This panel seeks to explore the intellectual world of the Early Roman Empire, with a special focus on the people, literature, and philosophies that comprise the context for Plutarch’s composition of the Parallel Lives and Moralia in the first and early second centuries CE. The topic is purposely broad so as to embrace contemporary figures from the greater Greco-Roman political and social world, such as the emperor Trajan, as well as people mentioned in Plutarch’s works and his dedicatees, including his own family.
We also welcome abstracts on the philosophy and literature that were contemporary with Plutarch. Papers might cover particular philosophers, such as Epictetus, or the philosophies, such as Stoicism and Epicureanism, which drew Plutarch’s censure or admiration. We also encourage investigations of genres in which Plutarch and his contemporaries, or near-contemporaries, engaged, such as consolationes (e.g. Seneca), governance (e.g. Philo, Velleius Paterculus), aitiae and allegorical interpretation (e.g. Cornutus), natural science (e.g. Pliny the Elder), oracles and dreams (e.g. Artemidorus), and biography (e.g. Suetonius).
Abstracts should be sent electronically, in MS Word format or PDF, to Jeffrey Beneker (jbeneker@wisc.edu). In preparing the abstract, please follow the formatting guidelines for individual abstracts that appear on the Society for Classical Studies web site, and plan for a paper that takes no more than 20 minutes to deliver. Abstracts will be judged anonymously. Membership in the International Plutarch Society is not required for participation in this panel, but all presenters must be members of the SCS. The deadline is March 1, 2016