Program

All talks, unless otherwise noted, will take place on the campus of Florida State University and be live-streamed for registered attendees over Zoom.

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (UTC -4).

Thursday, April 20, 2023

4:30-5:30 p.m.; Public Lecture (sponsored by the Langford Family Endowment and the Department of Classics, Florida State University): Prof. Seth Bernard (University of Toronto), “Environmental Change and Human Responses in Republican Italy: Problems of Scale” (Dodd Hall Auditorium)
5:30-7:30 p.m.: Opening Reception (Heritage Museum, Dodd Hall)

Friday, April 21, 2023

8:00 a.m.: Registration and breakfast
8:15: Dean’s Welcome and Opening Remarks
Panel 1: Competition and Revision in the Commemoration of Ancient Wars
- 1. “War Cenotaphs and the Female Citizen: Civic Ideology in the Early Classical Polis,” Itamar Levin, Brown University
- 2. “The Blindness of Epizelus: Medism and Memory after the Persian Wars,” Alex Gottesman, Temple University
- 3. “Revisionism in Thucydides and the Rejection of Kleos,” Jennifer Roberts, City University of New York
Break
- 4. “Turning Victory into Defeat: Catonian Strategies in Undermining Military Honors,” Noah Segal, University of Minnesota
- 5. “The Battle after the War: Public Ceremony and Claims of Dominance between Rome and Parthia under Nero,” Timothy Clark, Boston University
Break
Panel 2: The Materials of Ancient History, Part 1
- 1. “The Changing Algorithmic Form in Babylonian Astronomy,” E.L. Meszaros, Brown University
- 2. “Constructing the past in Lycian Araxa: Militarism, Civic Discourse, and Regional Identity,” Chiara Battisti, Princeton University
Lunch 12:00-2:15 PM
- FSU Libraries Special Collections: drop-in exhibit of ancient cuneiform tablets, papyri, ostraka, and manuscripts
- FSU Museum of Fine Arts: optional guided tour of current exhibits (“Un sentimento di libertà | A Feeling of Freedom” and “Are We Free to Move About the World”)
Panel 3: Punishment and Incarceration (Chair: Andrea DeGiorgi, FSU)
- 1. “Anything but Gentle: Implicit torture in Thucydides 6.53.2 and 6.53.3-59,” Keren Freidenreich, City University of New York
- 2. “I Come to Bury Caesars: Imperial Corpse Abuse from Augustus to Severus,” Nathaniel Katz, University of Arizona
- 3. “Doryphorianus the Late Roman Judge and Prisoner in the Tullianum,” Craig Caldwell III, Appalachian State University
Break
Panel 4: Ancient Responses to Environmental Change
- 1. “Successful Responses to the Environmental Challenges of Siltation of a Sea Gulf: The Case of Miletos,” Krzysztof Nawotka, University of Wroclaw
- 2. “A Climate of Violence? Patterns of War and Climate Change in the Seleucid Period,” Deirdre Klokow, University of Southern California
- 3. “What went wrong with Hadrian’s Dikes? A (Micro-)geopolitical Reading of the Lake Kopais Region in the First to Second Centuries CE,” Zimo Liang, Peking University
- 4. “Meandering Thoughts: The River Maeander and the Development of Geological Thought in Classical Antiquity,” James Taylor, Colby College
Keynote Address: Prof. Cynthia Bannon (Indiana University), “Upstream, Downstream: Roman Water Law on the Apalachicola”

Saturday, April 22, 2023

8:00 a.m.: Breakfast
8:30 a.m., Panel 5: The Feminist Turn in Ancient Military History (organized by the AAH Diversity Committee; Chair: Zachary Herz, University of Colorado)
- 1. “Buried Hoards of Women’s History: Ancient Women in Moments of Military Crisis,” Anise Strong, Western Michigan University
- 2. “Agrippina Major: A Case Study for Elite Women in the castra,” Lee L. Brice, Western Illinois University, and Georgia Tsouvala, Illinois State University
- 3. “Surviving Rome: Women and War in Tacitus’ Histories,” Caitlin Gillespie, Brandeis University
- 4. “Shorthand Girls and Secret Missives: Women’s Contributions to Late Roman Intelligence Operations,” Kathryn Langenfeld, Clemson University
Break
Panel 6: Law, Religion, and Politics (Chair: James Sickinger, FSU)
- 1. “Sacred Law as Codified Local Knowledge in Archaic Greece,” Eric Driscoll, Harvard University
- 2. “A Sacred Law from Kallatis and the Exclusion of Women from a Bacchic Association,” Dobrinka Chiekova, The College of New Jersey
- 3. “’Ballot Questions’ and Voter Comprehension in the Late Republic,” Christopher Erdman, University of California, Santa Barbara
- 4. “Constitutio Sacra: Citation, Anonymity, and Power in the Digest,” Zachary Herz, University of Colorado
Lunch
Panel 7: Beyond Enslavement: Navigating Emancipation in Antiquity (Chair: Trevor Luke, FSU)
- 1. “The Purpose of Manumission and Emancipation in Egypt, New Kingdom – Late Period,” Ella Karev, University of Chicago
- 2. “Impossible Choices: Manumission and Motherhood in Greek Epigraphic Sources,” Sarah Brucia Breitenfeld, Davidson College
- 3. “Access to the Law and Roman Freedpersons: A Legal Capabilities Approach,” Alex Cushing, Loyola University
- 4. “Beyond the Stone Archive: Critical Fabulation and Stories of Emancipation,” Gaia Gianni, Ohio State University
Break
Panel 8: The Materials of Ancient History, Part 2
- 1. “Military Prowess, Status, and Identity in 5th-4th centuries BCE Apulia,” Bice Peruzzi, Rutgers University
- 2. “Ancient Naval Ram Casting Project (2021-present),” Stephen DeCasien, Texas A&M University
4:00-5:00 p.m.: Business Meeting (in-person only)
6:30 p.m.: Closing Banquet

Many thanks to the Program Committee: Eva Carrara (University of Arizona), Edward Dandrow (University of Central Florida), Philip Kaplan (University of North Florida), Isabelle Köster (University of Colorado-Boulder), Trevor Luke (Florida State University), James Sickinger (Florida State University), Andrew Wolpert (University of Florida), and Zsuzsanna Varhelyi (Boston University).