Colgate Classicist 2009

The Classics faculty and staff on the range, from left to right: Beth MacKinnon, William Stull, Bryce Walker, Chris Noble, Robert Garland

it’s hardly any secret that we de-

pend so heavily on our temporary

faculty for keeping things going,

and we are each year scrambling to

ensure that we make the best

Newsletters drop into my mail-

box from Classics Departments

around the country but there’s no

doubt in my mind that ours is the

best. I say this not because I have a

hand in its production but because

it reflects more keenly the engage-

ment which the Classics faculty has

with its students than any of its

competitors. Not that we’re in

competition with anyone…. except

that, well, I do happen to believe

that the experience of taking Clas-

sics at Colgate University is trans-

formative in a variety of ways. I say

that without in any way tooting my

own horn. I’m constantly amazed

at how hard my colleagues work –

including my temporary colleagues.

Over the years we’ve had a num-

ber of young faculty who have

been with us for one, two or three

years (Pavlos Sfyroeras, Eric Casey,

Deborah Beck, Leah Himmelhoch,

Sabrina Grebe, Bryce Walker, Josh

Reynolds, and Chris Noble), and

each and every one of them has

more than pulled their weight and

contributed beyond the call of

duty. Indeed ‘Commander’ Stull (as

I have dubbed him) came to us that

way – as a temporary hire who put

in an enormous effort for our

program before he was hired into

a permanent position. It may be

that I might be accused of being

‘tired and emotional’ in saying all

this, but I really do believe it and

Letter from the Chair I n s i d e t h i s i s s u e :

Letter from the Chair

1

Extended Study to Rome

2

Note from the Centro

3

News from the Faculty

3

Student award winners

4

The Parilia 4

Murder on the Ides 5

Student Summer Research

6

News from the Alumni

7

Lectures and Events, 2008-09

7

T h e C o l g a t e C l a s s i c i s t

The Colgate Classicist S p r i n g 2 0 0 9 V o l u m e I I I , I s s u e 1

W h a t ’ s n e w i n C l a s s i c s ?

• Colgate hosts the Parilia

• Students and Faculty abroad

• Extended Study in Rome

• Classics puts on a show in the Vis-Lab

• Student Sum-mer Research

Professor Rood Takes Aim

Safety First: The department retired to the Bonney Hill trap shooting range this past fall for an exercise in team building, camaraderie, and humility. To no one’s surprise The Commander carried the day along with Beth Mac Kinnon leaving Professor Walker and the Esteemed Chair in their wake.

P a g e 2

James Geary gets a quick bite to eat in

Pompeii from Robert Bisnoff

Letter from the Chair, continued temporary hire. Our program is

in such good heart in large part

because we’ve been lucky

enough to employ classicists

who are fired up with a passion-

ate desire to convey to others

what they find so exciting them-

selves.

So stepping down from the

Chair (boo hoo) as I am about

to, I also want to thank Rebecca,

Naomi, and Bill for all they’ve

done for everyone out there

reading this as well as for me

personally. They’re the back-

bone to the whole enterprise. I

would also like to thank the

maiores, especially Robert

Murray and John Rexine, who

set us on this path and who

taught me, importantly, the mos

maiorum. In conclusion, I firmly

believe that we’re more than a

department; rather we’re a way

of life. And though the cultural

sky is certainly brighter than it

was when I last wrote, we still

need the Greeks and the Ro-

mans as much as we and our

forebears did and do. I hope

you’ll continue to think of them

(and us) from time to time, as

we (and they) think of you, with

warmth.

they then shared with their fellow students on-site in Italy. Imagine listening to Kathleen Cooney present the history of how water was provided to the ancient city of Rome while hearing the roar of water (which still is channeled to Rome through an ancient aque-duct) pouring into the Trevi

In Spring 2008, I directed for my first time the department's extended study program to Italy. The weekly seminar on-campus taught during the se-mester preceding the trip to Italy offered ample time for students to prepare a signifi-cant piece of research on a topic about ancient Rome that

Fountain, or seeing before our very eyes charred papyrus rolls from the Villa of the Papyri covered by the eruption of Vesuvius while Justin Alimaras talked about how they formed part of a private library that probably belonged to the fa-ther-in-law of Julius Caesar.

(continued on page 8)


CLAS 25o: Material Culture of Rome

and Pompeii , by Rebecca Ammerman

The Rome extended study group in the Colosseum

A Note From Carl Ruggiero at the

ICCS (“The Centro”) in Rome

P a g e 3 V o l u m e I I I , I s s u e 1

Other scholarly endeavors include the recent publication by Greenwood of a second edition of Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks. His first book, The Greek Way of Death, just appeared in a Japanese transla-tion. Introducing New Gods has just been re-issued by Cornell as a paperback. He has written an article on miracles in the Greco-Roman world. He is currently writing a book on Hannibal, ‘one of history’s greatest failures,’ as Garland puts it, ‘whose life epitomizes the terrifying disparity between hope and achievement.’ Garland also ad-mits, with his characteristically disarming candor, that without some pretensions to research he would have gone bonkers long ago.

Though he didn’t teach any courses in the Fall due to his administrative duties, he is currently involved in the Extended Study program to Athens, which he will be teach-ing alongside Naomi in May. He also had a delightful experience guiding alums, included Classics alums, round the new Greco-Roman galleries in the Metropolitan Mu-seum of New York in January 2009.

Naomi Rood received tenure this past year (huzzah!) in the midst of taking over for Professor Stull in teaching the recently devised capstone seminar along with a

panoply of Greek and Latin courses, which she has very much enjoyed. This spring she will be leading the Extended Study program to Athens along with Professor Garland.

William Stull a.k.a. ‘The Commander’ is on leave this spring, but has briefly appeared to enthrall sold-out crowds playing Julius Caesar.

Chris Noble arrived at Colgate this past fall, and since that time has completed his Ph.D. at Princeton, as well as given a talk on his work on the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus at the American Philological Association meeting in Philadelphia and the Humboldt Universität in Berlin. But closer to home, at the seminar table in the Classics Center, he has been catching up with old friends – Thucydides, Plato, and Aristophanes – and getting to know a very impressive cohort of majors. He will miss them all as he sets off this May for a post-doc in Germany.

Bryce Walker has thoroughly enjoyed his second trip around as a member of the de-partment. As he departs for a tenure-track position at Sweet Briar College he will re-member with great warmth his days at Col-gate and will miss his students almost as much as they will lament the departure of his dog Bananas from the halls of Lawrence.

Rebecca Miller Ammerman has been appointed Whitehead Professor at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens for the current academic year (2008/2009). The position entails teaching a graduate seminar on "Ritual and Archae-ology" as well as the opportunity to travel on numerous fieldtrips to archaeological sites and museums throughout Greece and along the western coast of Turkey. At the marvelous library of the American School, in addition to preparing site reports for fieldtrips and classes for my seminar, I have been continuing my research on the terra-cottas from Metaponto with a special eye towards the worship of Pan.

John Gallucci, of the Department of Ro-mance Languages, has thoroughly enjoyed teaching Latin 202 this spring, and has rel-ished initiating students into the varied pleasures of reading Vergil’s Aeneid.

Robert Garland is still Chair of the De-partment and still Division Director of the Humanities, though this is his final semester in both roles. He has now finished deliver-ing his 36-lecture course entitled Greece and Rome: An Integrated History of the An-cient Mediterranean for the Teaching Com-pany, which was one of the most rewarding professional experiences of his career.

News from the Faculty

Few things can perhaps top one’s appreciation for the great works than immersing oneself in the places in which they were composed--reading Suetonius’ Life of Nero among the ruins of the Domus Aurea, hearing lines from Aeneid performed in the theater of Taormina beneath the shadow of Mount Etna, walking up the Palatine through the ruins of the Flavian palaces, for a vista of Rome during the early morning . Such have been my experiences while studying with Duke’s Inter Collegiate Classics Center in Rome. “The Centro,” or so it is affectionately dubbed, is located across the Tiber river from Rome’s historic center in a quiet residential area on the Janiculum Hill.

All students at the Centro are required to take the double-credit course titled The Ancient City. It is undoubt-edly the core of the program’s experience. Twice a week professors lead half-day trips to locations in the city as well as one full day excursion usually to sites outside of Rome. We’ve traveled to Lavinium, the historic site founded by Aeneas, and the spectacular sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste. Two week-long field trips to Sicily and Campania are other components of the Ancient City course. Having traveled extensively to Greek sites around the island, we recently returned from Sicily to spring break—part of which I spent explor-ing the ruins of Athens. We will be traveling down the coast to Pompeii at the end of April.

Students are also expected to take two additional courses, at least one of which must be either Greek or Latin. I am currently taking a course on Suetonius’ Life of Nero, focusing on the author’s literary style and qualifications as a biographer.

Carl plays Aeneas in Rome last spring with Michael Fingerhut as Anchises and Justin Alimaras as Ascanius

P a g e 4 The Parilia 2009: We Must Protect this House This year Colgate hosted the fourth annual undergraduate Classics conference known as

the Parilia. The other schools in attendance were Skidmore, Un-ion, and Hamilton College. This confer-ence had previously been held at these institutions and this was the year for Col-gate to host the event.

The Parilia is named

after the festival on April 21 to the Roman god of Shepherds, Pales. This festival also cele-brates the origin of Rome.

In lieu of sacrifices and purify-ing rituals we gathered instead for a splendid day of presenta-tions by our students. The first round of papers got underway in the Clark room, followed by lunch in the Hall of Presidents. After lunch it was time to amaze the students and faculty of our neighboring institutions

with a rough cut of “Murder on the Ides” in the Vis-Lab, which was enough to send the venerable Dr. Curley from Skidmore into paroxysms of laughter.

The afternoon paper sessions were held in the Ho Lecture room in Lawrence and the day culminated in dinner at Merrill House.

(continued on page 8)


Right: Professor Walker’s Ro-man Satire class poses with visit-ing speaker Ralph Rosen

Congratulations to this year's award winners!

Classics Department Award for Excellence:

TBA Fall ‘09

Baldwin Greek Prize:

TBA Fall ‘09

J. Curtiss Austin Latin Prize:

Ally Dall

Nate DelPrete

Ryan Joyce

Newton Lloyd Andrews Prize:

Susan Anderson

William Fitzgerald

Emory Creel explains a typical Roman meal

before ”Murder on the Ides”


Aeneas Reborn by Liddy Kang ‘09

The heavens turn, and darkness falls upon my chest.

And from my dreams, late Hector calls on me to fight.

I grasp my arms and wrap my cuirass ‘round my breast

And throw myself headlong amidst the Trojans’ plight.

O, from my dreams, late Hector calls on me to fight.

I hack and slash my way towards the royal gate

And throw myself headlong amidst the Trojans’ plight,

Although I notice that for Troy, it was too late.

I hack and slash my way towards the royal gate,

Yet noble Priam’s trunk lies nameless in the sand

And since I notice that for Troy, it was too late,

I bolt with family in back and gods in hand.

While noble Priam’s trunk lies nameless in the sand,

The Grecian flames watch Trojan ashes in their wake.

I bolt with family in back and gods in hand;

What does not flee, the adversaries make to take.

The Grecian flames watch Trojan ashes in their wake.

O come what may, and I will head across the sea.

What does not flee, the adversaries make to take.

I stand as one of fate’s unwilling refugees.

O come what may as we are heading out to sea.

I’ve grasped my arms, have wrapped my cuirass ‘round my breast.

We stand together, fate’s unwilling refugees.

The heavens turn, and darkness rises from our chests.

“Murder on the Ides” By Joe Eakin and Bryce Walker Using a mixture of live actors, audio, & visual effects, the Classics Department per-formed selected scenes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in the Ho Tung Visualization Lab, a full dome immersive theater environment. The assassins (or liberators) were played by Ryan Gross ‘10(Casca), Robert Bisnoff ‘09(Cassius), and Professor Walker (Brutus). Cathy Reed ‘10 played Caesar’s wife Calpurnia, while Professor Stull wowed the audience in the title role of Julius Caesar. Although constrained by a limited re-hearsal schedule Professor Garland drew the most out of his actors with his usual wit and charm while simultaneously recording an unforgettable narration for the production. Joe Eakin amazed both cast and audience with his ability to employ both digitized scenes from the Regia, Caesar's home, the Roman Forum, and Pompey’s theater (where Caesar

was assassinated). Through this combina-tion of effects he took the audience back to Ancient Rome in 44 BCE. The pro-gram lasted about 45 minutes and con-tained three scenes from Shakespeare's Caesar and four narrations by Professor Robert Garland, all set to stunning audio and visual effects. Emory Creel prepared traditional Roman food for the audience before and after the performance. The production ran for 2 nights before sold out crowds! The cast subsequently re-corded the scenes in front of a green screen in the Case-Geyer Library, and this performance can now be seen inte-grated with the effects as a vis-lab pres-entation. The department is looking for-ward to a similar production next year.

P a g e 6

Student Summer Research, by Raffaella Dietz The Influence of Horace, Catullus, and Lucretius on the Thematic and Linguistic Development of the Spanish Golden Age Poets Góngora, Garcilaso and Herrera

My independent sum-mer research project set out to answer the following question: in what ways--themes, words, and syntax--and to what extent did Latin Golden Age literature(70 B.C.-14 A.D.) influence the development of Spanish Golden Age poetry (1500-1700)? The purpose of my research was thus to analyze Spanish and Latin Golden Age literature in order to explore the similarities be-tween them in regard to lyrical themes, topoi, syntax, and lan-guage used during the respective Golden Age period in each lan-guage and to notice acutely the debts owed by Spanish authors to the Classics. More specifically, it involved an in-depth compari-son of Spanish and Latin litera-ture to determine the thematic and linguistic influences that the poetry of Horace, Catullus and Lucretius may have had on the development of Luis de Gón-gora’s, Garcilaso de la Vega’s and Fernando de Herrera’s poetry. As a means to this end,

the initial stages of this project in-cluded care-fully reading and analyzing poetry by Góngora, Garcilaso, and Herrera, with six weeks allot-ted for me-ticulous investigation into what Lucretian,

Horatian, and Catullan themes, words, and syntactical structures each of these Spanish authors may have borrowed from their linguistic predecessors. The subsequent four weeks were spent consulting databases and scholarly dictionaries, investigat-

ing significant secondary sources on concepts and ideas relevant to this study, contacting several scholars on the subject, and synthesizing all information into a 52- page research paper.

This summer re-search project was both a valu-able and an enjoyable experience for me mainly because of some of the really exciting discoveries that resulted from my work: the highly probable Lucretian bor-rowings from book II of De Rerum Natura in Garcilaso de la Vega’s sonnet xxxiv; the several important Lucretian sub-themes that constitute the larger, more encompassing Horatian theme of Beatus Ille imitated and translated in many Spanish Golden Age poems; the imita-tion of Latin syntactical struc-tures in Góngora’s poetry; the high frequency with which adaptations of the Horatian themes “pone me...,” the ship-wrecked lover, human life as navigation, and carpe diem appear in Garcilaso’s and Herrera’s poetry; and the plethora of specific linguistic and thematic connections between Spanish and Latin Golden Age authors in general. In the proc-ess of studying these relation-ships, I learned more about the diverse forms in which Classical works may have been available to the Spanish reader during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries --manuscripts in the Latin lan-guage, a translated copy, an anthology, or a commentary-- and the numerous ways (e.g. translation, imitation, and emula-tion) the Spanish poets may have attempted to incorporate Classi-cal topoi, words, and syntactical patterns into their writing.

Furthermore, by fo-cusing on thematic and linguistic borrowings from multiple au-thors in each language at the same time, my research also increased my awareness of the many intricacies one encounters in proving that a Spanish author actually borrowed a specific idea from a Classical author instead

of arriving at the same idea inde-pendently or through his con-temporaries. Most importantly, however, this project allowed me to establish close connec-tions between my two concen-trations, Spanish and the Clas-sics, in many interesting and insightful ways, which is very exciting and very important to me.


Raffaella Dietz ex-plaining the archi-

tecture of Ha-drian’s villa

Professor Ammer-man at the Corycian cave of the Pan and

the nymphs

Note from the Centro,

continued from page 3 As a third class, I am taking Renaissance and Baroque Art History. Friday morn-ings and afternoons are spent on a field trip with this class led by the Professor immersed in the art of the city of Rome—an experience which exceeds the limits imposed by classroom teach-ing. I encourage any and all interested and serious students of the Classics to apply. It has truly been a rewarding experience, deepening my understand-ing of both the material culture of an-cient Roman as well as risotto, gelato, and limoncello.


Ashli Baker ‘99: “I am happily living in Seattle pursuing my PhD in Classics at the University of Washington. I’ve been doing an abundance of teaching for the last several years and am cur-rently teaching a class on Greek and Roman literature in translation – which is great fun. Most of my research has focused on the Ancient Novel – both Greek and Roman. I’ll be moving on to dissertation phase soon and plan to write on Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, a text I first read as an independent study back-in-the-day at Colgate with Pavlos. I think often about my adventures in Classics at Colgate – especially reading Greek with Professor Garland and trav-eling Italy with Professor Ammerman. I had a wonderful time seeing Professor Ammerman and meeting current Colgaters in Rome last spring. I still remember the amazing fried fish and gelato we shared. I send my best to all my Colgate friends!”

Alasdair Glendhill ‘95: “Greetings from Pitts-burgh. It has been just over 250 years since this city was founded as an edge of the Empire town, just one verse in the hundred years' war be-tween Great Britain and France. My path to Western Pennsylvania began 20 years ago when I landed at the pier in New York. Then, I could not know that the Fates would carry me through the Classics Department at Colgate.

November 20

Jonathan Price, Tel Aviv University

“Fact, Fiction and Notoriety: The Art of Reading Ancient Jewish

Inscriptions”

December 3

Chris Kelk

“Classical Translation”

March 26

Dan Hooley, University of Missouri

“Once Upon a Time: Stories in and of Satire”

April 9

Ralph Rosen, University of Pennsylvania

“Roasting, Boasting, and the Varieties of Greek Invective”

September 16

Robert Garland, Colgate University

“Why Read Homer?”

Part of the CORE 151 “Why Read?” Series

Ocober 30

David Teegarden, SUNY Buffalo

“Tyrannicide, Mobilization, and the Survival of the Athenian Democracy: a Study in Collective Action”

November 12

William Stull, Colgate University

“Why Read Vergil?”

Part of the CORE 151 “Why Read?” Series

November 18

Robert Parker, Oxford University

“What is a Greek God?”

Lectures and Events for 2008–2009

News from the Alumni Now, as I cast my mind's eye back over time, my imagination forms a picture of snows melting down outside, while mid term exams are heat-ing up inside Lawrence Hall. There I developed the cunning intelligence that not only avoids falling icicles but also dropping grades in Greek. Here in the middle of my story a classical educ-tion still serves me well as a husband, father and recycler of scrap metals. I hope that our paths will cross on campus in the not too distant future so that I can sing for you a few more verses. The Odyssey continues.”

Melanie Kiechle ‘03: “I am currently a PhD candidate in American history at Rutgers Uni-versity in my fourth year of study. Recently I defended my proposal for a dissertation on the role of smells and odor perception in the devel-opment of the urban environment, circa 1840-1900. My research is taking me in many inter-esting and malodorous directions, so that I often wish the opposite of Catullus’s guest: deos roga-bis totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.”

Willem Hartong ‘97: I have noticed that the die is cast. I crossed the East river five years ago traveling south from Boston and has since settled in Brooklyn NY. I operate out of this hub as a musician and songwriter who travels frequently all over the country to perform to rock and roll venues with my band Breaking Laces. When at home I tend to my newly ar-rived daughter who came care of his wife of

four years and fellow Colgate Alum, Sarah Jay-cox. Although I was tempted to follow strict Roman tradition in naming my daughter Billina Primera, we decided on Amelia instead. With the docket becoming full, I still find time to read Latin on occasion. I have been working my way slowly through Ovid’s Ars Amatoria. When I find the gaps between reading have become too long I hear this line in my head “Militiae species amor est; discedite, segnes!” (II. 233).

Whitney Clark ‘07: “I have spent the past 352 workdays (give or take) as a Teach For America corps member teaching second, third, and fourth grade students. In between breaking up fistfights and settling arguments over which pencil belongs to whom, I have had the pleasure of watching my kids beg for more silent reading time, sit enthralled as I tell them the story of the Odyssey, and compete with one another over who will end the year on a higher reading level. We have classroom pet of sorts – a stuffed frog names Socrates Jr., who knows everything, including who insulted whom behind Ms. Clark’s back. My students are hysterical – Kemara called Johnny “worm head”, Michael told me he can’t eat cinnamon rolls because they make him break out (he’s 10), and Destiny and Cody threw geometric solids at each other because they were fighting during a math lesson.

More playfully, Gi Young Lee's moving descriptions of different gladiatorial gear and combat strategies inspired some students to reenact a fight in the amphitheater at Pompeii.

A special moment was, of course, our visit to Cumae where in the suggestive setting of the "Cave of the Sibyl" we were able to read again those familiar verses of Virgil that describe Aeneas' own adven-turous descent into the underworld.

P a r i l i a 2 0 0 9 a t C o l g a t e ,

c o n t i n u e d f r o m p a g e 4 Giving papers for Colgate were the three seniors involved in thesis projects: Susan Anderson, Nate DelPrete, and Ryan Joyce.

The department would like to give a special thanks to Beth McKinnon for all the work she did in helping organize this year’s event, going above and beyond her customary duty of keeping the department operating smoothly.

Department of the Classics Colgate University Lawrence Hall 05 13 Oak Drive Hamilton, NY 13346

Chair: Robert Garland Admin. Assistant: Beth MacKinnon Phone: (315) 228-7276 Dept. Fax: (315) 228-7172

The discipline of classics engages the student and scholar

in an investigation that is extraordinarily broad in range of

subject matter and span of time—the cultures and civiliza-

tions of the Mediterranean from the prehistoric era down

to the fall of the Western Roman empire in the fifth cen-

tury A.D. The Department's aim, in both teaching and

research, is to discover, interpret, and preserve knowledge

of antiquity; such knowledge, we believe, is both intrinsi-

cally fascinating and indispensable to an understanding of

Western civilization and the human condition more gener-

ally. We are therefore committed to the proposition that

classics should occupy a central place in the liberal arts

curriculum of the University.

The Colgate Classicist

Rome Extended Study, continued from page 2

Bryce Walker, Editor

[email protected]

Students from the Rome study group inves-tigate the cave of the Sibyl

Documents

Colgate Classicist 2009