classics

Recovering the Story of the Empress Messalina After a Roman Cancellation

by Honor Cargill-Martin

After the empress Valeria Messalina's fatal fall from favor with her husband Claudius, her name and image were stricken from public and private spheres, an episode that reveals the tightly-regulated dissemination of imperial women's images (and puts current "cancel culture" panic and whisper networks into perspective). 

Cleopatra's Daughter and Other Key Figures of the Multicultural Roman Empire

by Mary Beard

Jane Draycott relates the stories of figures like King Juba II of Mauretania in north Africa, who was reared in Rome as a captive and installed by Augustus to lead a puppet buffer state, which shed important light on the diversity within the empire and the multiple ways that Rome exercised power over its vast dominions. 

Are the Modern Stoics Really Epicureans?

by Emily A. Austin

The Modern Stoicism movement has embraced the classical philosophy, often as part of project of disciplining emotion with rationality. Perhaps adherents should consider the rival philosophy of Epicureanism, which is even more in line with the modern embrace of science. 

Adventures in Decoding Cicero's "Consolation"

by Mike Fontaine

After scholars argued inconclusively for centuries about whether a treatise on grief attributed to Cicero was a forgery, a computer program suggested it was. The author says the computer got it right, and expands on his own investigation. 

What Does Dante Tell Us About the End of the Ukraine War?

by Tad Daley

In "On Monarchy" Dante offered the first proposed solution in literature to the problem of war – a world government. 

Joyce Reynolds Transformed History of Imperial Rome

Using painstaking archaeological methods, Reynolds laid a new foundation for understanding how Rome related to its eastern provinces. 

All History is Revisionist

by James M. Banner Jr.

"The collective noun for a group of historians is an “argumentation,” and for good reason. At the very dawn of historical inquiry in the West, historians were already wrestling over the past, attacking each other."

What Americans Might Learn About Political Collapse from the Classical Greeks and Romans

by Daniel Noah Moses

The right traces political turmoil in the US to the supposed abandonment of the classical canon. But reading those works might not teach the lessons they want about hierarchy, authority, and political collapse. 

As an Island, Britain Became a Stage for Roman Politicians

by Richard Hingley

The conquest of Britain mattered to Roman emperors not for the island's strategic significance, but because it signaled a ruler's mastery of the ancient deity Oceanus and thus his worthiness in domestic politics. 

More War Crimes Will Follow in Ukraine

by Fred Zilian

To those who believed that war and war crimes in Europe in the 21st century had become unthinkable, Thucydides offers us a simple yet powerful statement: “War is a violent teacher.”

Sampling the Epic in Kendrick Lamar's "Mortal Man"

by Justine McConnell

Remembering the essential orality of classical epics can help to understand them as works that have been sampled and remixed, and to place contemporary popular culture in dialogue with that tradition. 

Deadly Cucumbers and Roof Tiles: The Lines Separating Civilians from Combat Have Always Been Blurred

by Nadya Williams

Stories of ordinary Ukrainians resisting invasion are framed as heroic, but this can conceal the trauma and violence inflicted on civilians in warfare, both modern and ancient. 

Finding Nowhere: Mapping the Future Study of Antiquity

by Stephanie Wong and Sarah E. Bond

This is a conversation inaugurating a broader discussion about considering the ancient world beyond the fragmented histories of Greece, Rome, or "the west." 

New Boston MFA Exhibit Shows Museum's Complex History of Censoring Queer Desire

by Erin L. Thompson

"When I first visited Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, as a young and deeply closeted queer college student, I found myself wondering if the museum possessed ancient Greek vases decorated with anything other than sex scenes."

A Descent into Textual Paranoia

by Christopher S. Celenza

"Doing one's own research" in an environment of proliferating information and few gatekeepers isn't new to the internet age. 

What if Hannibal Had Won?

by Philip Freeman

Historians' dependence on the accounts of Roman historians has distorted modern understanding of Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and the different possibilities for the world if he had succeeded in defeating Rome.

Mapping Black Antiquity

by Sarah Derbew

Ancient Greek literature is full of depictions of African people that affirm their participation in classical antiquity. Why have these been submerged? 

Boris Johnson’s Roman Fantasies

by Mateusz Fafinsky

Boris Johnson's recent statements that the collapse of Rome was caused by open borders are well out of step with historical understanding of the fragmenting of the Roman empire, but in line with a long legacy of political misappropriation of Rome as an allegory for the danger of immigrants.

Why a Liberal Education is Worth Defending

by Steve Mintz

Roosevelt Montas’s forthcoming "Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation" makes a powerful case for engagment with the Great Books as a way to subvert hierarchies and promote equity. 

Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience (Thursday, 9/23)

Nancy Sherman addresses the Washington History Seminar to discuss the maladaptation of Stoicism to the modern self-help industry and a fuller understanding of the lessons of the school. Zoom, September 23, 4:00 EDT.