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Sine Spoliis: The Commemoration of the Third Macedonian War through the Porticus Octavia
presented by Julius Arnold

Friday, January 17th, 2025 at 4:30 P.M.
Eaton Humanities 250

Abstract: The lost Porticus Octavia, constructed after the Third Macedonian War, remains an enigmatic monument of the Middle Roman Republic. Built to commemorate Gnaeus Octavius’ capturing of the last Macedonian king Perseus, the building has received scant attention in surviving ancient literature and modern scholarship. In this talk, I argue that the monument likely served as a display space for spoils of war taken by Lucius Aemilius Paullus, who had defeated Perseus in battle. I shed light on how Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gnaeus Octavius collaborated to control the public memory of their military successes, situating the Porticus Octavia within the broader context of the commemoration of victories over Hellenistic kingdoms and the display of war spoils in the city of Rome.

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Divine Witnessing and Dramatic Performance in Ancient Greece

Thursday, November 7th@ 5:00PM

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ABSTRACT

Theaters are ubiquitous pieces of monumental architecture in the ancient Greek landscape.  They dominate landscapes, take advantage of sweeping vistas, and leave a tangible impression of ancient performance venues through their easily apprehended forms.  Despite their ancient (and modern) popularity, however, they have frequently been left out of critical accounts concerning the articulation of sacred space.  When they do appear in such studies, it is generally a cursory treatment or simple acknowledgement that some sort of performance took place in or adjacent to a sanctuary.  On the other hand, accounts of ancient festivals involving dramatic performance, such as the Great Dionysia, or studies of Mediterranean-wide theoria networks, often leave the physical venue of performance in the background, as a static entity in which the dynamic ritual occurred.  In both cases, the theater itself becomes a mere backdrop or footnote, unchanging, achronological, and uncomplicated.

It is perhaps the relatively simple architectural form of the theater, with its tripartite division of theatron (or cavea), orchestra, and skene, that belies its ritual and performative complexity.  But within this straightforward schematic is a more dynamic space than generally acknowledged.  Through an investigation of viewsheds and movement patterns, this paper demonstrates how theaters functioned as active participants in the ritual-architectural events that dominated the religious life of ancient Greece, thereby shaping the nature of dramatic performance and generating the expectation of divine witnessing on the part of the audience.  Viewed in this light, theaters become complex and critical spaces of ritual, reflection, and transformation, for both their actor and spectator participants.  Ultimately, such an approach, by centering theatral space within religious performance and knitting together threads of architectural and textual analysis, facilitates a more nuanced and deeply contextualized account of dramatic performance in ancient Greece.

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Wednesday, November 6, 2024 @ 7PM
Eaton Humanities 250 & Zoom
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ABSTRACT

Sensory studies of embodiment have gained traction in recent years as unparalleled tools for examining the vicissitudes of ancient lived experience.  When used in conjunction with cognitive studies, it becomes possible to tease out the links between (over)stimulation, deprivation, and religious transformation.  Kinesthetics, in particular, can facilitate a nuanced embodied account of approach, (in)accessibility, and viewshed orchestration, by prioritizing the role of the body in movement within the landscapes and edifices of the built environment.  The intersection of space, place, and body within the religious setting of the sanctuary thus becomes a nexus of gradually unfolding experience, understanding, and transformation.

Through a series of three case studies drawn from the 5th-3rd c. BCE, this paper focuses on how divine epiphany, made manifest through the multisensory experiences within the Greek sanctuary, served as the key to the transformative effect of ritual, a crucial component to understanding ancient religion.  Eleusis, the site of the renowned Mysteries, serves as an example of how the combination of sensory overstimulation and deprivation can prime the body of the worshipper to receive the divine knowledge at the root of the ritual.  Delphi, the oracular heart of Greece, showcases how physical exertion in service to the gods constituted its own form of worship and prepared both worshippers and priestly attendants to communicate with the god.  And Samothrace, home of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, ties together the strains of sensory stimulation and physical expenditure of energy into a synesthetic encapsulation of ritual transformation within a charged sacred landscape.

Ultimately, this paper reveals the role of multisensory experience in the religious transformation that lies at the heart of Greek ritual practice by foregrounding kinesthetics as the link between the human participant and sacred built environment.

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Caesar’s Cervisia

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 @ 7PM
Eaton Humanities #150 & Zoom
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ABSTRACT

Examinations of Roman cuisine often downplay the role of beer in the ancient Roman diet seeing it as a symbol of barbarity. This presentation examines the plausibility of beer as a standard component of the Roman soldier’s diet and seeks to highlight when it may have become necessary for military advancement. Julius Caesar’s reliance on auxiliary forces to campaign in the North from 58-51 BCE ensured that cultures known for producing beer influenced legionary forces reliant on local resources to survive. This lecture also asserts the implausibility of wine consumption amongst Caesar’s men and concludes that the acceptance of beer as a standard component of the Roman soldier’s diet begins with Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul and Britain.

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On October 4 and 5, Prof. Zach Herz will host speakers from three continents in Boulder, CO for a conference entitled "An Empire of Correspondence." The conference will feature talks on the role of imperial letters in social, legal, and political life throughout Roman history. Anyone who wishes to watch a livestream of the proceedings should request a link at .

Location: Norlin Library - Center for British & Irish Studies Room (CBIS Room)
Time: 8:30AM - 6:00PM

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