Imperial Virgil
Whether one emphasizes his ambivalence or his applause, Virgil was unquestionably the poet of the nascent Roman empire. Like Homer, the Zeus of poets, Virgil was also the magisterial predecessor for all subsequent authors of pastoral, didactic, or epic. He was thus “imperial” in a double sense, as a commentator on the Roman world being transformed by Augustus and as a kind of poetic doppelgänger for the princeps himself.
This panel seeks to explore both aspects of Virgil and his legacy. Topics might include, without being limited to, Virgil’s response to the rise of Augustus and his role in shaping Roman response more broadly; how Virgil’s contemporaries or later authors used his imperial themes to mirror or to create a contrast with their own works and/or times; and the figure of Virgil himself in later literature, including late antique and early modern works.
Abstracts for papers should be submitted electronically as Word documents by March 1, 2019 to Julia Hejduk (Julia_Hejduk@baylor.edu), preferably with the subject heading “abstract_imperial_SCS2020”. The abstracts will be judged anonymously and so should not reveal the author’s name, but the email should provide name, abstract title, and affiliation. Abstracts should be 650 words or fewer and should follow the guidelines for individual abstracts (https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/guidelines-authors-abstracts), except that works cited should be put at the end of the document, not in a separate text box.