Sponsored by the American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy
Organized by James Sickinger, Florida State University
The American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy invites submissions for a panel at the 2016 annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies on the topic “Epistolary Epigraphy.”
Recent years have seen a dramatic rise of interest in ancient epistolography. Attention has often focused on literary letters, such as the correspondence of Cicero or Pliny, the philosophical letters of Plato or Seneca, and examples of letters embedded in other literary texts, like those found in the works of Herodotus and Euripides. Physically surviving letters have not gone unnoticed, but, apart from papyrus letters, they tend to receive limited treatment. The aim of this panel is to advance our understanding of epistolary practice by soliciting papers that examine inscribed letters, particularly ones on stone, bronze, lead, or waxed tablets. Suitable topics include but are not limited to: letters on lead tablets; Hellenistic royal letters; Roman Imperial letters; the relationship of inscribed letters to letters on more ephemeral materials; the propagandistic value of inscribed letters; variations between Greek and Roman practice.
Abstracts will be evaluated anonymously by the ASGLE Executive Committee and should not be longer than 650 words (bibliography excluded): please follow the SCS “Guidelines for Authors of Abstracts” and include the ASGLE Abstract Submission Form, with your submission. The Abstract should be sent electronically as a Word file, along with a PDF of the Submission Form, by the extended deadline of February 15, 2015 to James Sickinger at jsicking@fsu.edu. All Greek should either be transliterated or employ a Unicode font. Authors submitting abstracts must be SCS members in good standing.