And Call It Peace: New Perspectives on Ancient Wars
Graduate Student Conference
Ph.D. Program in Classics
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, New York City
Saturday, April 25, 2009

At Agricola 30, Tacitus has Calgacus, a Caledonian tribal leader, say of the Romans "Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant." Modern experience often prompts new ways of reading the ancient. For example, the Cold War lent added poignancy to Calgacus’ nearly Orwellian sentiments; in the 1970s, the Vietnam War fueled a debate in Virgilian studies on the political meanings of the Aeneid; and in recent years, Victor Hanson and Donald Kagan, among others, have written about the contemporary implications of ancient warfare.

For this conference, we seek papers on war and its effects in the ancient world. Papers may address military and imperial policy as well as actual military conflict, and may consider civil war, national wars, the impact of war on the home front, and war as a metaphor for other phenomena such as love or self-mastery. Moreover, we seek papers that consider both material and literary culture and that draw on sources from history, philosophy, poetry (epic, lyric, dramatic, satiric), prose (history, oratory, philosophy), art (painting, sculpture, coins, jewelry), architecture and archaeology. Papers may focus on any part of the ancient Mediterranean world in any period of antiquity.

Graduate students interested in presenting a paper should submit an abstract of 300 words or less to [email address TBD]. On your abstract include your name, institution, city and state (country if not USA), email and phone number. Email your abstract as a Word file by November 30, 2008. Notifications will
be sent in January.

Questions about the conference may be addressed to Jared Simard or Michael Broder.

Cosponsored by The PhD Program in Classics, the Classical and Ancient Near East Studies Group, the Doctoral Students’ Council, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the President, and the Classical Association of the Atlantic States.