CONFERENCE:  Caesar: Writer, Speaker and Linguist

September 13-16 2012, Amherst College

This conference brings together the contributors to The Cambridge Companion to Caesar, co-edited by Luca Grillo (Amherst College) and Christopher Krebs (Stanford University). In accordance with the aim of Cambridge Companions, the conference aims simultaneously to advance research on Caesar and to make it available to a broader public. Specifically, we want to further the appreciation of Caesar as a versatile intellectual, by taking various approaches – narratological, rhetorical, linguistic, and historical – to his oeuvre. Caesar as general and politician still fascinates the general public and scholars alike, as he has for generations. But contemporaries also celebrated him as a leading intellectual, and we can still discern this Caesar in the fragments of his orations, linguistic treatises, and polemic pamphlets, letters to friends and the senate, and, of course, his famous Commentaries. This Caesar has most recently started to enjoy a much-deserved comeback, as proved by recent publications and by his inclusion in the new AP Latin programs; but much more work remains to be done. 

Deadline for registration is August 31st

To register, please contact Laurie Canter classics@amherst.edu or Luca Grillo lgrillo@amherst.edu.

Registration fee: none.  

     Lunch and coffee will be served on Friday and Saturday.
     Cost:  $35 - both days.         $20 - Saturday or Sunday

Checks may be made payable to Amherst College and mailed to:

   Amherst College     Dept. of Classics- AC#2257      P.O. Box 5000      Amherst, MA 01002-5000

 
Note: Registration is not required for the Thursday key note address.

 

Schedule 


Thursday, September 13, 2012

Amherst College,

Cole Assembly Room in Converse Hall

5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.   Key-note Address

Caesar the General and Statesman: A Literary Self-Portrait of a Perfect Roman, K. Raaflaub

The Drama of the Narrative in Caesar’s Commentarii, C. Kraus

 

 Friday, September 14, 2012

Amherst College

Pruyne Lecture Hall, Fayerweather 115

8.30 Welcome and Introduction, L. Grillo and C. Krebs

Section 1: Literature and Politics

  9:00 -  9.30  Caesar Constructing Caesar, W. Batstone

  9.30-10:00   Caesar, Gods and Stars, J. Rüpke (in absentia)

 10:00-10.30  Propaganda inside and outside the Commentarii, C. B. Krebs

 10.30-11:00  The Politics of Geography, A. Riggsby

 11:00-11:30   coffee break

 11.30-12:00  Nostri and “the Other(s),” A. Johnston

 12:00 - 12:30 De-gendering Caesar, S. Phang

 

 Babbott Room in the Octagon

 12:30 -  2.00  Lunch (served in the Babbott room)

   2:00 -  2:30   Invective, Wit and Irony, A. Corbeill

  2:30 -  3:00   General discussion on section 1

  3:00 -  3:15    coffee break

Section 2: Genre and Generic Contamination

  3:15 -  3:45    The Commentarii, D. Nousek

  3:45 -  4:15    Caesar’s Poetry in its Context, M. Carter

  4:15 -  4:45    The Orations, H. van der Blom

  4.45 -  5:00    break

  5:00 -  5.30    The Man of Letters: Caesar’s epistles, J. Ebbeler

  5.30 -  6:00     Caesar the Linguist: The Debate about the Latin Language, G. Pezzini (in absentia)

  6:00 -  6.30     General discussion on section 2

 

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Amherst College

 Babbott Room in the Octagon

  8.45- 9:00    Welcome and Introduction to Day 2 and Section 3, L. Grillo and C. Krebs

Section 3: Rhetoric, Language and Style

  9:00 -  9.30    (Re-)writing Latin: Caesar’s language in theory and practice, C. B. Krebs

  9.30 - 10:00    Intertextuality and Other Literary Techniques: 3 Case Studies, A. Melchior

 10:00 - 10.30   Speeches in the Commentarii, L. Grillo

 10.30 - 11:00   General discussion on section 3

 11:00 - 11.15   coffee break

Section 4: Sources and Nachleben

 11:15 -11.45  Caesar and Greek Historians, L. Pitcher (in absentia)

 11:45 - 12:15 Caesar and Roman Historians, M. Chassignet (in absentia)

 12:15 - 1:30  lunch (Mullins and Faerber rooms in Lewis Sebring Commons)

  1:30 -  2:00  The Corpus Caesarianum, J. F. Gaertner

  2:00 -  2:30  Narrating the Gallic and Civil Wars: Caesar as a historical source, J. Thorne (in absentia)

  2.30 -  3:00  Caesar and Lucan, P. Asso (in absentia)

  3:00 -  3.30  Caesar and Tacitus, C. S. Kraus

  3.30 - 4:00   The General as a Writer: Caesar in military and political memoirs, H. Schadee (in absentia)

  4:00 -  4.30  General discussion on section 4

  4.30 - 5:00   wine and cheese

  5:00 - 5:30   Final discussion and closing remarks

 

SPONSORED BY THE H. ALEX SCHUPF '57 FUND FOR INTELLECTUAL LIFE

 

Contributors:

P. Asso (Michigan), W. Batstone (Ohio State), H. van der Blom (Oxford), G. Bucher (Creighton), M. Carter (Western Ontario), M. Chassignet (Strasburg), A. Corbeill (Kansas), J. Ebbeler (Austin Texas), J. F. Gaertner (Harvard), L. Grillo (Amherst), A. Johnston (Yale), C. Kraus (Yale), K. Krebs (Stanford), A. Melchior (Puget Sound), D. Nousek (Western Ontario), G. Pezzini (Oxford), S. Phang (independent scholar), L. Pitcher (Oxford), K. Raaflaub (Brown), A. Riggsby (Austin Texas), J. Ruepke (Erfurt), H. Schadee (Princeton), and J. Thorne (Manchester).

For further information, please contact Laurie Canter classics@amherst.edu or Luca Grillo lgrillo@amherst.edu