviews Classics Q Thinking back on your educational Alum Joy Connolly, class of 1991. experiences and career path, did you envi- Currently, Joy is Dean for the sion holding this type of position, or is it Humanities at New York University. something that just happened?
A I always had an interest in organizing Q Why did you choose to major in and running things. Back in my senior year classics? at Princeton I was president of Terrace Club, and enjoyed designing events and A I attended Middlesex School in Con- encouraging people to work together. It’s cord, MA, where I had superb teachers in not easy balancing research, teaching, and Latin and Greek; I wanted to follow up deaning, but I like the high wire! Long my interests at Princeton. Even when I term in the academy, I suspect I’ll continue was young I resisted the insistent modern to seek out opportunities to lead. focus on the here and now. I was always driven by the conviction that by studying the ancient world, we gain insight into Q How has your Princeton/classics edu- ourselves, and where we are today. I was cation helped you throughout your career? a bit in love with the ‘exotic other’ of the past, but it was a productive love. It helped A I have to mention once more the me think critically about the foundations of enormous impact my teachers had on me. I the beliefs I’d been brought up with as well Joy Connolly met people who loved their work, who had as my tastes in art and culture. know for my choice to enter the profession. pride in their intelligence and knowledge, They were models for the type of person I who had passion without arrogance, who wanted to be. were justly confident in the value of their Q What is your first memory of your work. I was fortunate to study in a top de- time spent at Princeton? partment with brilliant scholars, which set Q What did you do after graduation? me on a trajectory for a successful career. A My first memory is of a classroom in the old East Pyne, pre-renovation days, A After graduating from Princeton, I where I read the Aeneid with Bill Levi- took German in Berlin, and then headed Q What advice can you give students tan, who went on to be my thesis advisor. to the Classics post-baccalaureate program who are thinking about majoring in the It was an advanced Vergil class, and I at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn classics? had a rather snobby attitude about it; I is packed with marvelous scholars, and I thought, foolishly, that I had “done” the decided to pursue my Ph.D. there. A Do it! How can you go wrong? The poem already. But within minutes, I was classics department at Princeton is diverse, catapulted into shock by Vergil’s brilliance small, you have close contact with faculty and innovation, which I was not expecting. Q When and how did you decide on an and intensive classes. And Classics is a I experienced many moments like this. academic career? dynamic field. You will be exposed to an amazing variety of ways of thinking about A I knew when I was 21 years old that and seeing the world. My mental image Q Who/what people especially influ- any career I pursued had to center on of the field is a walk down a long hallway, enced you as an undergraduate? thinking about big ideas and challenging where I imagine the wisdom behind each texts. door: literature, philosophy, history, mate- A The list is so long! I have to say Rich- rial culture, art, papyrology, and the list ard Martin and Bill Levitan, both of whom goes on. Studying classics prepares you for urged me to write my senior thesis on Ezra Q What is your current position, and everything—you develop flexible habits of Pound and Modernist classical translation. how long have you been in the role? mind. (Years later, when we had both moved to the Stanford Classics department, Richard A I am currently Dean for the Humani- and I taught a course together, and my ties at New York University (NYU), a Q Can you share one thing that we may lecture style improved immensely!). Froma position I’ve held since August 2012. I’m be surprised to learn about you? Zeitlin inspired my interest in feminist responsible for roughly 400 faculty and theory and Greek tragedy, and Brent Shaw 30 academic units, including departments A Honestly? I am a secret wannabe art- allowed me to take his graduate seminar on and institutes. I am also deeply involved ist! I started taking violin lessons this past slavery, which was an eye-opening intro- in shaping the relationship between our fall (a humbling experience for an adult); duction to historical sources and meth- New York City campus and NYU’s new I’m also an amateur block printmaker. My ods. There were also some truly amazing independent campuses in Abu Dhabi and partner and I are working on a screenplay graduate students in the program at that Shanghai. Teaching and writing is still on the Gracchi brothers, which we hope time: I think especially of Nancy Worman, crucially important to me: I’m teaching a to pitch some day. Know any contacts in Kathy McCarthy, and Daniel Mendelsohn, graduate class this semester, and my sec- Hollywood? who bear more responsibility than they ond book is out for review right now. ■ Princeton Classics 11.
Classics Department Lectures & Events 2012-13
September 20 November 19 March 26 Lecture Lecture Faber Lecture “The Aesthetics of Varietas” “Italy as a Wild Landscape in the Aeneid” “Pindar’s Material Imaginary: William Fitzgerald Alessandro Barchiesi Dedication and Politics in Olympian 7” King’s College London Stanford University Leslie Kurke University of California, Berkeley October 8 December 4 Supported by Faber Fund and the Lecture Lecture Council for Humanities “History, Fiction, Myth: Some Moments “Publishing Without Publishers: in the Ancient Struggle” Books, Publication, and Community April 16 Richard Hunter in Imperial Rome” Lecture Cambridge University William Johnson “Quintilian’s epic performances: the Sponsored by the Department of Classics Duke University orator and the poet in the Institutio and the Council of the Humanities Sponsored by the Department of Oratoria” Irene Peirano Religion, Department of Classics and January 9-10 the Program in the Ancient World Yale University Workshop October 16 Princeton-Oxford Exchange Workshop April 19-20 Conference Prentice Lecture Vital Traditions: Greco-Roman “The one absolute didactic poem, and its January 11-12 Medicine and the Life Sciences in the opposite: From Nicander to Paul Celan” Workshop Twenty-First Century. A Conference in Mark Payne Postclassicisms Global Colloborative Honor of Heinrich von Staden University of Chicago Network Workshop April 23 October 17-18 February 12 Lecture Tanner Lectures on Human Values Lecture “The Stoics on the Reception of Poems” “Human Values in the Very Long Run” “Crouching Odysseus: Action and Ending Elizabeth Asmis Ian Morris in Homeric Epic” University of Chicago Stanford University Alex Purves Sponsored by the University Center University of California, Los Angeles May 31 for Human Values and the Department REUNIONS 2013 of Classics February 20 Prentice Library Lecture 143 East Pyne, 10-11 a.m. October 23 “Accessing Late Antiquity: Syriac Digital The department of classics is pleased to Lecture Humanities Projects at Brigham Young host the second annual alumni breakfast “A Cognitive Approach to Homeric University” during reunions weekend. We look for- Versification” Kristian Heal ward to welcoming you back to Classics! Mark Janse Brigham Young University Ghent University Sponsored by the Committee for Study of Late Antiquity November 8 Stewart Lecture March 4 “Religious Revolution and Cultural Lecture Change in the Roman World” “‘Like a Winged Runner’: Lycophron’s Guy Stroumsa Alexandra and the Reconfiguration of the Oxford University Messenger Speech” Sponsored by the Committee for the Alexander Sens Study of Late Antiquity and Council Georgetown University for the Humanities March 5 November 15 Faber Lecture Lecture “Pagan Challenge - Christian Response: “Ritual Dances & Visual Culture in Emperor Julian and Gregory of Classical Greece” Nazianzus” Olga Palagia Susanna Elm Athens University University of California, Berkeley Sponsored by the Department of Classics Sponsored by the Committee for Study of and the Council of the Humanities Late Antiquity Department of Classics Princeton University 141 East Pyne Princeton, NJ 08544
;\gXikd\ekf]:cXjj`ZjGi`eZ\kfeLe`m\ij`kp (+( Phone: 609–258–3951 Web site1_kkg1&&gi`eZ\kfe%\[l&ZcXjj`ZjE–mail: [email protected] Princeton Classics is produced by the Department of Classics, Princeton University. Editor: Nancy Barthelemy Production Coordinator: Donna Sanclemente Photography: Bob Kaster, Donna Sanclemente Photo Credit Page One: Workshop of the Athenian Painter, Greek. Oinochoe (Wine Pitcher) 500-480 B.C. Bequest of John Ringling, 1936, Collection of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida, a division of Florida State University. Copyright © 2013 by The Trustees of Princeton University In The Nation’s Service and in the Service of All Nations Faculty Robert Kaster Heather Russo ’04 Emmanuel Bourbouhakis Joshua Katz Nancy Worman G’94 Nino Luraghi Yelena Baraz Staff Brent Shaw Michael Brumbaugh Jill Arbeiter Christian Wildberg Edward Champlin, Chair Undergraduate Coordinator Marc Domingo Gygax 8[m`jfip:fleZ`c Emily Barth Janet Downie Shadi Bartsch ’87 Events Assistant Denis Feeney Doug Bauer ’64 Nancy Barthelemy Andrew Feldherr John Bodel ’78 Department Manager Harriet Flower Edward F. Cohen ’63 Stephanie Lewandowski Michael Flower Lydia Duff Graduate Administrator Andrew Ford S. Georgia Nugent ’73 Donna Sanclemente Constanze Güthenke Josiah Ober IT Manager Brooke Holmes James J. O’Donnell ’72