Classics Commons^™

Famed Communities: Trojan Origins, Nationalism, And The Question Of Europe In Early Modern England, Joseph Bowling

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Throughout medieval Europe, royal families traced their genealogies back to the ancient Trojans. Beginning in the Carolingian court, this practice persisted into the early modern period, when narratives of ancient Troy—from accounts of the war to rewritings of Virgil—saturated literary production. Constituting the translatio imperii tradition, in which civilization “translates” from east to west, these legends of Trojan descent allowed European monarchs to legitimize their authority, or imperium, as derived from the Roman Empire, which Virgil famously celebrated as descending from Trojan Aeneas. This tradition formed what I call feudal cosmopolitanism: an affiliation among nobility premised on shared descent …

The Exceptional Case Of Plancia Magna: (Re)Analyzing The Role Of A Roman Benefactress, Barbara F. Caceres-Cerda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes the extravagant renovation of the Hellenistic gate complex funded by Plancia Magna, an elite woman from Perge, a city in the Roman province of Pamphylia. By using Plancia Magna as a case study, I hope to use her patronage of an outstanding architectural program to examine the dynamic roles elite women held under the Roman Empire in the late 1st century to 2nd century CE. Euergetism played a key role in developing cultural standards and civic obligations. Predominantly a male dominated practice, Plancia Magna stands out as one of its active and independent participants by commissioning the …

The Library Of Pantainos: A Unique Ancient Library, Michael W. Handis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Library of Pantainos is not typical of Greco-Roman libraries built around the same time. When comparing the library to two libraries built within 35 years of it, the Library of Celsus (135 CE) in Ephesus and the Library of Hadrian (132 CE), there are major differences in design. The Library of Pantainos proper was surrounded by two stoas, which housed various stores, the revenue from which may have been used in the upkeep of the library and its collection. The library was built on land that had been fallow since the sack of Sulla in 86 BCE. Contrary to …

Affecting Civil War: The Poetics Of Fear In Lucan’S Bellum Civile, Irene R. Morrison-Moncure

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues for the importance of fear in the Bellum Civile, Lucan’s Neronian epic narrating the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (49 – 48 BCE). Previous scholars have acknowledged the centrality of fear in Lucan’s poetic program, having related it to the Aristotelian theory of pity and fear (catharsis) and to the use of affective rhetorical devices in historiographic writing. However, there has been no extended analysis on the programmatic role of fear in Lucan’s historical epic. I examine therefore how Lucan represents fear in its multifaceted forms and analyze how the representation of these forms complicates Lucan’s …

Buying Time: Consuming Urban Pasts In Nineteenth-Century Britain, Dory Agazarian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is about how historical narratives developed in the context of a modern marketplace in nineteenth-century Britain. In particular, it explores British historicism through urban space with a focus on Rome and London. Both cities were invested with complex political, religious and cultural meanings central to the British imagination. These were favorite tourist destinations and the subjects of popular and professional history writing. Both cities operated as palimpsests, offering a variety of histories to be “tried on” across the span of time. In Rome, British consumers struggled when traditional histories were problematized by emerging scholarship and archaeology. In London, …

Four Facets Of Diminishment In Cicero's Pro Caelio: Dilemma, Irony, Understatement, And Comedy, Donald Matthew Pasko

Graduate Theses and Capstone Projects (excluding DNP)

No abstract provided.

Satyrs, Syphilis, And Sailors: The Influence Of Gaius Petronius’ Satyricon Liber On Samuel Taylor Coleridge’S “The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner”, Spencer Fugate

English Honors Projects

For generations, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” has befuddled readers. This project argues that many of its apparent puzzles disappear once we recognize its base text as the Satyricon Liber, Gaius Petronius’ first-century vulgar comedy. Attending to Coleridge’s broader literary corpus alongside images of sexual dysfunction in “The Rime” itself to justify this foundational claim, I then explore how a comic source transforms the reader’s experience of “The Rime” and its criticism. “The Rime” refutes cohesive readings as a horror-poem because it was never intended as pure horror: rather, the poem is Coleridge’s attempt to modernize …

Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project: Report Of The 2004 Season, Ünal Akkemik, Hülya Caner, Michael Doyle, Nicholas K. Rauh, Cheryl Ward

Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project, 1996-2011

The priorities the season 2004 were to complete the envisioned maritime, geoarchaeological, and architectural surveys that had been organized for this particular grant cycle. Owing to the complexity of the 2004 season's program, the various team components worked within a staggered schedule: the maritime and geoarchaeological surveys went first, followed by the architectural survey. The pedestrian survey basically worked to accommodate the needs of the other teams by working in and around them. Despite these limitations, the pedestrian team managed to conduct several days of 'prospective' survey in the Kaledran Canyon. The results of each of the team's efforts are …

Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project: Report Of The 2003 Season, Nicholas K. Rauh

Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project, 1996-2011

The Rough Cilicia Survey Team was investigating the role of Rough Cilicia as a production region to the ancient Roman Mediterranean economy. Our investigative methods in the 2003 season included remote sensing of satellite imagery; surface, geomorphological, and maritime survey; charcoal analysis of ceramic production residue for timber identification; and biogeochemical analysis of regional terrestrial vegetation preserved in sediments. The project team identified crucial indicators of economic production activities associated with the renewable resource of timber (particularly cedar) from Cilician mountain forests. To refine this question, the project was examining the basin of the Biçkici River (modern Gazipaşa, Turkey) as …

The Influence Of Spanish Mines On Roman Victory In The Second Punic War, Fisher W. Ng

Young Historians Conference

The idea that one factor can win a war seems preposterous, yet Rome’s acquisition of the Spanish mines turned the tides of the Second Punic War in their favor. While most scholars agree Rome’s conquest of the Spanish mines was a step in defeating Carthage, there is no consensus that the mines directly influenced the war. The accounts of ancient Roman historians Titus Livius and Pliny the Elder, as well as Greek historian Diodorus, attest to the unparalleled amount of precious metals the Spanish mines produced--treasure capable of stimulating Roman economy. Modern scholarship agrees controlling precious metals sources allowed Rome …

Galen: The Philosophical Physician, Chloe Sellers

Young Historians Conference

Analyzing the works of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, this paper reveals the specific influences each of the three had upon Galen’s medical practice, asserting that the influence of philosophy was ultimately responsible for distinguishing Galen from his contemporaries. Drawing from various primary sources, including Plato’s “The Apology,” Timaeus and The Republic, as well as Aristotle’s Physics, and comparing them to Galen’s works, “The Art of Medicine” and “A Method of Medicine to Glaucon,” numerous similarities are revealed between the works of Galen and those of the philosophical trio. By evaluating these many connections among the works, as well as using …

Aristotle's Politics And Slavery In Ancient Athens, Krystyna D. Klucznik

Young Historians Conference

The relationship between Aristotle’s theoretical discussion of slavery in Politics and the reality of slavery in ancient Athens is complex and multifaceted. In tandem with Politics, which was my main primary source, I also drew on multiple pieces of secondary scholarship on both Politics and slavery in Athens to compare the two presentations of slavery. Additionally, I drew on the works of Euripides and Solon. In particular, my paper focuses on the process of manumission, the lack of social mobility afforded to freed slaves, and how slaves were viewed generally. A comparison of these sources reveals that there are significant …

The Pawn Of Rome: The Roman Infantryman, Nanyi R. Yang

Young Historians Conference

Even to this day, the Roman army stands out as one of the most successful military forces in human history. The widespread success of the Roman Empire was in large part due to its armies, who were able to meet challenges with flexible and effective troops. These armies faced all kinds of attacks, from the swift hit-and-run attacks of the Germanic tribes to the crushing cavalry charges of the Parthian Empire. Rome’s military might, however, was unrelenting. This paper focuses on the Roman soldier and how he was trained to be adaptable to the variety of enemies and obstacles he …

To What Extent Does Aristophanes’ Knights Reflect Greek Opinion Of Cleon And The Peloponnesian War?, Samuel M. Hinerfeld

Young Historians Conference

This paper analyzes the similarities between the works of Greek Intellectuals like Thucydides and Plutarch, and Aristophanes’ representation of Cleon and the Peloponnesian War in his early comedy, Knights. Aristophanes satires of the Peloponnesian War were extremely popular among Athenian elite– despite this status, his early comedies failed to dissuade the Athenian Assembly from ushering the downfall of Greek power. While Aristophanes’ Knights was largely ineffective in swaying support for the conflict, it notably provides an accurate representation of the irrational nature of Athen’s demos under Cleon. Through this play, he portrays the Demos as dysfunctional and fickle–supporting policies in …

The Veiled Exploitation Of The Vestal Virgins, Lara Mclain

Young Historians Conference

This paper discusses the political dynamics of the Roman religious systems, specifically the Vestal Virgins. This work seeks to refute the commonly accepted understanding of the Vestal Virgins as an empowering, religious cult and build an understanding of the cult of Vesta as a political tool that was used by the Roman state to maintain power and traditional values. The location of the Temple of Vesta in the Forum, the political epicenter of the Roman Empire, serves as the foundation for this paper’s assertion that the Vestals were an essentially political tool. Livy’s description of Hannibal’s advance towards Rome and …

Introduction, Dieter Gunkel, Olav Hackstein

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

The present volume unites fifteen studies on language and meter. For the most part, the articles began as lectures delivered during the interdisciplinary conference on "Language and Meter in Diachrony and Synchrony," which was hosted in Munich from September 2nd-4th, 2013 by the Department of Historical and Indo-European Linguistics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The study of language and meter has profited from numerous advances over the last several hundred years. Scholars have produced accurate editions of poetic texts, added linguistic theory to description, utilized quantitative methods to test hypotheses, and provided descriptions and analyses of a relatively broad range of …

Divination And Human Nature [Review], Larry Swain

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Platonic And Confucian Theories On Music-Parallels And Differences, Christian Moreno

Honors Thesis

Music has always been an important part of humanity, and with the advent of the Axial Age, the period between the 8^th and 3^rd centuries BC where new ways of thinking emerged in a wide range of cultures, two of humanity’s greatest thinkers in Plato and Confucius, would apply their thoughts and theories to music. By examining their opinions of music in their written texts, especially Confucius’ Analects and Plato’s Republic, as well as modern scholarship on the subject like the work of philosopher Mark Muesse, one can gain an insight into the general thinking of these …

Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project: Research Report On Ottoman Period Seafaring, Forestry And Economy In Alanya And Antalya, Nursel Uçkan

Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project, 1996-2011

During July and August 2001 Nursel Uçkan Doonan conducted archival research in Istanbul and Ankara on Ottoman shipping, shipbuilding and agriculture in Antalya, Alanya and Gazipaşa and interviewed local informants about land use and forestry in Gazipaşa. Uçkan Doonan worked primarily with Mühimme Defters (=MD), Maliyeden Müdevver (=MAD), and Cevdet Iktisat and Orman ve Meadin Iradileri Defters in the Başbakanlık Archives in Istanbul.

Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project: Report Of The 2002 Season, Nicholas K. Rauh, Luann Wandsnider, Faruk Sancar Ozaner, Michael C. Hoff, Rhys F. Townsend, Matthew Dillon, Mette Korsholm, Hülya Caner

Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project, 1996-2011

The Rough Cilicia Archaeological Project conducted archaeological and geoarchaeological research in the Gazipaşa area from July 20 through 1 September 2001. Several goals were met this season. Under the direction of Michael Hoff and Rhys Townsend, detailed plans were completed of monumental structures at the sites of Asar Tepe, Lamos, and Selinus. At Lamos, in particular, the team made a number of finds, including the discovery of an inscribed statue base of large size in a small podium complex on a hill above the so-called "stadium."