The Department of Classics and Ancient History, and the Humanities Research
Centre, at the University of Warwick are co-organizing a one day conference
entitled:
“Discourses of War in the Roman World from Julius Caesar to Heraclius”. It
will be held on Saturday, March 8th, 2008, at the University of Warwick in
Coventry (UK).
The study of war in the Roman world has long been of interest to scholars
both ancient and modern. And, although Roman studies – and more broadly
Classics – has been a relative latecomer to the “cultural turn” which
suffuses the humanities, this has changed and the cultural dimension of the
ancient world has garnered the attention of a number of scholars. For all
the attention devoted to war, and culture, in the Roman world, the two
facets have not coalesced as of yet, and they continue to be discussed
largely independently of each other. With the recent release of Ted
Lendon’s important book Soldiers and Ghosts (2005), which looked at the
role of culture in the changing practices of war in the Greek and Roman
worlds through an examination of the way that war was described and
practised, there are signs that this is starting to change. The aim of
this conference is to consider some of the issues raised by Ted Lendon’s
Soldiers and Ghosts, and in particular his discussion of the relationship
between the discourses of war and reality in the Roman world, with special
emphasis on the period from Caesar to Heraclius.
The speakers for the conference are:
Ted Lendon (University of Virginia), - ‘What Roman Soldiers
Thought About Each Other: Patterns of Solidarity in Roman Military
Inscriptions’
Harry Sidebottom (Oxford University) – ‘Battle in the Greek
Novels: the Ideological uses of fighting in popular fiction, or John
Buchan meets Heliodorus’
Hugh Elton (University of Trent, Canada) - ‘How to Write History’
(with apologies to Lucian and Lendon
Boris Rankov (Royal Holloway, London) – ‘Milites, masks and mock-
battles’
Simon James (University of Leicester) - ‘On Soldiering and War:
the verbal, the visual and the material in soldierly discourses’
Michael Whitby (University of Warwick) – tbc
Doug Lee (University of Nottingham) – ‘Heroic emulation and warfare
in late antiquity’
James Howard-Johnston (Oxford University) – ‘The Last Great War of
Antiquity: Contemporary Narratives’
Adrian Goldsworthy – tbc
For more information, the provisional programme, and a booking form, please
visit our website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/dow/
All enquiries should be directed to Conor Whately at
c.c.whately AT warwick.ac.uk.
Centre, at the University of Warwick are co-organizing a one day conference
entitled:
“Discourses of War in the Roman World from Julius Caesar to Heraclius”. It
will be held on Saturday, March 8th, 2008, at the University of Warwick in
Coventry (UK).
The study of war in the Roman world has long been of interest to scholars
both ancient and modern. And, although Roman studies – and more broadly
Classics – has been a relative latecomer to the “cultural turn” which
suffuses the humanities, this has changed and the cultural dimension of the
ancient world has garnered the attention of a number of scholars. For all
the attention devoted to war, and culture, in the Roman world, the two
facets have not coalesced as of yet, and they continue to be discussed
largely independently of each other. With the recent release of Ted
Lendon’s important book Soldiers and Ghosts (2005), which looked at the
role of culture in the changing practices of war in the Greek and Roman
worlds through an examination of the way that war was described and
practised, there are signs that this is starting to change. The aim of
this conference is to consider some of the issues raised by Ted Lendon’s
Soldiers and Ghosts, and in particular his discussion of the relationship
between the discourses of war and reality in the Roman world, with special
emphasis on the period from Caesar to Heraclius.
The speakers for the conference are:
Ted Lendon (University of Virginia), - ‘What Roman Soldiers
Thought About Each Other: Patterns of Solidarity in Roman Military
Inscriptions’
Harry Sidebottom (Oxford University) – ‘Battle in the Greek
Novels: the Ideological uses of fighting in popular fiction, or John
Buchan meets Heliodorus’
Hugh Elton (University of Trent, Canada) - ‘How to Write History’
(with apologies to Lucian and Lendon
Boris Rankov (Royal Holloway, London) – ‘Milites, masks and mock-
battles’
Simon James (University of Leicester) - ‘On Soldiering and War:
the verbal, the visual and the material in soldierly discourses’
Michael Whitby (University of Warwick) – tbc
Doug Lee (University of Nottingham) – ‘Heroic emulation and warfare
in late antiquity’
James Howard-Johnston (Oxford University) – ‘The Last Great War of
Antiquity: Contemporary Narratives’
Adrian Goldsworthy – tbc
For more information, the provisional programme, and a booking form, please
visit our website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/dow/
All enquiries should be directed to Conor Whately at
c.c.whately AT warwick.ac.uk.