Rebuilding Rome: Reading Ovid’s Fasti as a Chronological History of the City of Rome
By Samuel L. Kindick
It has long been argued that Ovid was writing the Fasti and the Metamorphoses simultaneously (Otis 1970; Hinds 1987; Fantham 1998) and numerous connections have been identified between the end of the Metamorphoses and the beginning of the Fasti – Aesculapius (Met. 14.622-744; Fasti 1.291-2), discussion of killing animals (Met.
Stop the Clock! Time in Apuleius' "Apology"
By Lauren Miller
It is difficult to overstate the importance of timing in a courtroom drama, and while Apuleius’ Apology may be a far cry from contemporary daytime television, it has all the classic elements: the elderly widow, the vengeful son, the attractive young defendant, the family fortune at stake. In this paper, I examine four moments in which Apuleius makes direct reference to the amount of the time that has passed during the trial.
Swerving Atoms and Changing Times: Lucretius and his Readers in Late Antiquity
By Abigail Kate Buglass
The paper investigates some of the many ways in which the poets and thinkers of Late Antiquity read and interpreted Lucretius’ radical poem De Rerum Natura. Lucretius debunks the myth of a divinely controlled cosmos and presents our world as being governed by the motions of the smallest parts of the universe, the atoms. According to Epicurean philosophy, the merest shift in an atom’s position can cause atomic collision, the source of every phenomenon and action.
Unlucky in Love: Games of Chance and Amatory Strategies in Roman Elegy
By Christopher S Dobbs
In this paper, I examine the roles games of chance play in the amatory strategies of Roman elegists. I begin with Ovid’s assertion that “love is often won through playing” (ludendo saepe paratur amor, Ars Amatoria 3.368) and explore its veracity in Roman love elegy. Ovid makes this statement in his advice to women who wish to win lovers, stating that they should learn a wide variety of games, including several games of chance.
‘To Be Completed: The Poetry of July to December in Neo-Latin Fasti-poems’
By Bobby Xinyue
During the last twenty years or so, the afterlife of Ovid’s Fasti has undergone major reappraisal by both classical and Renaissance scholars: in particular, the works of Angela Fritsen (Antiquarian Voices, 2015) and John Miller (‘Ovid’s Fasti and the Neo-Latin Christian Calendar Poem’, IJCT 10 [2003]: 173-186) have shown that not only did Renaissance scholars and poets know the Fasti well, they also actively engaged with the genre of calendrical poetry by variously imitating it or using it as a literary vehicle to advance ideas about Christianity