Program Events and News:
Public Lecture -
Thursday, March 17, 2011 –
4:00PM
co-sponsored by the Florida Atlantic University Classical
Studies Certificate and Peace Studies
Certificate.
Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton Campus
Performing Arts Building, Lecture Hall 101.
Kurt Raaflaub
–
Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Brown
University.
“Peace as the Highest Good and End?
The Role of Peace
in Roman Thought and Politics”
(Topic summary) Every student of Roman history and culture
knows about the
Ara Pacis Augustae and about the concept of
Pax Augusta or
Pax Romana. Recent discoveries have placed the
“Altar of Augustan Peace” into an impressive monumental
complex (including a giant sundial) that enhances Augustus’
intended image as bringer of peace, just as he emphasized in his
own achievement report (
Res gestae) and through other symbolic acts (the closing
of the “Gates of Janus”) his efforts to restore peace
in the Roman world. Yet the altar and the sundial were victory
monuments; on the Roman Forum, reshaped by Augustus, the beautiful
Temple of Concord stood opposite the Temple of Deified Julius and
two Augustan triumphal arches; Augustus’ own Forum was
dominated by Mars Ultor, and the
Res gestae extol Augustus’ military achievements.
All this raises important questions: how important was peace really
in Roman thought and politics? What was its role among other Roman
values and in relation to Roman attitudes to war, conquest, and
empire? How do we explain such specific Roman attitudes, and how do
they compare with Greek ones? Although beginning with
Augustine’s chapter on peace in
The City of God, this paper will attempt to answer such
questions mostly by focusing on Roman Republican and early imperial
history.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
For further information regarding this lecture, please
contact Dr. Brian E. McConnell, tel. 561-297-3646, e-mail:
mcconnel@fau.edu
Professor Raaflaub will also lecture on the following topic
to the Harriet Wilkes Honors College ‘Faculty
Forum’,
Friday, March 18, 2011, 1:00-1:50PM
MacArthur Campus Auditorium
Zeus and Prometheus:
Greek Adaptations of Ancient West Asian Myths
(Topic summary) In the Archaic Age, especially in the
so-called Orientalizing Period, Greek culture developed rapidly, in
intense interaction with, and heavily influenced by, the more
advanced civilizations of West Asia and Egypt. A long tradition of
intensive scholarly exploration, revived in recent decades, has
illuminated these processes in much detail. What is often
overlooked is that the Greeks did not slavishly incorporate such
influences but adapted them to their own needs and conditions and,
in so doing, transformed them, creating something new that differed
considerably from the original “import.” I will
illustrate this briefly with the example of Greek institutions and
more elaborately with the adaptations of two myths: the succession
of divine rulers (the “succession myth” in
Hesiod’s
Theogony) and the “culture hero” (Prometheus
in Hesiod and in the tragedy,
Prometheus Bound).
All talks are open to the community.
For information regarding this lecture, please contact Dean Jeffrey Buller, Harriet Wilkes Honors College, 561-799-8578; e-mail: jbuller@fau.edu.
About the speaker: Kurt Raaflaub was born in Cameroon and educated in Switzerland and Germany. His distinguished career at Brown University includes periods as Chair of the Department of Classics and Head of the Program in Ancient Studies. From 1992 – 2000 he also served as Co-Director (with Deborah Boedeker), of the Center for Hellenic Studies. Professor Raaflaub studies the social and political history of the Roman republic; the social, political, and intellectual history of archaic and classical Greece; and the comparative history of the ancient world. Recently, his research has focused on the society and politics of Homer's epics, on the origins and workings of Athenian democracy, on war and peace in the ancient world, on the purpose of writing history in Greece and Rome, and on the origin and function of Greek political thinking. He has held numerous fellowships and organized colloquia on historical topics ranging from Antiquity through the Middle Ages. His book The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (Chicago: University Press, 2004) received the American Historical Association's James Henry Breasted Prize for best book in English on any period before 1000 CE. His other interests are wide-ranging, and he is also an accomplished flutist.
