Prof. Rosalind Thomas delivers the 12th Annual Percy N. Ure Lecture

The Department of Classics at Reading is delighted to welcome Prof. Rosalind Thomas to deliver its 12th Annual Ure Lecture. For this annual lecture, which celebrates the work of our first Professor of Classics, Prof. Percy N. Ure, we invite a preeminent scholar to deliver a public address on a topic of relevance to Percy Ure’s wide range of academic interests. This year Prof. Rosalind Thomas – Professor of Greek History, Dyson-Macgregor Fellow, Jowett Lecturer and Tutor in Ancient History at Balliol College, Oxford University – will deliver a talk entitled ‘Polycrates assigns a mother’: Greek Tyranny in proverb, collective memory and the local ‘polis histories’. The Greek tyrannies of the archaic period were the stuff of legend and folktale (or at least that dominates our literary sources), combined with narratives about their downfall fostered by the anti-tyrant feelings of later generations. Polycrates, tyrant of Samos (late 6th c.) was remembered through particularly vivid and colourful tales, vignettes and proverbs (as in the title), through which others were associated with cruelty and indulgent excess. It is hard to understand the social, political or economic impetus behind such tyrannies (Ure offered one famous theory), or to match the magnificence and building projects with the accounts later Greeks wanted to tell about them. This paper examines some of the most interesting accounts in the later ‘polis histories’ of their own local tyrant(s), and – with an eye to Herodotus and other comparisons – asks whether tyrants were an embarrassment or a paradoxical source of price generations later. It also examines what these later accounts might reveal about the collective memories of their archaic past, if not the archaic reality.

The lecture will start be at 4pm on 25th January, in the Van Emden Theatre in the Edith Morley building, on the University of Reading Campus. All are welcome to join us for this public lecture but please register  in advance at https://www.store.reading.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/faculty-of-arts-humanities-social-science/dept-of-classics/12th-annual-percy-ure-lecture. For any further questions, please contact Prof. Amy C. Smith, Joint Head of Department.

The Sixth Annual Percy Ure Lecture

We are delighted to announce the sixth Annual Percy Ure Lecture:

Professor Christopher Smith (British School at Rome):

Commercial Tyrants:
A Model for Central Italy?

Friday, 25 November 2016

5pm

University of Reading
Whiteknights Campus
Henley Business School
Lecture Theatre G15

All welcome!

UreLecture

The lecture is free to attend, but booking is recommended, as space is limited: if you wish to attend, please register your interest with Prof. Peter Kruschwitz at p.kruschwitz@reading.ac.uk.

The Annual Percy Ure Lecture series was launched in 2011 to celebrate the centenary of Reading’s Classics Department:

http://www.reading.ac.uk/classics/about/urelecture.aspx

http://www.reading.ac.uk/classics/about/class-history.aspx

http://www.reading.ac.uk/classics/

Classics Research Seminars – Autumn Term 2016

We are delighted to announce our research seminars and special lectures for Autumn Term 2016:

28 September
Francesca Silvestrelli (Salento), “Pottery workshops in Greek colonies of the Ionian coast: production and consumption at Metaponto and Herakleia”

5 October
Evert Van Emde Boas (Oxford), “Realism in Euripidean characterization: a cognitive approach”

12 October
Luigi Prada (Oxford) “Two Languages, Four Scripts (and Counting): Dealing with Linguistic Diversity in Graeco-Roman Egypt”

19 October
Barbara Borg (Exeter), “Reviving tradition in Hadrianic Rome: From incineration to inhumation”

26 October
Andreas Gavrielatos (Edinburgh), “In search of the hidden truth in Persius’ Satires”

9 November
Sophia Piacentin (KCL) “Epigraphy in context: the case of multae in Roman and  Samnite Italy”

16 November
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (Cardiff), “Sexual Violence and a Re-Reading of the Eurymedon Vase”

23 November
Peter Agocs (UCL) “Pindar’s Pythian 4 and Greek colonial memory”

25 November
Annual Percy N. Ure Lecture
Christopher Smith (BSR)
Title and venue tbc.

30 November
Nicoletta Momigliano (Bristol) “Aegeomania’ or Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology beyond archaeology modern obsessions with the Aegean Bronze Age Past in various cultural practices”

7 December
Fred Naiden (North Carolina), “The Self-Image of Alexander the Great”

Unless otherwise stated, all seminars will take place at 4pm in the Van Emden lecture theatre (HumSS).

Everyone welcome.

Research Seminars – Autumn Term 2015

We are delighted to invite you to the following research seminars during Autumn Term 2015:

Oct 7 Anastasia Bakogianni (Open): ‘Electra’s Turn to the Dark Side: Nelson Rodrigues’ Brazilian Refiguration of the Tragic Heroine in Lady of the Drowned (1947)’

Oct 14 William Mack (Birmingham): ‘Vox Populi, Vox Deorum? Re-examining the Attic Document Reliefs’

Oct 21 Elton Barker (Open): ‘Towards a new geography of the ancient world: countercartography, networks and bottomless maps’

Nov 11 NO SEMINAR

Nov 18 Peter Kruschwitz (Reading): ‘Poetica Britannica: Approaching Britain’s Most Ancient Poetry’

Nov 25 Kunbi Olasope (Ibadan): ‘Elegiac Odes: The Burden of Women from Troy to Owu’

Dec 2 Consuelo Ruiz-Montero (Murcia): ‘The Ancient Greek Novel: An Introduction’

All seminars will be held at 4pm in HumSS G25 on Reading’s Whiteknights Campus.

In addition to the above, we would like to give advance notice of the 2015 Ure Lecture:

Oct 28 Ure Lecture: Ineke Sluiter (Leiden): ‘Anchoring Innovation’ (Henley Business School, G15; 5pm)

All Welcome!

Reading’s Department of Classics Launches the Annual Percy Ure Lecture

On occasion of its Centenary in 2011, Reading’s Department of Classics introduced the Annual Percy Ure Lecture as a new, high-profile lecture series in Classics.

The lecture series is named after Percy N. Ure, Reading’s first Professor of Classics, whose appointment coincides with the creation of Reading’s Classics Department as it exists today.

The Inaugural Percy Ure Lecture was delivered by Professor Robin Osborne (Cambridge) on 9 November 2011:

The Annual Percy Ure Lecture

On occasion of its Centenary in 2011, Reading’s Department of Classics introduced the Annual Percy Ure Lecture as a new, high-profile lecture series in Classics.

The lecture series is named after Percy N. Ure, Reading’s first Professor of Classics, whose appointment coincides with the creation of Reading’s Classics Department as it exists today.