Over recent years there has been a gradual renewal of interest in the events that led to the fall of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Principate. This interest has involved not only the traditional study of the course of events, but also the literary representations of this political and socio-economic revolution. There has been a fundamental re-evaluation of the literary production of Vergil and his contemporaries, the rediscovery of Caesar as both author and statesman, and a new appreciation of the evidence offered by Appian.
An international workshop will take place in Margherita di Savoia on 21-23 September 2012. Situated upon the Adriatic coastline of Puglia, the venue offers the chance to consider and discuss the events that happened 2,000 years ago as they were reflected by the ancients themselves. At this very spot large armies continuously crossed, or attempted to cross, from the Italian peninsula to Greece or vice versa. Three days of round-table discussions will be accompanied by public gatherings in the evening and excursions to nearby archaeological sites. The workshop will involve scholars specialising in Classics and Ancient History and aims to appeal to relatively young scholars and be internationally representative.
Key-note speakers will include Kathryn Welch (Sydney), Ida Östenberg (Gothenburg), Jonathan Price (Tel Aviv), Christopher Smith (Rome), and Anton Powell (Swansea).
It is to be expected that many participants will be younger, emerging scholars. Colleagues are invited to submit an abstract of 300-400 words and a one-page CV by 31 March 2012.
Any ancient literary or visual representation of the Roman civil wars of the 40s and 30s BCE is welcome.
Some suggestions of topics to consider are the following:
- The Civil Wars in Latin and Greek poetry, as a theme and in implicit allusions
- Representation of battle-scenes across genres and media
- Employment of special images and unique vocabulary in descriptions of the Civil Wars
- The Civil Wars in the world of Greek Imperial authors
- Analogies between the transitional period from Republic to Principate and other periods in Greek and Roman history
Please send your abstracts to the organizers, Eran Almagor (almagore@bgu.ac.il) and Richard Westall (westall@unigre.it).