Caesar: Writer, Speaker and Linguist

Amherst College, 13-15 September 2012

 

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.

Contributors include:

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).

To register for the conference, please contact Luca Grillo lgrillo@amherst.edu; there is no registration fee, but lunch and coffee will cost $20 for one day (either Friday or Saturday) and $35 for both. For lodging in Amherst, see: https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/visiting/lodging

Tentative schedule:

Thursday 13, Amherst College, place TBA

5.30-7 Key-note Address

Caesar, Literature and Politics at the End of the Republic, K. Raaflaub
The Drama of the Narrative in Caesar's Commentarii, C. Kraus

Friday 14, Amherst College, place TBA

8.30 Welcome and Introduction, Grillo and Krebs

Section 1: Literature and Politics

9-9.30 Caesar Constructing Caesar, W. Batstone
9.30-10 Caesar, Gods and Stars, J. Rüpke (in absentia)
10-10.30 Propaganda inside and outside the Commentarii,C. B. Krebs
10.30-11 The Politics of Geography, A. Riggsby
11-11.15 coffee break
11.15-11.45 Fighting for Rome, Fighting for Caesar? W. Batstone
11.45-12.15 Nostri and “the Other(s),” A. Johnston
12.15-12.45 De-gendering Caesar, S. Phang
12.45-2.00 lunch
2-2.30 Invective, Wit and Irony, A. Corbeill
2.30-3 general discussion on section 1
3-3.15 break

Section 2: Genre and Generic Contamination

3.15-3.45 The Commentarii, D. Nousek
3.45-4.14 Caesar's Poetry in its Context, M. Carter
4.14-4.45 The Orations, H. van der Blom
4.45-5 coffee break
5-5.30 The Man of Letters: Caesar's epistles, J. Ebbeler
5.30-6 Caesar the Linguist: The Debate about the Latin Language, G. Pezzini (in absentia)
6-6.30 general discussion on section 2

Saturday 15, Amherst College, place TBA

8.45-9 Welcome and Introduction to Day 2 and Section 3, Grillo and Krebs

Section 3: Rhetoric, Language and Style

9-9.30 (Re-)writing Latin: Caesar's language in theory and practice, C. B. Krebs
9.30-10 Intertextuality and Other Literary Techniques: 3 Case Studies, A. Melchior
10-10.30 Speeches in the Commentarii, L. Grillo
10.30-11 general discussion on section 3
11-11.15 coffee break

Section 4: Sources and Nachleben

11.15-11.45 Caesar and his Sources, G. Bucher (in absentia)
11.45-12.15 Caesar and Greek Historians, L. Pitcher (in absentia)
12.15-12.45 Caesar and Roman Historians, M. Chassignet (in absentia)
12.45-2 Lunch: The Corpus Caesarianum, J. F. Gaertner
2-2.30 Narrating the Gallic and Civil Wars: Caesar as a historical source, J. Thorne (in absentia)
2.30-3 Caesar and Lucan, P. Asso (to be confirmed)
3-3.30 Caesar and Tacitus, C. S. Kraus
3.30-4 The General as a Writer: Caesar in military and political memoirs, H. Schadee (to be confirmed)
4-4.30 general discussion on section 4

4.30-5 wine and cheese

5-6 final discussion and closing remarks

For further information, please contact Luca Grillo lgrillo@amherst.edu or Christopher Krebs cbkrebs@stanford.edu

 

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