Although the outcomes of reader-response criticism have repeatedly and meticulously been used in the analysis of other genres of classical literature (epic, tragedy, and oratory), the application of such a perspective still remains a significant desideratum in the field of classical historiography. The conference “Reading History in Antiquity: Audience-Oriented Perspectives on Classical Historiography” aspires to fill this gap.

Presentation

Although the outcomes of reader-response criticism have repeatedly and meticulously been used in the analysis of other genres of classical literature (epic, tragedy, and oratory), the application of such a perspective still remains a significant desideratum in the field of classical historiography. The conference “Reading History in Antiquity: Audience-Oriented Perspectives on Classical Historiography” aspires to fill this gap.

Program

Friday, 21 April 2017

09.00–09.15:Opening remarks

09.15–10.15: Antonis Tsakmakis, “Chance, Causality and Historical Narrative: The Oxyrhynchus Historian and the Historiographical Tradition”

PANEL A: 5^th Century Greek Historiography: Herodotus and Thucydides

• 10.15–10.55: Edward M. Harris: “Creating a New Kind of Reader: Thucydides’ Aims in the Archaeology”
• 10.55–11.35: Marcin Kurpios, “Readers’ Responses to Thucydides’ Narrative of the Final Sea Battle in the Harbour of Syracuse in the Light of Ancient Literary Criticism”
• 11.35–11.50: Coffee break
• 11.50–12.30: Aurélien Pulice, “From ἐξήγησις to μίμησις: Thucydides’ Readership as Exemplified in ὑπομνήματα from the Roman Period”
• 12.30–13.10: Patrick Reinard, “Reading Ancient Historiography in Excerpts. The Case of the Papyrological Fragments of Herodotus and Thucydides”
• 13.15–14.30: Lunch

PANEL B: Reading Greek Historiography in the Hellenistic and Imperial Era: Aims and Profits   

• 14.30–15.10: Uwe Herrmann, “Polybius and the Benefits and Pleasures of Reading Historiography”
• 15.10–15.50: Ronald Orr, “Polybius’s Readers: Pragmatism and Pleasure”
• 15.50–16.30: Evan Waters, “Reading History with Lucian: The Historian as Performer in How to Write History”
• 16.30–17.10: Evgenia Moiseeva, “History of Outsiders or History for Outsiders: Flavius Josephus’ Narrative Techniques and his Readers”

19.00: Dinner

Saturday, 22 April 2017

• 09.00–10.00: Dennis Pausch, “Livy, the Reader Involved, and the Audience of Roman Historiography”

PANEL A: Roman Historiography of the 1^st Century BC: Erudition and the Audience’s Expectations   

• 10.00–10.40: Edwin Shaw, “Sallust, the lector eruditus, and the purpose of history”
• 10.40–11.20: Marine Miquel, “The Audience of Latin Historical Works in the 1^st century B.C. in the Light of Geographical and Ethnographical Descriptions”
• 11.20–11.35: Coffee break

PANEL B: Roman Historiography of the Imperial Era I: Tacitus and Pliny    

• 11.35–12.15: George Baroud, “Affective History and the Atmosphere of the Early Empire”
• 12.15–12.55: Christoph Leidl, “Reading Spaces, Observing Spectators in Tacitus’ Histories”
• 13.00–14.15: Lunch
• 14.15–14.55: Ari Zatlin, “A History in Letters? Pliny the Younger and the Limits of Imperial Literature”

PANEL C: Roman Historiography of the Imperial Era II: Self-Fashioning and Authorship

• 14.55–15.35: Pauline Duchêne, “Historiography in the Margins and the Reader as a Touchstone”
• 15.35–16.15: Lydia Spielberg, “Whose Li(n)e Is It Anyway? Ancient Readers and the Historian’s Persona”
• 16.15–16.55: Adam Kemezis, “The Magnificent Six? Multiple Authors and Meanings in the Historia Augusta”
• 16.55–17.10: Greetings
• 18.30: Dinner