The Department of Classical Studies University of Michigan Classics Convivium

Classics Spring ‘10 | Volume XXII The Department of Classical Studies

Ruth Scodel Chair Constantine Cavafy: Administrative Staff PUBLISHED MAY 2010 Classics Convivium is published bi-annually online Mark Antony Confronts Robin Axelrod Contact Information By Bruce Frier, Recipient of the Distinguished Undergraduate Program Coordinator Department of Classical Studies His Mortality University Professorship Award, 2010 2160 Angell Hall Michelle Biggs 435 S. State St. n two poems, “The End of Antony” (from 1907) and “The God Abandons Antony” (1910), the Graduate Program Coordinator Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003 Greek poet Constantine Cavafy deals with the last two days of Mark Antony’s life, as Octavian’s Phone: (734) 764-0360 I Mariette Davis Fax: (734) 763-4959 forces were closing in on Alexandria in 30 BCE and forcing the great general toward suicide. Department Administrator email: [email protected] These poems make an arresting contrast.

Kimberly Johnson lsa.umich.edu/classics “The End of Antony,” a poem unpublished in Cavafy’s lifetime, is based on a passage of (Antony 77.3-4). Public Relations Coordinator In Plutarch’s account, Antony, moribund as a result of a botched suicide attempt, had been drawn up on a litter into Cleopatra’s Newsletter Editor mausoleum in Alexandria. The Queen began to wail uncontrollably, but he “stopped her lamentations” and calmly “advised Debbie Walls Regents of the University her to consult her own safety . . . not to lament him for his last reverses, but to count him happy for the good things that had Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor Executive Secretary Laurence B. Deitch, Bingham Farms been his, since he had become most illustrious of men, had won greatest power, and now had been not ignobly conquered, a Denise Ilitch , Bingham Farms Roman by a Roman.” Olivia P. Maynard, Goodrich Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park Cavafy follows much of this account occupation of Alexandria, a raucous “listen[s] with deep emotion” as “a final S. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe Farms, closely, but sidelines Cleopatra, throng of Bacchic revelers passes entertainment.” This music is heard, Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio) described only tangentially as through the city (depicted by Plutarch not by Alexandrians, but by Antony “madame with her Oriental flailings”; it as “quiet and depressed through himself. The poem proceeds rather as is mainly the sobbing of “the womenfolk” fear and expectation of what was though Antony’s high-minded Super- that awakened “the lofty pride within coming”). The throng was interpreted, Ego were admonishing him to take his soul” so that “it all seemed strange by those “who sought the meaning of courage in the face of adversity, to “go to him, indifferent, / everything he’d the sign,” as an omen “that the god to without faltering toward the window” blindly worshipped until then— / all whom Antony always most likened and and drink in the “exquisite instruments” his frenetic Alexandrian life—.” It is attached himself was now deserting of the passing throng; but the poem is reasonable to presume that Cavafy him.” This god is Dionysus, with whom phrased so broadly that, were it not for was fascinated by the clash of cultures Antony had identified himself at least its title, the same exhortation might have in Antony’s soul, and that he has since 39; Plutarch had previously been directed toward any Alexandrian deliberately chosen to accentuate this described other omens to the same confronting the reality that he must conflict rather than the farewells with effect (60.2-3). Cavafy completely eventually, at least through death, lose Cleopatra. re-imagines the final omen. In the first the beloved hurly-burly of the city. place, although, as in Plutarch, the Three years later, in his justly celebrated primary emphasis is on the eerie sound In Cavafy’s narrative, there is, in poem “The God Abandons Antony,” of the procession, the throng itself is fact, no longer any distinct omen that Cavafy has altered and greatly no longer discernible, but instead “an is construed. Rather, the “invisible deepened his thinking. The poem is invisible procession” of an “initiate company” that passes below Antony’s based on another passage of Plutarch crew”—a mysterious band perceived window is, in a way, Alexandria itself, (Antony 75.3-4), in which, during the not through vision, but entirely through an “Alexandria, who is leaving,” or middle of the night before Octavian’s sound, its “exquisite music” to which one alternatively an “Alexandria, whom

continues on pages 6 & 7 Letter from the Chair

Dear Friends,

I was at work on a conventional chair’s letter about our external review last fall, the budget, and the various opportunities and challenges we face. But on the afternoon of Monday, April 26, I learned that our dear friend and colleague Traianos Gagos had been found dead in his home. He had fallen down the stairs and struck his head.

I don’t need to write an obituary here. There is one on our website [lsa. umich.edu/classics] and on the library’s [lsa.umich.edu/library], since he was both Professor of Greek and Papyrology in the department and an archivist in the University Library.

We hope soon to post a recording of his memorial, which was attended by over four hundred people, including papyrologists from around the United States and many members of the Greek community of Southeastern Michigan. A fund to support student work in the papyrological collection has been established in his memory.

Traianos Gagos

2 • University of Michigan | Department of Classical Studies Classics Convivium Spring 2010 | Volume XXII • 3 Featured in Save these this Issue Important Dates

…Constantine Cavafy Frier | Cover & p. 6 & 7 Fall 2010

…Letter from the Chair Gerald F. Else Lecture Scodel | p. 3 & 4 in the Humanities …Archaeology Conference Professor Francois Hartog Terrenato | p. 8

…Fiat/Chrysler Scholars - Sept. 29, 2010 at 4:00PM Gabii Project Kuenzel Room, Michigan Union Terrenato | p. 8 Details to come… ______…Greeks and Barbarians Ratté | p. 9 Teaching Papyrology: The Legacy of Traianos Gagos …Thomas Spencer Jerome October 29 & 30, 2010 Lecture Series Details to come… Potter | p. 7 & 8 ______…Gerald F. Else Lecture Forsdyke | p. 9 & 10 Ancient Philosophy Lecture …Study Abroad 2009 Report November 1 or 2, 2010 (tbd) Pallazo | p. 11 Martha Nussbaum …Acknowledgements Ernst Freund Distinguished p. 12 Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago …Classics Staff Back Cover Details to come… The fall 2010 Platsis Symposium on the Greek Legacy will be held Sunday, November 7, at 2PM in Rackham Auditorium, on the topic Winter 2011 “Why Teach Thucydides?” The symposium will address ways in which Thucydides matters in liberal arts education today. It will feature two Thomas Spencer Jerome Sunday distinguished scholars of Thucydides who have also played significant Lecture Series public roles: W. Robert Connor, who besides his scholarly work on Thucydides and other Greek historians has been director of the National March 30 – April 7, 2011 Nov. 7, 2010 at 2PM Humanities Center and president of the Teagle Foundation, and Clifford Orwin, Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Toronto Leonard Barkan Rackham Auditorium has written The Humanity of Thucydides and is a regular contributor to Princeton University Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. We will also have some local respondents, and many first-year students from Classical Arthur W. Marks ‘19 Professor of Save the Date! Civilization 101 and Great Books 191 will be there to ask the questions Comparative Literature and Director of the Society older people often avoid. Everyone curious about how an ancient Greek of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, Princeton historian can help us understand the world we live in is welcome to Details to come… attend. __

4 • University of Michigan | Department of Classical Studies Classics Convivium Fall 2009 - Volume XXII |5 Constantine Cavafy continued [he is] losing,” even as his life ends. ultimate defeat. (In fact, the judgment Both city and man are thus agents of ancient historians, like Plutarch, runs in this process of mutual separation: much along this line.) the city proceeds ineluctably onward, Απολείπειν ο θεός away from him, while from his window But in the second half of the poem Aντώνιον Antony bids it “farewell.” Antony successfully fights against this temptation as “one who’s long Σαν έξαφνα, ώρα μεσάνυχτ’, ακουσθεί Cavafy’s presentation leaves it prepared, like someone brave, / as αόρατος θίασος να περνά Read the entire lecture on the indeterminate whether the “God” befits a man who’s been blessed with με μουσικές εξαίσιες, με φωνές— Modern Greek Program’s of his title, who abandons Antony, is a city like this.” In this respect, Antony την τύχη σου που ενδίδει πια, τα έργα σου web site: intended (as some have thought) to be is correctly regarded, so Cavafy που απέτυχαν, τα σχέδια της ζωής σου the eponymous deity of Alexandria, suggests, not as one led astray from που βγήκαν όλα πλάνες, μη ανωφέλετα θρηνήσεις. lsa.umich.edu/modgreek/cvcavafy substituted for Plutarch’s Dionysus. a better (more Roman) course by the Σαν έτοιμος από καιρό, σα θαρραλέος, Perhaps, instead, Antony’s acceptance allure of the luxurious East. Instead, in αποχαιρέτα την, την Aλεξάνδρεια που φεύγει. of his fate is, within a larger his very succumbing to the enticements Προ πάντων να μη γελασθείς, μην πεις πως ήταν framework, only an epiphenomenon of Alexandria he has proven himself ένα όνειρο, πως απατήθηκεν η ακοή σου· of the withdrawal of divine favor. worthy of the city; and even as the μάταιες ελπίδες τέτοιες μην καταδεχθείς. In any case, the broader message is end nears he is reinvigorated by the Σαν έτοιμος από καιρό, σα θαρραλέος, clear enough. As E.M. Forster said luxuriant sounds of the Alexandria σαν που ταιριάζει σε που αξιώθηκες μια τέτοια πόλι, of Cavafy himself, “But so much is he loves so much. (The seductress πλησίασε σταθερά προς το παράθυρο, certain—either life entails courage, or Cleopatra has, of course, entirely κι άκουσε με συγκίνησιν, αλλ’ όχι it ceases to be life.” This tragic moral vanished from this process.) με των δειλών τα παρακάλια και παράπονα, lies well beyond the habitual Roman ως τελευταία απόλαυσι τους ήχους, and Stoic pieties. “The God Abandons Antony” bears τα εξαίσια όργανα του μυστικού θιάσου, interesting comparison to “In Evening” κι αποχαιρέτα την, την Aλεξάνδρεια που χάνεις. In Cavafy’s poems that deal, in one (1916), in which Cavafy depicts way or another, with ’s conquest himself, at twilight, regretfully of the Mediterranean, few actual reading and re-reading a letter that Romans are mentioned: no arrogant he had long ago received from a generals, no rapacious governors, lover now lost to him. As he gradually although in fact the Roman Senate becomes resigned to the separation dispatched many such. Cavafy seems that “Fate” has effected, Cavafy attracted chiefly to those Romans of moves, like Antony, to the windows The God Abandons Antony (translated by Daniel Mendelsohn) the late Republic, such as Horace or of his chamber:” And I went out onto Antony, who, although they remain the balcony, melancholy—went out so When suddenly, at midnight, there comes the sound distinctively “Roman,” nonetheless, I might clear my head by seeing at of an invisible procession passing by at least in Cavafy’s portrayal, have least little of this town I love so well, with exquisite music playing, with voices raised— become thoroughly imbued with the some little movement in the street, and your good fortune, which now gives way; all your efforts’ culture of the Hellenistic East. But in the shops.” Alexandria’s vibrancy ill-starred outcome; the plans you made for life, Antony’s situation is no longer as in brings Cavafy solace and renewal, which turned out wrong: don’t mourn them uselessly. “The End of Antony,” where, in his final a willingness to accept what he lacks Like one who’s long prepared, like someone brave, moments, his Romanitas emphatically the capacity to change. This is, to be bid farewell to her, to Alexandria, who is leaving. reasserts itself in confronting the sure, a powerful image. Yet in this Above all do not fool yourself, don’t say conventional Egyptian theatrics of later poem there is no sense of the that it was a dream, that your ears deceived you; grief. To be sure, in the later poem inner conflict that had beset Antony don’t stoop to futile hopes like these. Antony’s hesitation in accepting his as he contemplated the ruins of his Like one who’s long prepared, like someone brave fate might be interpreted somewhat ambition. Not for an instant does as befits a man who’s been blessed with a city like this, similarly; why, for instance, does Cavafy represent himself as having go without faltering toward the window he require such repeated self- to query his resolution to accept and listen with deep emotion, but not admonition? His temptation was to Alexandria as the ultimate touchstone with the entreaties and the whining of a coward, lament his own choices, “the plans of his own life. to the sounds—a final entertainment— you made for life, / which turned out to the exquisite instruments of that initiate crew, wrong,” and to blame these choices, and bid farewell to her, to Alexandria, whom you are losing. or his own weakness of will, for his

6 • University of Michigan | Department of Classical Studies Classics Convivium Spring 2010 | Volume XXII • 7 reeks Archaeology G & by Chris Ratté Conference by Nic Terrenato Barbarians he archaeology club was of contemporary archaeology and n the winter 2010 semester, I introduced a not surprisingly he was peppered with A slide illustrating the practices of early founded four years ago by new sophomore level lecture course in classical undergraduates at the UM questions by the bright-eyed audience Atlantic fishing communities showed the I T afterwards. author trying in vain to rival the mouth who wanted to bring together students aperture of a gaping fish cranium. archaeology on “Greeks and Barbarians.” with germane interests in different The papers presented by the The cod faceoff picture was rivaled departments. Concentrators in Classical undergraduates ran the whole gamut for impact by one taken at a Bodies Studies, Anthropology, Art History and of archaeological studies, from early exhibit that graphically illustrated the Near Eastern Studies started meeting prehistory to colonial American symbolic value of body treatments such he ancient Greeks were from written sources. New discoveries from every corner an evening a month to have pizza and archaeology. Hailing from some ten as tattooing and scarification. Tinveterate wanderers; it of the ancient world continue to add to, and sometimes to discuss common issues, comparing notes different universities and colleges is no accident that the story confound, received wisdom. Most importantly, archaeology and asking important questions. Perhaps from across the nation, these highly UM students played host graciously of Odysseus loomed so large enables us to tell the stories of the foreigners the Greeks unknowingly, they have been promoting motivated students primarily showed and, with the introductory address in their cultural imagination. encountered on their own terms, and not only in the words of a kind of grassroot interdisciplinarity the results of archaeological research delivered by Classical Archaeology Greek adventurers, traders, Greek authors. that sometimes was freer from mutual conducted for their Honors theses in concentrator Kyle Egerer and with the colonists, and mercenaries diffidence than that of their most senior Classical Archaeology, Anthropology, presentation of several other papers by traveled all over the The course begins with an archaeological examination of the teachers.... Archaeology, Oriental studies and other Anthropology and Near Eastern Studies Mediterranean basin and story of the Trojan War, the foundational encounter between interrelated disciplines. Particularly concentrators. What was most satisfying adjacent regions, from the Greeks and their neighbors across the Aegean Sea in Last year, the archaeology club significant were the contributions from to see, in any case, was the active debate Gibraltar to Afghanistan, the place known in antiquity as Anatolia, or “land of the organized its first conference, aimed schools that offer an interdisciplinary that took place both after each paper from the Nile Valley to the rising sun.” We then proceed eastward across Anatolia to the at showcasing undergraduate research track in Archaeology tout court, such and especially during the breaks, when Black Sea. They invariably left Middle East and beyond, as far as the Indus River valley in carried out at UM and at other schools. as Brown University. Most had been on the participants mingled together and their mark on the places they modern Pakistan. Returning to the northwest, we travel around Eighteen papers were presented, summer field schools that had trained earnestly discussed the future of their encountered, and they were in turn deeply influenced by the Black Sea, retracing the path of Jason and the Argonauts. prefaced by a keynote lecture by them in archaeological methods and chosen profession. The UM archaeology the various peoples they called “barbaroi,” or speakers of After the Black Sea, we continue westward across the Balkan former Classical Studies/IPCAA faculty often offered them the subject matter club should be congratulated for a well- incomprehensible languages. Colonization and conquest, and Peninsula to , France, and Spain, concluding with the member Susan Alcock. The second or the impulse for their special studies. run and very successful event. the experience of both victory and defeat, were fundamental topics of the Hellenization of Rome, and the Romanization of incarnation of this intellectually They also brought to a discipline that to the formation of Greek cultural identity -- from the early Greece. significant event took place on February deals with the dead and distant past a first millennium BCE, when the Greek city state was just coming 19-20 at the Michigan League. This welcome whiff of freshness and humor. into being, to the dawn of the Common Era, when all Greece Inasmuch as we all define ourselves in relation to others, it was time, the keynote address was delivered was finally subjected to Roman rule. in a very real sense their exposure to foreign peoples and by another veteran of undergraduate places that made the Greeks Greek. This aspect of Greek teaching of archaeology at UM, Steve Fiat/Chrysler The new course offers an archaeological perspective on the cultural self-definition remains relevant today, both because Ellis, whose talk, “Pompeii from the interactions between Greeks and non-Greeks, and on how it helps to illuminate modern institutions such as democracy bottom up” dealt with the results of Scholars! those experiences helped to shape both groups. Archaeology, that have their roots in ancient Greece, and because it helps his excavation near the Porta Stabia. The Department is again sponsoring several field projects for the summer as the study of visual and material culture and the ongoing to illustrate modes of cultural accommodation and conflict, Steve (now an Assistant Professor at of 2010. In spite of the challenge posed by the economic climate and by exploration of the physical remains of ancient civilizations, and problems of ethnicity and identity, that are still very the University of Cincinnati) spoke rising costs, many graduate students will join Sharon Herbert, Christopher supplies perspectives on ancient Greek and related cultures much alive in our own multicultural world. inspiringly of his undergraduate Ratté and Nic Terrenato respectively in Israel, Georgia and Italy. The Gabii that both illustrate and complement the information gained vision of researching subalternity Project in Italy is also open to some thirty undergraduates who will join the in his native south east Asia and how it team for six weeks. Ten U-M students will be able to attend, thanks to a eventually materialized in central Italy departmental fellowship and to a very generous gift from Fiat-Chrysler, a instead. Ranging from Roman history significant corporate sponsorship, that recognizes the contribution that the to archaeozoology (his team found a project creates to tighter links between the State of Michigan and Italy. See baby giraffe bone in Pompeii!), Steve’s list of Fiat/Chrysler Scholars on back page. Francesca Schironi will be coming from Harvard. talk well exemplified the wide latitude Her research specialties lie in Hellenistic scholarship, papyrology, and reception.

8 • University of Michigan | Department of Classical Studies Classics Convivium Spring 2010 | Volume XXII • 9 Sulpicius Maximus:

Child prodigy by David Potter

his year’s engaging Jerome lectures by Professor Kathleen Coleman centered on which is why Jupiter had to kill him. This is not to happen Domitian’s Odeon, once located just south of what is now the poetic achievement of an eleven year old boy, Sulpicius Maximus, the child of again. Rome’s Piazza Navona. In this lecture Professor Coleman parents who were freed slaves of quite considerable means. They erected a massive also explored the relative standing of Greek and Latin in monument in honor of their son’s stellar performance at the third iteration of the The scene is a famous one in western literature and art, bilingual inscriptions and considered the implications of CapitolineT Games established by the emperor Domitian in 82 AD (thus Sulpicius’ performance and any reader of Sulpicius’ verse can sense the source Maximus’ theme, for he spoke in the role of Jupiter, king was in 94). The monument itself, rediscovered in what was surely its original location during material that he mastered so as to be able to produce these of the Gods, angry with a lesser God before the emperor excavation around Rome’s Porta Salaria in 1871 contains all 48 of the lines on the flight of lines. Professor Coleman’s second lecture, which took us himself. In discussing the treatment of the king of the Gods Phaethon that Sulpicius recited, extemporaneously, to distinguish himself in the competition into the world of elite Roman education did an admirable she showed how Maximus’ work could be compared with other along with inscriptions in Greek and Latin that commemorate the young poet himself. job of providing the educational context that enabled this works on similar themes, and the creativity of Maximus within composition (it really is not all that bad a poem, as Professor the tradition—unusual choices of words and adaptations of In her first lecture, Professor Coleman brought her audience directly into the competition, Coleman pointed out—especially when you consider that he language that revealed a poet whose command of his idiom sketching the scene with a remarkable verve that would no doubt have done credit to had to make it up on the spot). Sulpicius’ funeral epigram was mature beyond his years. Sulpicius himself as he would have emerged on to the floor of Domitian’s Odeon to be given stresses how hard he worked at his studies—did he work his theme and then to create his poem, enunciating in his loudest voice so as to be heard by himself to death? Was this memorial a symbol of his parents’ The monument of Maximus was characteristic of a culture that the large crowd that was there assembled. The presentation is direct and dramatic as he remorse as well as their pride? delighted in monumentalizing the ephemeral, as Professor speaks in the role of Jupiter asking Apollo how he could have been so stupid as to allow Coleman put it. The monument itself fits into a context that a child who knew not how to drive to take charge of the sun—he alone of the Having looked at Sulpicius, Professor Coleman took a includes all manner of commemorative art connected with immortals are charged with this task. His son nearly destroyed the world, Saturday seminar through the monument itself, looking at games of various sorts, erected by men who wished their few the way that it came together—with its idealized “portrait” days of fame as sponsors of the events to be remembered (showing a rather older looking person than Sulpicius would forever (in many cases, as in this one, they were successful). seem to have been) statue of the deceased it is one of the more Viewers of Maximus’ monument are invited to relive his striking monuments from the Roman world. Also inscribed on achievement in the Odeon as his extemporaneous composition the monument are two Greek epigrams on the life and fame is given permanence before their eyes. She concluded this of Maximus who once “dreamed of the Muses, morning, noon lecture with an exploration of the history of the monument and night.” So how was this all created? Professor Coleman after its rediscovery, and various judgments (not all of them showed, convincingly, the way in which the inscriptions were flattering) of Maximus’ art. In the end, however, we all could placed on the stone, the techniques of the artist who inscribed see far more clearly how Maximus’ achievement reflected the text and the impression that the text would have made the broader educational culture in which he lived. In so doing on the viewer. she has given us a paradigmatic study of middle-brow culture in the Roman world, a glimpse of the lives and aspirations The fourth lecture turned again to the broader context, of people who, though they lived long ago, can still touch establishing that Maximus would have recited his poems in us today.

Celia Schultz will be joining the department in the fall as Associate Professor. After taking her BA at Penn State and her PhD at Bryn Mawr, she taught at Johns Hopkins and then at Yale.

She is the author of Women’s Religious Activity in the , which makes a strong argument that women engaged in a much wider range of religious activity than most of us thought. They did not participate only in cults that promoted fertility, but often worshipped the same gods as men (sometimes along with men). Her current scholarly project concerns ’s De Divinatione.

In the fall she will be teaching Sallust and Cicero’s letters, and in the winter a new course on Roman Religion. Religion is an important aspect of ancient history, one of the great traditional strengths of classics at Michigan, and we are very glad to have it in the center of our curriculum.

10 • University of Michigan | Department of Classical Studies Classics Convivium Spring 2010 | Volume XXII • 11 2010 Gerald F. Else Lecture “Ancient Athenian Eleutheria and Modern Liberal Democrats’ Conception of Freedom” Mogens Herman Hansen, University of Copenhagen by Sara Forsdyke

his year’s version one likes” was considered a key feature of freedom in a disorder and anarchy. In contrast to Plato, who claimed that Tof the Else Lecture democratic state. even condemned criminals walked free in democratic Athens, was very much in Hansen emphasized that the freedom to live as one liked did accord with the spirit Constant’s distinction between ancient and modern concepts not imply lawlessness. Indeed, if “living as one likes” involved of Professor Gerald of freedom was enthusiastically taken up by the British breaking the law, then it became a criminal offence. For the Else who was Chair philosopher Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997). Berlin popularized ancient Athenians, according to Hansen, negative freedom to of the Department of Constant’s distinction by creating new terms for the two live as one likes co-existed in harmony with the rule of law Classical Studies from forms of freedom. Berlin labeled the freedom to govern and led to the flourishing of Athenian democratic society. 1957-1968. Throughout one’s own state, “positive freedom,” and the right to live his career, and through without interference from others, “negative freedom.” In Professor Hansen’s lecture was followed by a lively question his bequest of an annual contrast to Constant, however, Berlin argued that positive and answer session in which a number of issues were raised. lecture series to the and negative freedom were irreconcilable opposites that Perhaps most interesting and problematic among these was Department, Else sought to did not and could not co-exist in the same state. the case of religious freedom. Did the ancients allow freedom bring the ancient world into of belief? Hansen noted in response that there was an dialogue with the modern. In his lecture, Hansen sided strongly with Constant against extraordinary acceptance of critical views, evidenced Berlin in arguing that the two sides of liberty can co-exist most dramatically perhaps in Demosthenes’ claim that in This year’s lecture, by and indeed did co-exist in democratic Athens. Drawing first Athens one can praise the Spartan constitution while in Professor Mogens Hansen, a of all on Aristotle’s account of democratic freedom in Book Sparta it was an offence to praise any other constitution renowned scholar of Greek 6 of The Politics (1317a40-b17), Hansen argued that the than the Spartan (20.105-8). Next, Hansen dealt with history from the University of freedom “to live as one likes” or negative freedom was a number of cases in which individuals appear to have Copenhagen, amply fulfilled in fact clearly recognized. Hansen noted, however, that in been condemned for beliefs that did not conform Else’s mandate. Hansen chose as his Thucydides’ famous account of Pericles’ Funeral Oration, the with Athenian state religion, for example, the cases topic a comparison of ancient and modern concepts ancient concept of negative liberty was not conceptualized of Socrates, Diagoras, Anaxagoras. In each case, of freedom, and made a powerful case that the ancients so much as a freedom from an overbearing state, but as Professor Hansen suggested that factors other than understood freedom in very similar ways to ourselves. freedom from interference in one’s daily life by private religious beliefs led to the condemnation of these citizens: “Just as our political life is free and open, so is our individuals. In the case of Socrates, for example, In making this argument, Hansen set himself against a long day-to-day life in our relations with each other. We do not Hansen suggested that it was not his belief in line of scholars who have sharply distinguished between get into a state with our next-door neighbor if he enjoys his own personal spirit (daimonion) that led to ancient and modern ideas of freedom. Most famously, himself in his own way, nor do we give him the kind of black his condemnation, but the fact that a number of his Benjamin Constant, a French politician who served in the looks which, though they do no real harm, still do hurt people’s associates were guilty of treason. In this case, and the other parliament of the Restoration government of 1814-1830, feelings. We are free and tolerant in our private lives, but instances of prosecutions of philosophers for impiety, Hansen argued that the ancients prized only one aspect of the in public affairs we keep to the law” (2.37). Thus, while the suggested that these were exceptions that proved the rule. modern idea of freedom, namely, the citizens’ right to Athenians did recognize the right to live as one likes as an Finally, Hansen asked the rhetorical question “Is there any govern their state. According to Constant, the ancients important democratic freedom (especially in contrast to the example in world history of a society that has lived up to its did not recognize a second ideal central to the modern state regulation of private life in Sparta), there was still a ideals one hundred per cent?” Noting that the circumstances understanding of freedom, namely the individual’s right to key difference in the way that freedom was conceptualized. of Socrates’ trial were extremely tense due to the recent live as she chooses, without interference from others. In most While we moderns tend to worry more about intervention oligarchic revolution and civil war of 404/3 BCE, Hansen ancient states, Constant argued, collective needs overrode by the state in our private lives, the ancient Athenians were pointed to the ways that the terrorist attack on the USA on any claims to individual freedom. Oddly, Constant chose concerned primarily to protect their private lives from social 9/11 had “caused almost all democratic states to impose ancient Sparta as representative of what he viewed as the control exercised by fellow citizens through informal social restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms such as the pervasive domination of the collective over the individual mechanisms like gossip and social shaming. Hansen further protection of person and freedom of speech.” in ancient states. Constant allowed for only one exception noted that ancient critics of Athenian democracy like Plato to this generalization, namely democratic Athens, where and Aristotle viewed the freedom to live as one likes in according to several ancient sources the right “to live as extremely detrimental terms, characterizing it as social

12 • University of Michigan | Department of Classical Studies Classics Convivium Spring 2010 | Volume XXII • 13 Classics Undergraduate Travel Award: Thank You to our Contributors We extend our sincere Prof. Anne H. Groton, Kirk Hayden, John Kanounas, Susan and Aldis Lapins, Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: appreciation to the wonderful Dr. and Mrs. Pallas, Prof. and Mrs. Douglas S. Parker, James I. Porter, patrons of the Department Porta Stabia and Progetto Pran’e Siddi David W. Rupp, Prof. Ruth S. Scodel, Prof. Raymond VanDam, by Susan Palazzo whose generous contributions have helped make a difference! Charles D. and Sharon J. Wall McLaughlin, and Mr. Daniel D. Wilson ast summer I had the opportunity to spend about two The project at Siddi plateau provided me with a new months in Italy participating in two very different and necessary archaeological experience: learning how Larchaeological projects: The Pompeii Archaeological to excavate. As director of the project, Emily Holt led our Research Project: Porta Stabia (PARP: PS) and Progetto small multicultural team in uncovering a Middle Bronze Age Pran’e Siddi. Both projects were excellent, and each nuraghe called Conca sa Cresia. This nuraghe is located contributed valuable skills and knowledge to my growing on the edge of a large plateau that contains many nuraghi fieldwork experience. overlooking the very small municipality of Siddi where Congratulations to our we lived. We spent the mornings on site where I learned Stay Connected!!! This was my second year working on site in Pompeii and how to carefully excavate and identify stratigraphic 2010 Fiat/Chrysler the beginning of my fourth year as a member of the PARP: units, sift excavated material for artifacts and animal Scholars for the Alumni news is on our web site and we PS team. Like the previous summer, I was the assistant to bone, take photos properly, and keep an accurate and would like to hear from you! the project’s Environmental Archaeologist, Emily Holt, and detailed notebook of the whole process. In the afternoon Gabii Project processed all plant and animal remains that were recovered we worked in the lab counting, sorting, washing, and Please let us know what you have been from the six trenches opened in our city block. Together recording the artifacts and animal bones from site. We doing since you left the University as an Ms. Holt and I worked on floating soil samples collected opened one trench approximately five meters square and Lauren Bennett – LSA Latin Samantha Lash – LSA undergraduate or graduate student in our from important features like sealed floor surfaces, drains, after removing a good deal of debris from the collapse of major, teaching certificate Classical Archaeology; Arts Department. cisterns, tanks, soakaways, amphorae, waste pits, and the tower discovered two circular walls, one outer and one on Earth Living Learning potential votive deposits and cleaning large animal bones. inner wall, made of large blocks of basalt. Inside the two Bailey Benson – LSA Community (Shelburne, VT) From the soil samples we obtained light (mainly plant rooms we found a hearth and many layers of ash on the Anthropology & Classical [email protected] | 734-764-0630 remains) and heavy (mainly small animal bones, shell, and floor as well as pieces of metal slag suggesting that maybe Archaeology (Grand Michael Pry – LSA cultural materials) fractions for which we made preliminary at one time this area functioned as an industrial space. identifications and analyses. Rapids, MI) undeclared (Las Vegas, NV) My experience in Siddi was stimulating in both an With the remains we recovered we will be able to address archaeological and anthropological respect. Excavating Ivan Cangemi – PhD Camille Reynolds – LSA questions about diet and economy in Pompeii. During on the plateau gave me not only the opportunity to acquire student Classical Art & Classical Civilization Classics-Wear Available! flotation we were quickly able to give an indication of new skills, but also a chance to immerse myself completely in Archaeology (Miami, FL) the social status of the building’s inhabitants based on modern Sardinian culture. The members of our team formed Jessica Ryan – LSA Classical contents of drains running through the various properties. lasting friendships with many of the residents of Siddi who Jason Farr – Graduate Archaeology & Classical For example, the building that we believe is a restaurant warmly invited us into their homes and lives and did their student Classical Studies & Civilization (Riverview, MI) Michigan Classics contained a drain with high concentrations of mineralized best to take care of us and make us comfortable during our History (Brentwood, MO) seeds, bird egg shell, sea urchin, dormouse bones, bird stay. I very much enjoyed living in a tight-knit community Michigan Classics Alumna bones, large mammal bone fragments, fish bones, etc. while exchanging culture and language with the locals and noting Cynthia Kazanis – LSA Michigan Classics Alumnus a drain a few buildings over contained mainly fish bones, that despite the numerous apparent differences there are lentils, and a couple of olive pit fragments. Clearly those fundamental similarities that traverse geographical, cultural, Anthropology & Classical eating at the restaurant enjoyed meals more worthy of the and linguistic boundaries. Archaeology (Novi, MI) elite, and those in the neighboring property subsisted on a All proceeds go to help support the less nutrient rich and more affordable diet. Melissa King – LSA undergraduate initiative. Communication Studies & Please show your support! History of Art (Boston, MA) To order a T-shirt or sweatshirt, [email protected] 734-764-0630

14 • University of Michigan | Department of Classical Studies Classics Convivium Spring 2010 | Volume XXII • 15