Courses

COURSES FOR 1ST TERM (FALL)
SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER 2026

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CS 9000 - Core Course
Thursdays

II - Greek and Roman Archaeology

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Greek 9902A- Sophocles’ Philoctetes-Tuesdays 

“In Sophocles’ Philoctetes, the fate of an entire civilization is suspended in order to allow the ambassadors of that civilization to stop and take account of the nature of the human body, the wound in that body, the pain in that wound.” Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain. Oxford 1985.10.

Sophocles’ Philoctetes is a play that will likely stay with you. It addresses problems that confront us all, including questions of how we respond to another’s suffering, how we can make a moral decision amid conflicting claims, and what are the limits of language in the context of pain. In this course we will perform a close reading of the Philoctetes in Greek, considering its original contexts of 409 BCE Athens, and of more recent performances. Together we will discuss a range of scholarly and artistic responses to the play, and you will contribute to your scholarly

community by presenting your own work and responding attentively to the work of your colleagues. You will gain a textured appreciation of the Philoctetes, you will hone your

knowledge of ancient Greek and Athenian tragedy, and you will develop your academic critical thinking and communication skills.

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Classics 9552A- The Archaeology of Roman Britain- Wednesdays

The archaeology and history of Roman Britain consider topics primarily grounded inarchaeological theory and practice, surrounding a framework of the historical events that inform our understanding of Roman Britain. The course will begin in the time period of the late

Iron Age and the first invasions of the island by Julius Caesar in the mid-1st century BCE and culminate at the end of the Roman period. Since many students may never have taken a course on the Roman provinces or Roman Britain, we will devote the first few weeks of the semester to gaining the factual knowledge that one needs to approach myriad theoretical issues that are inherent in the study of the Roman provinces. We will begin with a review of the source material, both archaeological (sites, preservation quality, surviving construction materials, etc.) and textual (literary sources, epigraphy, papyrology), and move into weekly topics of the key time periods in the history of Roman Britain (e.g. Roman conquest, consolidation of frontiers). The second half of the semester will be devoted to approaching this material from a theoretical perspective to debate issues of acculturation, romanization, discrepant experience, and identity (gender, ethnicity, age, religion, class).

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Latin 9902A- Latin Epigraphy- Mondays 

This course will introduce students to the fundamental resources, concepts and techniques of Latin Epigraphy. Throughout the term we will read secondary literature focused on epigraphy as discipline and research that is based on epigraphic evidence. In discussions we will examine the utility and limitations of epigraphy and its various sub-disciplines. We will also read many epigraphic texts, including tombstones, legal texts, imperial decrees, military diplomas, metrical inscriptions, graffiti, and writing tablets. By the end of the term students will be able to read epigraphic texts with some facility, be familiar with the primary periodicals and corpora associated with Latin Epigraphy and be conversant in current debates surrounding the use of epigraphic evidence.

Professional Seminars
Thursday - 12:30-1:30 pm - Room TBD

COURSES FOR 2ND TERM (WINTER) 
JANUARY-APRIL 2027

CS 9000 - Core Course
Thursdays
II - Greek and Roman Archaeology
III - Greek and Latin Literature

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CS 9450B- Dress and The Body in Roman Antiquity - Wednesdays 

The body is articulated socially through clothing and ornament: these are what make the human body culturally visible. This graduate seminar is designed to uncover the role played by dress and the body in the historical construction of ancient identity, and to consider fashion and material culture more generally as playing a fundamental role in the shaping of the past. We will examine dress and the body in Roman antiquity starting from a body of literary and artistic evidence. Topics such as the toga and stola, tattooing, barbaric’ dress practices, body ideals, the construction of clothing, color, dyes, and fabric, body ideals, and ‘big hair’ will be studied alongside modern theories of fashion and self-presentation.

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Greek Poetry 9903B- Aristophanes’ Knights- Tuesdays  

A study of Aristophanes’ Knights, a play first performed with conspicuous success at the Lenaea in 424 BCE. This is the first play that the young poet produced in his own name, and it

immediately established him as a leading comic poet. It is also that the first known play of Old Comedy that is built around the sustained attack on a living figure, the demagogue Cleon, who is presented as a conniving and self-aggrandizing Paphlagonian slave in the household of Demos. Aristophanes sees Cleon and similar politicians as low-lifes who built their political

careers through blackmail and malicious prosecutions; who deceived the people into approving reckless military enterprises that served solely to enrich themselves by criminal means ; who corrupted the morals of the young, and degraded the glory of Athens and posed a threat to the future of the democracy. The political satire of Knights has continued to be relevant and may especially be so today: a modern produced would be strongly tempted to present the

Paphlagon in a bad blonde wig and an orange mask.

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Latin 9903B- Latin Epic: Virgil’s Aeneid and Its Reception- Mondays and Fridays 

In this course we’ll explore some of the reception of Virgil in Latin poetry. I’ll expect you to have read (in English) and be able to discuss the entire Aeneid, and we will read some of

the Aeneid in Latin, but our focus will be on a selection of well-known and less well-known Latin texts from the Classical period, Late Antiquity, and Renaissance, most likely: excerpts from

Ovid’s Heroides, Seneca’s Hercules Furens, and Statius’ Thebaid; a set of late antique verse summaries of the Aeneid; and Maffeo Vegio and Pier Candido Decembrio’s Supplements to

the Aeneid from the Renaissance. But the reception of the Aeneid is an extremely broad field of research, and for your term paper I’ll entertain proposal for topics on any area of Virgilian reception, broadly conceived.

Professional Seminars
Thursday - 12:30-1:30 pm - Room TBD