School of History, Classics & Archaeology

Classics seminars

The Classics research seminars provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and the promotion of new research and debate among the research community, both within and outside the University. All are welcome. 

Time and location

Meetings are held on Wednesdays at 5:10 pm and Thursdays at 2:10 pm. Also listed are meetings of the Classical Association of Scotland, Charles Gordon Mackay lectures in Greek, and an inaugural lecture. Some seminar dates in March may be subject to change because of the UCU industrial action.

* Meetings marked with an asterisk will be in hybrid format on Microsoft Teams. Please contact Dr Benjamin Harriman (Benjamin.Harriman@ed.ac.ukfor details of how to join these sessions.

Event schedule

Semester 2, 2022/23

Date Speaker Topic Venue
Wed 18 Jan

Clare Rowan (University of Warwick)

'Tokens and social life in Roman imperial Italy' 6 pm (CAS), LG.11, 40 George Square 
Thu 19 Jan

Efrosyni Boutsikas (University of Kent)

'Digital and immersive reconstructions of ancient sanctuaries in space and time: Benefits, problems and ways forward' 2.10 pm, Teaching room 13, Doorway 3*
Thu 26 Jan Marek Verčik (Charles University)

'In the footsteps of Glaucus of Chios. Tradition and innovation in Aegean metal technologies'

2.10 pm, Meadows Lecture Theatre*
Tue 31 Jan Alain Bresson (University of Chicago)

Charles Gordon Mackay Lecture - 'New debates in ancient economics'

5.10 pm, Lecture Theatre B, 40 George Square*
Wed 8 Feb Giulia Marolla (University of Bari Aldo Moro)

'Four Burgundian kings in 5th-century Gaul? The case of Sidonius Ep. 5.7'

5.10 pm, Teviot Lecture Theatre*
Wed 1 Mar Keith Rutter (University of Edinburgh)

'A numismatic event: the nature of "early Greek coinage"’

5.10 pm, Teviot Lecture Theatre*
Tue 7 Mar Naomi Campa (University of Texas, Austin)

TBC

5.10 pm, Seminar room 2, Chrystal Macmillan Building
Wed 8 Mar Professor Mirko Canevaro

Inaugural Lecture as Personal Chair of Greek History - 'Greek subjective rights? Justice, legal discourse, and legal institutions'

5.15 pm, Playfair Library, Old College
Wed 15 Mar Irene Lemos (Merton College, Oxford)

'The archaeology of late Bronze to early Iron Age Greece: from resilience to transformation'

6 pm (CAS), LG.11, 40 George Square  

Thu 16 Mar

POSTPONED

Jesse Hill (University of Edinburgh)

'Catullus and the three hearts of Quintus Ennius'

Meadows Lecture Theatre*

Thu 23 Mar

POSTPONED

Maurizio Giangiulio (University of Trento)

'How federal was the political organization of the Locrians in central Greece?'

Charles Gordon Mackay Seminar, Teaching room 13, Doorway 3

Friday 24 March,

POSTPONED

Maurizio Giangiulio (University of Trento)

'Delphic oracles and Greek history: A reassessment'

5.10 pm, Charles Gordon Mackay Lecture, Teviot Lecture Theatre*
Wed 29 Mar Joseph Skinner (Newcastle University)

'The explored exploring'

5.10 pm, Teviot Lecture Theatre*
Thu 30 Mar Renske Janssen (Universities of Edinburgh and Leiden)

'De principiis iuris. Tacitus talks legal history'

2:10pm, Meadows Lecture Theatre
Wed 5 Apr Hans van Wees (UCL)

'A Persian version? Ctesias on Xerxes’ invasion of Greece'

6 pm (CAS), LG.11, 40 George Square  
Thu 6 Apr Giovanna Pasquariello (University of Edinburgh)

'IK Laodikeia am Lykos 1. Galatian imagery, 'Greekness' and regionalism in Hellenistic Asia Minor'

2.10 pm, Meadows Lecture Theatre*

Wed 26 Apr

Viola Periti (University of Edinburgh)

'Starting from the end: Pompey the Great in Valerius Maximus’ Facta et dicta memorabilia'

5.10 pm, Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre*
Thur 27 Apr Janja Soldo (University of Edinburgh)

'Best friends forever: Seneca’s letters on friendship and death'

2.10 pm, Meadows Lecture Theatre*
Wed 10 May Tim Penn (Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford)

'Finding intramural burials in the towns of late antique and early medieval Italy: visibility, accessibility and memory'

5.10 pm, Meadows Lecture Theatre* 
Thu 11 May Richard Kendall (University of Edinburgh)

'Out of Steppe: Art in post-Getic Olbia'

2.10 pm, Meadows Lecture Theatre*
Wed 17 May Louise Blanke (University of Edinburgh) 'Resilient cities: urban renewal in Jerash (Jordan) after the earthquake of ad 749'.  To be followed by a celebration of the publication of Louise Blanke and Jennifer Cromwell (eds), Monastic Economies in Late Antique Egypt and Palestine (Cambridge University Press,2023).  5.10 pm, Meadows Lecture Theatre* 
Thu 18 May Adrastos Omissi (University of Glasgow)

'Late Roman Italy, late Roman Gaul: their strategic and geographic relationship'

2.10 pm, Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre*
Wed 24 May Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser (Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen)

'Heroes, sex and shadows: Vergil’s dead revived in Petronius’ brothel (Sat. 6-8)'

5.10 pm, Meadows Lecture Theatre*

Semester 1, 2022/23

Date Speaker Title Venue

Wed 21 Sep

Donncha O’Rourke (University of Edinburgh)

'Erring willingly: Akrasia and amor in Augustan poetry'

G.04, 50 George Square

(CAS)

Wed 28 Sep

Georgy Kantor (St John’s College, Oxford)

'A new document from Spain on the accession of Tiberius'

 

Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Old Medical School

Thu 29 Sep

P.N. Singer (Birkbeck) 

'Leaders, followers and fellow-travellers: (re)translating some familiar Greek words and what they tell us about Roman medical history'

G.06, 50 George Square (hybrid)

Wed 5 Oct

Andrew Erskine (University of Edinburgh)

'The Court, the Polis and Hellenistic intellectual culture'

Teviot Lecture Theatre, Old Medical School

Wed 12 Oct

Book Launch

 Maureen Carroll - "The making of a Roman imperial estate. Archaeology in the Vicus at Vagnari, Puglia" (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2022) and Alastair Small and Carola Small - "Archaeology on the Apulian-Lucanian border' (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2002). With contributions from Maureen Carroll (Sheffield), Alastair Small (Edinburgh), Carola Small (Edinburgh), Robert Leighton (Edinburgh), and Ben Russell (Edinburgh). Reception sponsored by Archaeopress.

Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Old Medical School

Thu 20 Oct

Julia M. Koch (Gießen)

'From the Black Sea to the Antonine Wall: Roman funerary landscapes and their social agency'

Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Doorway 3, Old Medical School (hybrid)

Wed 26 Oct

Glenys Davies (University of Edinburgh)

'Dress code and dress as code in Roman art: togas, trousers, paenulae and more'

G.04, 50 George Square

(CAS)

Thu  27 Oct

Lilah Grace Canevaro (University of Edinburgh)

'Theocritus and things: Material agency in the Idylls'

1M473, Teaching Room 13, Doorway 3, Old Medical School (hybrid)

Wed 2 Nov

Lisa Raphals (University of California, Riverside)

'The invention of the body in Greece and China'

Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Old Medical School (hybrid)
Wed 16 Nov Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis (British Museum)

'Parthia and Rome: interaction and conflict'

To be followed by a celebration of the publication of Eberhard Sauer et al., "Ancient arms race: Antiquity’s largest fortresses and Sasanian military networks of Northern Iran" (Oxford: Oxbow, 2022)

Teviot Lecture Theatre, Old Medical School (hybrid)
Thu 17 Nov Anastasia Bakogianni (Massey University)

'Antigone in Aotearoa: Performing Sophocles’ tragedy in New Zealand'

Room 4.18, 40 George Square (hybrid)
Wed 23 Nov Alex Hardie (University of Edinburgh)

'The Proem to the Theogony: Hesiod and the Helikoniades'

Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Old Medical School
Wed 30 Nov Athanassios Vergados (University of Newcastle)

'Etymology as a hermeneutic instrument in Heraclitus’ Homeric Allegories'

G.04, 50 George Square

(CAS)

Thu 1 Dec Katharina Lorenz (Gießen)

'Group dynamics: On the art of being together in early imperial Roman portraiture'

Meadows Lecture Theatre, Doorway 4, Old Medical School (hybrid)
Wed 7 Dec Markus Zimmermann (University of Bayreuth) 'Xenophon’s reflections on decision-making'

G.06, 50 George Square 

Wed 14 Dec Steven J. Green (Yale-NUS College, Singapore)

'When you don’t know you’re Roman: Diomedes in the Latin Iliad'

G.05, 50 George Square (hybrid)

 

 

Further information

Organisers: Benjamin Harriman, Gavin Kelly

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The School of History, Classics and Archaeology offers an exciting programme of seminars across many subjects areas. Visit the research seminars website to find out what else is happening.