News and Events
May, 2012
Richard Miles reviews latest ancient history best-seller by Tom Holland
Richard Miles has reviewed best-seller Tom Holland’s new book, In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World, for the Financial Times.
Click here for more information
March, 2012
Classics and Ancient History students sweep the board in ASCS prizes
Students from the Department of Classics and Ancient History have won all three prizes in the Australasian Society for Classical Studies competitions.
Click here for more information
Time in the Ancient World
Dr Anne Rogerson from the Department of Classics and Ancient History talks to ABC local radio about notions of time in Ancient Rome.
Click here for more information
February, 2012
AD Trendall Lecture in Classical Studies: Homer and Plato
Professor Richard Hunter FAHA Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge, will deliver the Autralian Academy of the Humanities AD Trendall Lecture in Classical Studies
Wednesday 22 February, 2012
6:30 - 7:30, CCANESA
Click here for more information
December, 2011
Dr Julia Kindt joint recipient of two ARC Discovery Projects.
Dr Julia Kindt, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, has recently been a joint recipient of two ARC Discovery Projects.
Click here for more information
ARC success
Congratulations to colleagues for their successful ARC Discovery Project grants.
October, 2011
3rd William Ritchie Memorial Lecture
Iphigenia in the Black Sea and in Australia
6pm 27 October 2011
Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre F19
Reception afterwards at CCANESA
Madsen Building,
University of Sydney
Click here for more information
Performance of scenes from Plautus’ classic comedy, the Mostellaria
Students and staff from the University of Sydney will present an abridged version of the play in the original Latin, with English surtitles
2pm, Sunday 16 October
Nicholson Museum
Quadrangle A14
The University of Sydney
Download flyer
Click here for more information
August, 2011
History and Antiquarianism Conference
12-14 August
University of Sydney
CCANESA (Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia)
This conference aims to expand a discussion on approaches to the past from Greco-Roman antiquity to the 17th century, and to assemble scholars interested in the relationship between history and antiquarianism in the ancient and pre-modern worlds.
Click here for more information
July, 2011
Death of Drama or Birth of an Industry? The Greek Theatre in the Fourth Century BC: A Conference
Conference 19-20 July, 2011
The conference will be hosted by CCANESA — The Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia at the University of Sydney
Click here for more information
Silius Italicus and Flavian Culture: Pacific Rim Latin Literature Conference
4-6 July, 2011
Venue: Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia (CCANESA):
The University of Sydney
Silius Italicus’ epic on the Hannibalic War, the Punica, has moved from scholarly neglect and even contempt to being the focus of immense interest and research. Yet much scholarship has tended to divorce the poet and his poem from its context in Flavian and especially Domitianic Rome. This conference, only the second ever devoted to Silius and the first in the English-speaking world, aims to resituate Silius and the Punica in its Flavian context.
In association with the Flavian Epic Network
Conference organiser: Dr Bob Cowan
Click here for more information
June, 2011
Humanities Salon runs a series on Ancient cities: Carthage, Athens, Rome
Click here for more information
May, 2011
Bob Cowan (Classics and Ancient History) writes on Horace, free speech and WikiLeaks on the OUPblog
Dr Bob Cowan from SOPHI’s Department of Classics and Ancient History has written a post for the OUPblog entitled “Horace and free speech in the age of WikiLeaks†to coincide with the publication of a new translation by John Davie of Horace’s Satires and Epistles (Oxford World’s Classics).
Click here for more information
March, 2011
19th Todd Memorial Lecture
Symptoms and Sympathy in Latin Letter-writing
Dr Miriam Griffin, University of Oxford
31 March 2011
6.30 pm
General Lecture Theatre
Quadrangle, A14
University of Sydney
The lecture will be preceded by drinks in the cloisters of the Quadrangle at 6 pm
RSVP Elia Mamprin to secure your place
E: | P: 9351 5658
SOPHI students top in Australasian Society for Classical Studies prizes
The Department of Classics and Ancient History, the Department of Archaeology and the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry warmly congratulate their students, who have won all three of the undergraduate prizes awarded by the Australasian Society for Classical Studies, and announced at its annual meeting in January 2011. First prize winners were:
Essay competition prize: Harrison Jones, on “Oikist cults at Cyrene, Delos and Eretriaâ€
Greek translation prize: Paul Touyz
Latin translation prize: Nicholas Olson
Richard Miles (Classics and Ancient History) writes on Carthage in The Guaridan
Dr Richard Miles from SOPHI’s Department of Classics and Ancient History, writes on the recent political events in Tunisia and their consequences for the Archaeology at the site of the ancient city of Carthage.
Click here for more information
January, 2011
The Inspired Voices Research Cluster receives Faculty of Arts Collaborative Research Scheme grant
Assoc Prof Rick Benitez (Philosophy), Prof Peter Wilson (Classics and Ancient History), Dr Julia Kindt (Classics and Ancient History), and Assoc Prof Ian Maxwell (Performance Studies) have received a Faculty of Arts Collaborative Research Scheme grant as part of The Inspired Voices Research Cluster.
Click here for more information
November, 2010
NEAF Lecture: Temple, Town and Tombs
Dr Stephen Bourke
The University of Sydney’s NEAF-sponsored excavations at Pella in Jordan have been in the field for 30 years. This lecture will highlight some of the more memorable discoveries spanning the last 10000 years of settled life at Pella.
Wednesday 3 November 2010
6.30-8.30 pm
General Lecture Theatre 1 Main Quad
Price: $20 Non Members, Members $15 and Student members $5
All welcome
Click here for more information
Richard Miles (Classics and Ancient History) says ‘Civilisation is still worth striving for’
Archaeologist and historian Richard Miles from the Department of Classics and Ancient History was interviewed recently for the Guardian's 'Bright Ideas' series.
October, 2010
Key Thinkers - Herodotus And The Discovery Of History
Speaker: Julia Kindt, Classics and Ancient History, Faculty of Arts
When: 27 October 2010
Where: Lecture Theatre 101, Sydney Law School Building, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus
Free event. No booking required.
Click here for more information
September, 2010
A Night of Ancient Comedy
The Classics and Ancient History Department of the University of Sydney
and the Nicholson Museum invite you to:
A Night of Ancient Comedy
Thursday, 23 September 2010
6:00 pm (performance starts at 6:30)
Featuring:
‘Playing with Frogs’: A brief introduction by Dr. Alastair Blanshard
Scenes from Aristophanes Frogs (an abridged version of the play in Greek with surtitles)
Tickets: $25, $20 (Friends of the Nicholson Museum), $10 (students)
Bookings should be made through the Nicholson Museum
E-mail: or ph: 9351 2812
July, 2010
2nd William Ritchie Memorial Lecture to be given by John Marincola
Marathon and the Persian Wars in the Greek Imagination
John Marincola, Florida State University, Tallahassee
29 July 2010 at 5:00 pm
General Lecture Theatre 1
Reception afterwards in the Nicholson Museum
Appian and the Romans: A Conference at the University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is pleased to host the conference which will be held from 5-7 July 2010.
June, 2010
Making the emergency permanent: Augustus and the establishment of the Principate
A Lecture by Professor John Rich
Augustus held monarchical power, but claimed to be merely the Republic's first citizen. This paper examines the ways in which he resolved this paradox, in particular by claiming to accept powers merely as a temporary and emergency provision.
3 June 2010 5pm
May, 2009
Ancient Art of Hospitality
Article by Dr Alastair Blanshard, senior lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History. Click here to see the full article in The Australian.
Classics recruit focuses on politically incorrect Greek
The University of Sydney's Kevin Lee post-doctoral fellow Dr Sebastiana Nervegna talks about Menander, a late 4th century Greek playwright who refocused Athenian comedy on domestic intrigues. Click here to see the full article in The Australian.
The Herald
'THE Greeks and Romans knew what to do about asylum seekers. Our very language reflects the ancient nature of the problem. Refugee, asylum, migrant, sanctuary, all are derived from Greek and Latin roots. Yet the difference between the ancient response and the modern one is striking. For the Greeks and Romans, the correct action to take wasn't debatable. Every right-thinking person knew what to do. When people were washed up on your shore, you fed and clothed them, and offered them a helping hand.'
Read the full article here
Classics recruit focuses on politically incorrect Greek
The Australian
Kevin Lee Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Sebastiana Nervegna, speaks to the Australian's 'Higher Education Supplement' commentator, Luke Slattery about soap opera, comedy, sex and the Greeks, and Classics at the University of Sydney:
'ON my way to interview Sebastiana Nervegna, the latest recruit to a buoyant University of Sydney classics department, I give the address to the taxi driver. "You're interviewing an academic," he snorts. "How exciting. Not."
'His scorn evaporates when I explain that Nervegna is an expert in Menander, a late 4th century Greek playwright who refocused Athenian comedy on domestic intrigues: his tightly constructed plots are driven by sensational lusts and infidelities, peopled with the rich and the poor.
'"So he invented the soap opera," asserts the cabbie with attitude. "Did he also invent farce?' Minutes later I put the question to Nervegna, and she explains that although Menander's work seems to have inaugurated romantic comedy and contains elements that could be seen as farcical, this kind of comedy had precursors.'
Read the full article here