Lansdowne lectures in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies

2020-present

2022

2022 Naoise Mac Sweeney
Professor of Classical Archaeology
Institute of Classical Archaeology
University of Vienna

  • November 1, 2022: “Migration and the Making of the Early Greek World"
  • November 3, 2022: “The Trojan War: Ancient and Modern Ideas about the ‘Clash of Civilizations’”
  • November 4, 2022: "Power Dressing in the Iron Age: From imperial centres to peripheries”

2022 Kostas Vlassopoulos
Department of History and Archaeology
School of Philosophy
University of Crete

ONLINE event

  • February 28, 2022: "What Is Slavery? A Global Perspective"
  • March 1, 2022: “The Barbarian Repertoire in Greek History"
  • March 3, 2022: “How Did Slaves Shape the History of the Ancient World?”
  • March 4, 2022: "Can We Hear the Voices of Slaves in Ancient Documents?”

2021

2021 Donna Zuckerberg
Author, Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age and Editor, Eidolon

  • March 23, 2021: “Fighting Dirty: Women, War, and Gender Politics from Athens to America"
  • March 25, 2021: “Who’s Revitalizing Homer? The Relevance and Risks of Classical Reception Today”
  • March 26, 2021: "Going Public: How (and Why) to Write for a Broader Audience”

2020

2020 Penelope Allison
Professor of Archaeology
School of Archaeology and Ancient History
University of Leicester

  • February 24, 2020: “Houses and Households in Pompeii and Herculaneum"
  • February 25, 2020: “Roman Military Bases as Complex Gendered Spaces”
  • February 27, 2020: "Women, Children, and the Roman Army”
  • February 28, 2020: "Big Data on the Roman Table' and 'Arch-I-Scan': New Approaches to investigating the uses of Roman finewares "

2016-2019

2019

2019 Ellen Greene
Joseph Paxton Presidential Professor
Department of Classics and Letters
The University of Oklahoma

  • March 18, 2019: “Love and War, Ethics and Erotics, in Sappho's Poetic Texts"
  • March 19, 2019: “Catullus and Sappho: Roman Masculinity and Feminine Desire”
  • March 21, 2019: "Sex and Violence in Roman Elegy”
  • March 22, 2019: "Mothers and Daughters in Anyte "

2018

2018 Greg Woolf
Professor of Classics—Director of the Institute of Classical Studies
School of Advanced Study, University of London

2017

There was no Lansdowne lecturer in 2017.

2016

2016 Maria Wyke
University College, London

  • March 21, 2016: “France 1890s to 1910s: Aesthetics"
  • March 22, 2016: “Italy 1910 to 1914: National Consciousness”
  • March 23, 2016: "Waking the Dead: Pompeii in Early Cinema”
  • March 23, 2016: "Ancient Rome in Silent Cinema"
  • March 24, 2016: "America 1910s to 1920s: Morality and Subversion"

2016 Nikolaos Papazarkadas
Associate Professor of Classics—Director of the Sara B. Aleshire Center for the Study of Greek Epigraphy
University of California, Berkeley

  • November 21, 2016: “Boeotian Inscriptions in Epichoric Script: A ConspectusMarch 17, 2015 "Levels of liquidities and economic growth in Hellenistic times"
  • November 22, 2016: “The Epigraphic Habit(s) in Fourth-Century Boeotia: Hegemony and Acculturation,”March 20, 2015 "Quantifying Hellenistic coinages: the perfect case of Mithradates Eupator, king of Pontus”
  • November 24, 2016: "Beyond the Acropolis: Producing a National Archaeological Landscape in the Kingdom of Greece”
  • November 25, 2016: "The Festival of the Basileia in Hellenistic Lebadeia: Old and New Inscriptions"

2010-2015

2015

2015 François de Callataÿ
Head of Department at the Royal Library of Belgium

  • March 16, 2015 "Long term quantification in ancient history: a historical perspective"
  • March 17, 2015 "Levels of liquidities and economic growth in Hellenistic times"
  • March 19, 2015 "Gold coinage of Alexander the Great: a massive monetization without real economic growth?"
  • March 20, 2015 "Quantifying Hellenistic coinages: the perfect case of Mithradates Eupator, king of Pontus"

2014

2014 David Kennedy
Winthrop Professor, School of Humanities, University of Western Australia       

  • Jan. 20, 2014 "Ancient Jordan from the Air"
  • Jan. 21, 2014 "'East of Jordan': 19th C Exploration and Travel"
  • Jan. 23, 2014 "The 'Works of the Old Men' in Arabia. Exploring and Mapping a Prehistoric Landscape from the Air and from Space"
  • Jan. 24, 2014 "The Rural Landscape of Roman Arabia"

2013

2013 Timothy Whitmarsh
University of Oxford

  • Feb. 28, 2013 "Atheism and Ancient Polytheism"
  • Mar. 1, 2013 "The Sisyphus Fragment under the Spotlight"
  • Mar. 4, 2013 "Religious Scepticism and Greek Drama"
  • Mar. 5, 2013 "Euhmerus Revisited"

2012

2012 Elio Lo Cascio
Sapienza University of Rome

  • Mar. 17, 2012 "Visualizing the world of business and labour in the Roman World"
  • Mar. 19, 2012 "Civium capita: the debate on the demography of Roman Italy from the third century BC to the second century AD"
  • Mar. 20, 2012 "Free-born, freedmen and slaves in rural and urban setting"
  • Mar. 21, 2012 "Roman citizens outside Italy"

2011

2011 Kirk Freudenburg
Departments of Classics, Yale University

2010

No entries

2000-2009

2009

2009 Andrew Stewart
Departments of History of Art and Classics, University of California

2009 Ian Morris
Department of Classics, Stanford University

  • Mar. 16, 2009 "The Greek Economic Miracle"
  • Mar. 17, 2009 "The Twilight of hte Gods on Ancient Sicily"
  • Mar. 19, 2009 "What is Ancient History?"
  • Mar. 20, 2009 "Was there a Greek Dark Age?"

2008

2008 Janet Delaine
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford

  • Oct. 1, 2008 "The building industry in 2nd century A.D. Ostia: materials, economics, organisation"
  • Oct. 2, 2008 "Roman baths in their urban setting: the case of Ostia"
  • Oct. 3, 2008 "Vitruvius and Roman attitudes towards architecture"
  • Oct. 6, 2008 "New light on Trajan's Pantheon in Rome"

2008 John Miles Foley
Department of Classical Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia

2008 Claudia Moatti
Department of Classical Studies, University of Southern California, and the Université de Paris 8 (St. Denis-Vincennes)

  • Feb. 11, 2008 "Movement and Intellectual Transformations: the process of rationalization and universalization at the end of the Roman Republic"
  • Feb. 12, 2008 "Freedom of Movement: Citizenship and Right to Leave"
  • Feb. 14, 2008 "Mobility and "Cosmopolitanisation" of the Roman Empire: some aspects"
  • Feb. 15, 2008 "The Concept of Absence in Roman Law"

2007

No entries

2006

2006 Alain Touwaide
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

  • Nov. 6, 2006 "Venoms and Poisons in Antiquity"
  • Nov. 8, 2006 "Website Demonstration: "Renaissance Herbals"

2006 Gregory Crane
Department of Classics, Tufts University

  • Oct. 28, 2006 "Intellectual Life in the Age of Google"

2006 François Hartog
"École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris)"

  • Sept. 25, 2006 "Ancients, Moderns, Savages: Parallel to Comparison"
  • Sept. 26, 2006 "Time and Authority"
  • Sept. 28, 2006 "The Greek Polis after the 2nd World War and Totalitarianism"
  • Sept. 29, 2006 "Polybius and the First Universal History"

2005

2005 Allessandro Barchiesi
Professor of Latin Literature, University of Siena at Arezzo
G. and H. Spogli Professor of Latin, Stanford University

2005 Richard Janko
Department of Classical Studies, University of Michigan

2004

2004 Thomas G. Palaima
Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin

2003

2003 David Konstan
Department of Classics, Brown University

  • Oct. 20, 2003 "Shame in Ancient Greek"
  • Oct. 21, 2003 "Plutarch and Postmodernism"
  • Oct. 23, 2003 "Ancient Anger"
  • Oct. 24, 2003 "Seminar: Ancient Allegory"

2003 Christopher Gill
Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Exeter

2002

2002 Anthony Parker
Department of Archaeology, University of Bristol

  • Sept. 30, 2002 "Ethnography and Traditions in Boat Building"
  • Oct. 1, 2002 "Ancient Cargoes, Trade, and Travel"
  • Oct. 3, 2002 "Maritime Landscapes"
  • Oct. 4, 2002 "Seminar: Ports and Shipping in the Roman Empire"

2001

2001 Peter H. Burian
Professor of Classical and Comparative Literatures, Department of Classical Studies, Duke University
Professor of Theatre Studies, Duke University

2001 Josiah Ober
Magie Professor of Classics, Department of Classic, Princeton University

2000

2000 Robert C.T. Parker
Wykeham Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford, New College

  • Sept. 25, 2000 "Killing and Religion: Greek Sacrifice"
  • Sept. 26, 2000 "Women Alone: The Thesmophoria and the Problem of Interpreting Ritual"
  • Sept. 28, 2000 "How Could the Greeks Believe in Oracles?"
  • Sept. 29, 2000 "Seminar: Aphrodite of the Whole People and of the Sea on Cos"

1990-1999

1999

1999 Denis Feeney
Fellow and Tutor in Classical Languages and Literature, New College, Oxford University
Giger Professor of Latin, Princeton University

  • Sept. 27, 1999 "Mythic Time: The Ages of Gold and Iron in Catullus, Virgil, Ovid, and Seneca"
  • Sept. 28, 1999 "Greek and Roman Time: Synchronising the Past of Greece and Rome in Cicero's and Horace's Literary Histories"
  • Sept. 30, 1999 "Festival Time: Putting Sacred Time in its Place, on a Tour of Evander's and Augustus' Rome"
  • Oct. 1, 1999 "Seminar: The Problem of Mimesis and Textuality in the Poetry of Catullus"

1999 Susan Walker
Deputy Keeper, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum

  • March 1, 1999 "Hadrian and Hellenism"
  • March 2, 1999 "Rome: The City of Marble"
  • March 4, 1999 "Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt"
  • March 5, 1999 "Seminar: Planning and Preparing a Special Exhibition"

1998

No entries

1997

1997 Erich Gruen
Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History & Classics - Berkeley University, California

  • Nov. 3, 1997 "Hellenistic Kings and Jews"
  • Nov. 4, 1997 "Jewish Twists on Pagan Tales"
  • Nov. 6, 1997 "Pagans and Jews: the Roots of Anti-Semitism"
  • Nov. 7, 1997 "Seminar: The Use and Abuse of the Exodus Story"

1996

1996 Natalie Kampen
Professor of Women's Studies and Art History, Barnard College, Columbia University

  • Sept. 16, 1996 "Gender Theory and Roman Art"
  • Sept. 17, 1996 "The Origins of Rome: Art and the Construction of Gendered History"
  • Sept. 19, 1996 "Women and Space in Roman Culture"
  • Sept. 20, 1996 "Seminar: Roman Art in McCarthy's U.S.A."

1995

No entries

1994

1994 Richard Seaford
Professor of Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter

1994 John D'Arms
Gerald F. Else Professor of Classical Studies, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate school. University of Michigan

  • Mar. 7, 1994 "Roman Convivial Equality - in Theory and Practice"
  • Mar. 8, 1994 "Heavy Drinking and Drunkenness in the Roman World"
  • Mar. 10, 1994 "Spectacle and the Roman Communal Meal"
  • Mar. 11, 1994 "Seminar: Roman Emperors' Nighttime Brawls"

1993

No entries

1992

1992 George F. Bass
Abell Professor of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A&M University

1992 Averil M. Cameron
Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies and Professor of Ancient History, King's College London
Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History and Warden, Keble College, Oxford University

1991

1991 Keith Hopkins
Professor of Ancient History, University of Cambridge

1991 Mireille Corbier
Directeur de Recherche au C.N.R.S. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris

  • Mar. 18, 1991 "Writing and Public Space in the City of Rome"
  • Mar. 19, 1991 "Constructing Kinship in Rome"
  • Mar. 21, 1991 "The Ambiguous Status of Meat in Ancient Rome"
  • Mar. 22, 1991 "Seminar: The House of the Caesars"

1990

1990 Jasper Griffin
Professor and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford

  • Sept. 24, 1990 "Teach the Free Man How to Praise: Augustus and his Poets"
  • Sept. 25, 1990 "The Emergence of Herodotus"
  • Sept. 27, 1990 "How to Move Mobs: The Art of Roman Oratory"
  • Sept. 28, 1990 "Seminar: The Origins of Pastoral"

1980-1989

1989

1989 Patricia E. Easterling
Professor of Greek University College, London

  • Sept. 19, 1989 "Transmission: How and Why Greek Texts Survived"
  • Sept. 20, 1989 "New Finds in the Twentieth Century"
  • Sept. 21, 1989 "Ancient Greek Poetry and the Modern World"
  • Sept. 22, 1989 "Seminar: Ancient Scholarship on Oedipus Coloneus"

1989 Paul Cartledge
University Lecturer in Ancient History and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge

  • Mar. 17, 1989 "Seminar: The Myth of History"
  • Mar. 20, 1989 "Herodotus and the Other"
  • Mar. 21, 1989 "Thucydides and Soviet-American Relations"
  • Mar. 23, 1989 "The Tacitism of Edward Gibbon: the Decline and Fall of an Idea"

1988

1988 Geoffrey E. Rickman
Professor of Roman History University of St. Andrews

  • Sept. 19, 1988 "The Roman Grain Trade"
  • Sept. 21, 1988 "Roman Ports"
  • Sept. 22, 1988 "An Ancient Megalopolis: the Day-to-Day Functioning of the City of Rome"
  • Sept. 23, 1988 "Seminar: Cleopatra: History and Evolution of a Myth"

1987

1987 T. Peter Wiseman
Professor of Classics and Head of Department, University of Exeter

  • Oct. 26, 1987 "Julius Caesar and the Expanding Empire"
  • Oct. 28, 1987 "Ancient Theatres: What Were They For?"
  • Oct. 29, 1987 "The City of Rome, Ancient and Modern"
  • Oct. 30, 1987 "Seminar: Roman Satyrs: the Background to Horace's Ars Poetica"

1987 Fergus G.B. Millar
Camden Professor of Ancient History, Oxford University

  • Mar. 23, 1987 "Popular Politics and the End of the Roman Republic"
  • Mar. 25, 1987 "The People and Roman Imperialism in the 60s B.C."
  • Mar. 26, 1987 "Popular Politics and the Rise of Julius Caesar"
  • Mar. 27, 1987 "Seminar: The Roman Near East: Perspectives and Problems"

1987 George P. Goold
Professor and Chairman, Department of Classics, Yale University

  • Jan. 26, 1987 "About Cynthia's Death (Propertius 4.7)"
  • Jan. 28, 1987 "A Paraclausithuron from Pompeii (CIL IV.5296)"
  • Jan. 29, 1987 "What the Greek Stars Foretold: A Survey of Greek Astrology"
  • Jan. 30, 1987 "Seminar: Recent Developments in Latin Lexicography"

1986

1986 Sir Kenneth J. Dover
Professor of Greek and Chancellor of the University of St Andrews
President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University

  • Oct. 6, 1986 "Aristophanes on Slaves"
  • Oct. 8, 1986 "Aristophanes on Women"
  • Oct. 9, 1986 "Aristophanes on Peace"
  • Oct. 10, 1986 "Seminar: Greek Homosexuality and the Anthropologists"

1986 Kenneth D. White
Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Reading

  • Mar. 3, 1986 "Roman Ships and Ship Building"
  • Mar. 5, 1986 "Recent Research in the Mechanics of Ancient Warfare"
  • Mar. 6, 1986 "Water Supply in the Classical World"
  • Mar. 7, 1986 "Seminar: Lean Acres: A Slice of the Agrarian History of Roman Italy"

1985

No entries

1984

1984 Geoffrey S. Kirk
Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge

  • Oct. 1, 1984 "Myths and Imagination"
  • Oct. 3, 1984 "From Myths to Philosophy in Ancient Greece: Some Further Thoughts"
  • Oct. 4, 1984 "The Creation of the Olympian Gods"

1983

1983 Margaret Rule
Archaeological Director, Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth, England

  • Sept. 29, 1983 "The Mary Rose: the Excavation and Raising of Henry VIII's Flagship"

1982

1982 Thomas G. Rosenmeyer
Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley.

  • Nov. 1, 1982 "Phantasia and Imagination"
  • Nov. 3, 1982 "Some Thoughts on Irony"
  • Nov. 4, 1982 "Decision-Making in Classical Tragedy"

1981

1981 Michael Grant
Professor of Humanity, Edinburgh
University Vice-Chancellor, University of Khartoum
President and Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University, Belfast

  • Feb. 26, 1981 "The Etruscans"
  • Feb. 27, 1981 "Seminar: The Task of a Roman Emperor"

Lansdowne lectures at the University of Victoria

On March 23, 1978, the University of Victoria received $4.5 million from the British Columbia Ministry of Education for the sale of the University's former campus on Lansdowne Road, which was then to be further developed as the site of Camosun College. By formal agreement with the Ministry, this total amount was invested in trust, with the revenue dedicated to a special program of distinguished academic appointments. At first, the period of appointment might be for as long as two years; it became the typical pattern, however, to bring eminent scholars to the University for periods ranging from two to five days. The purpose of these short-term appointments was viewed as academic enrichment, complementing and enhancing a department's regular program of studies.

The first Lansdowne appointment in the Department of Classics was for a term of six months: W.J. Niall Rudd, Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics at the University of Bristol, accepted a Lansdowne position from July 1 to December 31, 1979, thus becoming one of the University of Victoria's earliest Lansdowne Visiting Scholars. All subsequent Lansdowne appointments in Classics or Greek and Roman Studies, as documented in the list that follows, have been for a period not longer than one week. These visitors have usually delivered three public lectures of broad interest, and one or two seminars of a more specialized nature.

Over the past twenty-five years, the Department has been highly successful in bringing to Victoria many of the world's leading classical scholars, in all the major branches of our discipline. The result has been richly rewarding for faculty members, students, and the wider community of Victoria residents.

Brief video history of Lansdowne Lecturers by Peter L. Smith, Professor Emeritus, Department of Greek and Roman Studies (requires Quicktime).