Current Postgraduate Research
D Arts Students
An Historical Commentary on Demosthenes 8, 'On the Khersonnese'
Demosthenes 8 is a crucial speech which has long been neglected and rarely given the attention it deserves. The speech focuses on Athenian relations with Philip in this crucial northern region and is, moreover, a rhetorical masterpiece. Demosthenes seeks to paint Philip as the sole aggressor in the breaking of the Peace of Philokrates, even though the historical narrative is not supportive of this claim. My thesis seeks to provide the historical background to the speech and explain the historical significance and veracity of all its aspects.
Research interests: Fifth- and Fourth-Century Athens; Athenian Interests in the Northern Aegean; The Peloponnesian War; Athenian democracy.
Supervisors: Prof Alastair Blanchard, Prof Peter Wilson
The Εὐηθέστεροι Hero-Myth: The Good Virtue of Noble Simplicity
A survey and analysis of ‘εὐηθ' root words in Plato is the research core of my thesis. I argue that Plato utilises these words in four ways. First, with the idiomatic pejorative meaning: secondly, in a more moderated and less offensive sense: thirdly, to be deliberately ironic and/or ambiguous: fourthly, to directly challenge εὐήθεια's colloquially negative connotation and restore its etymology of ‘good disposition’ (viz., εὐ+ήθος). Moreover, that Plato realises his positive assessment of εὐήθεια in order to mitigate the harm of 'false stories' and clever sophistry by redressing what Thucydides had warned were the consequences of εὐήθεια's loss (Th. 3.83.1). Plato’s progressively positive use of εὐήθεια in his early and transitional works culminates in Republic’s affirmation of εὐήθεια as "the truly good and fair disposition (εὖ τε καὶ καλῶς τὸ ἦθος) of the character and the mind” (R. 400e), and in what I term Laws’ Εὐηθέστεροι Hero-Myth. I conclude that reinstating εὐήθεια as noble simplicity and good disposition has a dynamic function in Platonic dialectic.
Research interests: Ancient Philosophy and Political Anthropology, Cosmology, Meta Ethics.
Supervisors: Prof Eric Csapo, Prof Rick Benitez
Origins of Ostia: Mythological, Historical and Archaeological Landscapes of the pre-Imperial Colony
My research examines the foundation and development of Ostia in the middle and late Republic from three perspectives. I explore the colony’s mythology not only in terms of its supposed foundation in the Regal period, but also in terms of modern scholarship on Ostia which, at times, over-interprets the spotty archaeological and historical record in order to create a coherent narrative. I evaluate both the ancient and modern narratives in light of recent archaeological discoveries and my own archival research into early 20th century excavations at the site. My archival work focuses especially on the Quattro Tempietti, and demonstrates that a rich and nuanced understanding of some of Ostia’s earliest structures is recoverable through careful reexamination of Dante Vaglieri’s excavations.
Research interests: Landscape Archaeology; Harbours; Early Roman Colonization; Late-Republican Rome; Coin Iconography; Epigraphy; Roman Pottery
Publications: "Portus Augusti: The Claudian Harbour on a Sestertius of Nero", in Art in the Round: New Approaches to Coin Iconography. N. Elkins and S. Krmnicek, eds. Tübingen: Tübinger Archäologische Forschungen (2014), 121-134
"Rose, Sage, Cyperus and e-ti: The Adornment of Olive Oil in the Palace of Nestor", in KOSMOS: Jewelry, Adornment and Textiles in the Aegean Bronze Age (Aegaeum 33). M.-L. Nosch and R. Laffineur, eds. Leuven: Peeters (2012), 655 -662
Review of Christopher P. Dickenson, O. van Nijf, eds., Public Space in the Post- Classical City (Leuven 2013), BABESCH 89 (2014), 235-236.
Review of Hanna Stöger, Rethinking Ostia: A Spatial Enquiry into the Urban Society of Rome's Imperial Port-town (Amsterdam 2011), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.
“Summary of the Ostia Synagogue Excavations,” FastiOnline (2010, 2011 & 2012).
Teaching experience: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Latin; Archaeological Field Schools
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Kathryn Welch, Assoc Prof Richard Miles.
Situation and Organisation in the Empire Building of Tiglath-Pileser III
Supervisors: Dr Noel Weeks, Prof Alastair Blanshard
Sparagmos for a Modern World: Jean Cocteau's Orpheus
This thesis will examine the depiction of Orpheus across the three ‘Orphic’ films of French auteur Jean Cocteau, and how these depictions might reflect broader events within Cocteau’s tumultuous personal life and milieu. The three films occur at critical moments in the development of the French cinema of modern 20th century Paris: the first, ‘Le Sang d’un poète’, occurs during and influences the birth of the French avant-garde movement; the second, ‘Orphée’, during the birth of existentialism in the conservative years immediately after the Second World War; and the third , ‘Le Testament d’Orphée’, coming at the end of Cocteau’s life, anticipates, in many ways, the Nouveau Vague. In this way, Orpheus is present in his classical capacity as singing muse, influencing key artistic movements within the French cinema of modernist Paris.
Supervisor: Prof Alastair Blanshard
Livy’s Translation of Polybius
While there has been much work done in recent years to appreciate Livy as an author in his own right, scholars are still sometimes reticent to talk about situations where Livy appears to be translating from the work of Polybius. This thesis takes these situations of extreme similarity and seeks to understand them through the lens of cultural translation studies. This method places translations in their social context and understands them in their new context. Three case studies are used to demonstrate this method: the translation of tyche with fortuna, the translation of battlefield topography, and the way Livy deals with the importance of logismos in Polybius’ text. Throughout it is argued that Livy translates carefully and in a way that responds to his social context, and this is how we must understand his translations of Polybius.
Research interests: Roman historiography; cultural history; translation studies
Teaching experience: LATN1600 Introduction to Latin 1; ANHS1601 Foundations for Ancient Rome; ANHS2619 The World of Ancient Epic
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Richard Miles, Dr Bob Cowan.
Antisthenes: Minor Literary Fragments (edited with introduction, translation and commentary)
Antisthenes, the closest companion of Socrates, was a major writer and thinker of the fifth-century BC. As an enormously influential figure in the fields of literature and philosophy, in antiquity he enjoyed an excellent reputation. In modern times, however, due largely to the inaccessibility of the fragments, he has been almost entirely neglected. My thesis is an edition of the literary texts of Antisthenes (other than the Ajax and Odysseus), with translation (the first in any language), and interpretative study.
Research interests: Antisthenes; Socratic philosophy; Plato; Birth of Dialogue; Aristocratic Ideology; Early Literary Criticism; Fragments
Teaching experience: Ancient Greek History; Roman History; Greek and Roman Myth
Supervisors: Prof Eric Csapo, Prof Rick Benitez
Sicilian Provincial Identity during the Republic Period
The island of Sicily was Rome’s first military venture beyond the shores of the Italian mainland and would become her first province. A variety of cultures inhabited the island producing a mix of cultural markers in our historical and archaeological records. The thesis will assess to what extent a single Sicilian identity formed while under Roman control by assessing to what degree homogeneity increased after the first two Punic Wars, combining both literary and archaeological evidence.
Research interests: Social History; Roman Sicily; Ciceronian Forensic Oratory; Grain Supply; Economics; Classics in Film
Teaching experience: I have taught in New Zealand and the United States in Latin language, Roman History and Social History, Greek History, Art and Literature, Mythology and Egyptology.
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Kathryn Welch, Assoc Prof Richard Miles.
Speeches and Speechmaking in Herodotus’ Histories
Speeches and speechmaking are key features of the world Herodotus describes – as well as the world he inhabits. The use of direct discourse is widespread in the Histories, speechmaking an essential element. Yet this dimension of his work is still to receive the scholarly attention it deserves. My thesis seeks to address this anomaly. It provides the first comprehensive study of the role of speeches and speechmaking in Herodotus’ Histories. To this end, it considers the way in which direct discourse, and the ability to express oneself in conversation, features throughout the Histories, both as a powerful historiographic tool and as a key attribute of Herodotus’ historical characters. The overall aim is to position Herodotus firmly in the rhetorical life of the late fifth- and early fourth century BCE.
Research interests: Ancient Greek History; Herodotus; Historiography; Greco-Roman Rhetoric
Supervisors: Associate Prof Julia Kindt Associate Prof Eric Csapo
Collegiality, Dynasty and Abdication: Political Change and the Tetrarchy
The so-called ‘Tetrarchy', the college of four emperors set up by Diocletian in 293 CE, seems to fall outside of established customs and procedures in the way that it functioned. Unprecedentedly, the empire was administered by four emperors with actual power, sons were overlooked in the appointment of successors, and emperors voluntarily abdicated or planned to abdicate after a period of rule. My research seeks to explain the influences behind and reasons for these political innovations. These aspects of the Diocletianic-Tetrarchic regime have long been in need of a new and thorough treatment. I suggest that there is especial value in viewing the political changes under the Tetrarchy as developments within the wider context of changes to the empire in the third century. In doing so, I seek to offer some new ways of viewing both the Tetrarchy and political change in the third century as a whole.
Research interests: Late Antiquity; The Empire of Diocletian and Constantine; The Empire in the Third Century; Roman Imperial Ideology and Propaganda; Late Roman Politics; Coins; Panegyric; The Roman Army.
Supervisors: Associate Prof Richard Miles, Associate Prof Kathryn Welch
D Arts Students
The Supply Chain of Critical Food Items to Rome - AD200 to AD500
The Imperial authorities of Rome supplied the city of Rome in particular and the Empire in general, including the army, with a wide range of staple food items for at least five hundred years. This is arguably one of the longest, most complicated, continuous multi-product supply operations to occur until the modern era and for this reason alone is well worth studying. The Romans were able to adapt to new challenges throughout this period as circumstances and technology dictated, which is contrary to the traditional view that they managed by 'rule of thumb, tradition or habit'. In fact, the Romans used techniques which are thought to be exclusively modern developments such as integrated inventory management, light-weighting of packaging such as the amphorae used to carry product (a focus for all modern packaging companies), the concept of contracting out ‘non-core' public services and the ability to organise complex supply chains. The basic premise of this thesis is to establish the supply model for Rome and its logical surrounding area culminating in the definition of the volume of product supplied and the details of how this was managed. The size of the market will be determined by estimating the area of supply, the average dietary intake for the estimated population size. This will then allow the other key factors including the means of transporting and storing the product, the controls used and the constraints of the system and how they were managed to be determined far more accurately than has previously been possible.
Supervisors:Assoc Prof Richard Miles, Assoc Prof Kathryn Welch.
How effective was the image created by the Aemilian family in maintaining a pre-eminent position in Roman politics & society?
In my preliminary research, what has become apparent is that although various modern scholars have investigated individual members of the Aemilii, & their influence on the Roman state, there is no large-scale study of the influence of the family as a whole. The image they created to gain support of other aristocratic families & the people, & how their peers viewed them has also received little attention. Through this exploration, I wish to establish whether a specific family identity existed, & if so, whether an ongoing set of values & iconography were created & exploited. This identity may be expressed through political activities (elections & marriage) & iconography, & be established through epigraphical & literary means. I propose to establish whether there is a unique &/or specific ideological language that is used to portray the Aemilian family, & by extension other Roman families. I hope to add to current scholarship through the examination of the Aemilian family’s pursuit of such qualities as fama, gloria & virtus, measured against those standards established through conventions & precedent in Roman society, & generally agreed upon by historians, & other Roman families & individuals. I hope also to establish whether the image created by the Aemilian family members was an ad hoc blending of a range of individuals’ achievements & political activities, or a concerted & discernible long-term plan.
Research Interests: Cleopatra, Pompeii & Herculaneum, the Second Triumvirate, Roman-Egyptian relations to AD68.
Supervisor: Dr Eleanor Cowan
The role of women in the cultural memory of the Roman Republic
This thesis will interrogate the role of women in the Roman Republic in shaping, preserving and maintaining Roman cultural memory. It will argue that women were intrinsic to a shared foundational past. It will demonstrate that women were custodians of some of the most significant aspects of the collective cultural memory through their role in civic religion, rites and rituals and that this role was shared with and was complementary to that of men.
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Kathryn Welch, Prof John North
Mechanical Miracles: Automata in ancient Greek Religion
The thesis examines the evidence for the use of automata in ancient festivals and temples, looking at the peculiar place of mechanical ingenuity within ancient Greek entertainment and religion. I am interested in the symbolic and aesthetic value of these self-animated machines, and how they might have been conceptualised by spectators in their performative contexts.
Research interests: Ancient Greek Religion; Ancient Performance and Entertainment; Greek Classical and Hellenistic Social History; Historiography; Ancient Sexuality.
Supervisors: Prof Eric Csapo and Prof Peter Wilson
All Too Human: The Conceptualisation of Disability in Classical Athens
My thesis examines the literary and archaeological evidence for disability in Classical Athens in order to argue that myriad divergent and nuanced notions concerning what constituted the impaired body could overlap and exist simultaneously. By examining the body through four key frameworks: the Ideal Body, the Social Body, the Sick Body, and the Metaphysical Body, I argue that the wealth of evidence concerning the idealised form presents us with an oppressive notion of physiological perfection that purposefully denies the existence of Other bodies. The purpose of my inquiry is uncover ambiguities in the evidence in order to challenge the notion that the impaired were only ever treated with disdain, discrimination, and fear.
Research interests: Ancient Disabilities; Prostheses in Antiquity; Modern Disability Theory, Greek Medicine; Greek Religion; Greek Social History; Ancient Tattooing and Body Modification.
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Julia Kindt.
Primitivist morality in accounts of the Desert Fathers
This thesis examines the literature surrounding the fourth and fifth century “Desert Fathers”, the early ascetics of the Egyptian desert. The range of texts which described and sanctified this movement for an outside audience have typically been read almost exclusively through the lens of Christian literature and history; this thesis instead adopts the approach of reading them as part of the history of Graeco-Roman thought, with specific reference to their reuse of classical topoi idealising primitive lifestyles and peoples. It is argued that authors of desert literature conceptualised the monastic movement through these long-established ways of thinking, while intermingling them with compatible images and ideas from the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The thesis is divided into three chapters, each examining the ‘primitivism’ displayed in a particular text or set of texts. Chapter 1 considers the works of St Jerome, including his Letters and Life of St Paul; chapter 2 considers the anonymous Historia Monachorum in Aegypto; and chapter 3 considers the Apophthegmata Patrum, a major sayings collection better known today as the Sayings of the Desert Fathers.
Research interests: Roman cultural-intellectual history, ancient geography and ethnography, ancient approaches to space and landscape, early Christianity, ancient North Africa
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Richard Miles, Dr Bob Cowan.
Pliny the Younger and the Senatorial Opposition to Domitian (2014)
My thesis is an examination of the various facets of Pliny’s self-construction as a member of the senatorial opposition to Domitian.
Research interests: Genre studies; epistolography; oratory and rhetoric; reception studies and the ancient world in cinema.
Publications: "Epistle 7.24: Literary Layers in Pliny the Younger’s Death Notice on Ummidia Quadratilla” in Michelle Borg & Graeme Miles (edd.) Approaches to Genre in the Ancient World (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013).
Michelle Borg & Graeme Miles (edd.) Approaches to Genre in the Ancient World (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013).
Pompey, Cato, and the Governance of the Roman Empire (2014)
My thesis explores efforts to improve provincial governance during the Late Roman Republic, with a particular focus on the contributions of Cn. Pompeius Magnus and the younger M. Porcius Cato in the period 70-50 BC.
Research interests: Political history of the Roman republic; Roman law; philosophy, ethics, and exemplarity; ancient historiography.
Publications: "Cato and the courts in 54 B.C.", Classical Quarterly 64 (2014): 669-81.
Cato and the Stoic Tradition in Revolutionary America
Since at least the 1960s, historians such as John Pocock and Bernard Bailyn have pointed to the importance of classical learning as an inspiration for the American revolutionaries. Their accounts, however, have become harnessed to a celebratory and progressive understanding of the Revolution. Classical republicanism has been presented as an inspiration for the Founders who knew that they were fighting for liberty and independence, and were assured of victory in their cause. By focusing on Stoic thought my thesis shows that the American Revolution was not the triumphant and assured struggle for liberty that current historiography dictates. The literature indicates that the Founding generation used Stoicism to contemplate the corruption of the British Empire, and concluded that a Cato-like suicide was the only assured means of maintaining their virtue and obtaining liberty. The Americans come to look less like ‘Revolutionaries’ and, instead, can be seen as making a desperate last stand for republican liberty in opposition to tyrannical rule imposed by the British Empire.
Research interests: Classical Reception Studies, American Revolution, Jewish-Roman relations, Early Christianity
Supervisors: Prof Alastair Blanshard, Assoc Prof Andrew Fitzmaurice