Ancient Biography: Identity through Lives: Papers of the Langford Latin Seminar, Volume 17, 2017(55 ARCA, Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs)

Biography, Identity and Religion: Federicomaria Muccioli gives a useful brief history of divinisation in biographical writing and discusses Plutarch’s depiction of ruler cult in these terms; Daniel Harris-McCoy deals with accounts of dreams in biographical works and their influence on Artemidorus; Jennifer Rea compares the ways in which women are biographized, the early Christian martyr St. Perpetua, and the twentieth-century Christa McAuliffe, who lost her life in the Challenger disaster; Matthew Ferguson considers eschatological elements in the Alexander Romance, a late-antique highly fictionalized version of the life of Alexander the Great. Greek Lives under Roman rule: Alexei Zadorojnyi identifies the way in which very highly condensed ‘Lives’, for which he uses the term ‘biographical synecdoche’, serve interesting functions within biographical works; Andrew Scott writes about the tensions which arise in Cassius Dio from the fact that he was sometimes a participant in the history he relates; Svetla Slaveva-Griffin is also interested in the relation between biography and real life, and looks in great detail at how this is worked through in the tradition of NeoPlatonic biography.

Table of Contents:
Preface Contributors   Biography and Cultural Identity Flore Kimmel-Clauzet  (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3): Pindar, ‘Lover of Athens’: Dithyramb fr.76 and the Biographical Tradition Rex Stem (University of California, Davis): Exemplarity and Identity in Cornelius Nepos’ On Foreign Generals David Rohrbacher (New College of Florida): Reading Ethnic Identity in the Historia Augusta   Biography and Power Marcaline Boyd (University of Delaware): Polyaenus and Polycrates’ Rise to Power Alexander Skufca (Florida State University): Tyrant and Anti-tyrant: Archetypes and Exemplarity in Cornelius Nepos’ Sicilian Lives Cynthia Damon (University of Pennsylvania).: Death by Narrative in Suetonius’ Lives   Biography, Identity, and Religion Federicomaria Muccioli (Università di Bologna): Ruler Cult and Ancient Biography Daniel Harris-McCoy (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa): Life is But a Dream: Biography and Dream-Divination Jennifer A. Rea (University of Florida): The Passio of St. Perpetua and the Creation of a Hero-Martyr Matthew W. Ferguson (University of California, Irvine): Comparative Eschatology in Alexander’s Letter to Olympias and the Book of Revelation   Greek Lives under Roman Rule Alexei Zadorojnyi (University of Liverpool): Plutarch’s Heroes and the ‘Biographical Synecdoche’ Andrew Scott (Villanova University): Cassius Dio’s Contemporary History as Memoir and its Implications for Authorial Identity Svetla Slaveva-Griffin (Florida State University): Platonists and their Lives   Bibliography Indexes: Index locorum; General index

About the Author :
Francis Cairns is the author of Generic Composition in Greek and Roman Poetry, Hellenistic Epigram: Contexts of Exploration, and of monographs on Tibullus, Virgil, and Propertius, as well as numerous articles on a wide range of Greek and Latin poetry and other fields. He is Professor of Classical Languages at The Florida State University, Trevor Luke is an Associate Professor of Ancient History and Classics at Florida State University. His work focuses on the origins of the Principate, the Flavian Dynasty, ancient biography, and religion in the Roman Empire. His first book, Ushering in a New Republic: Theologies of Arrival at Rome in the First Century B.C., was published by University of Michigan Press in 2014. His next book, Healing and Empire, will address Roman rituals and ideology of healing from the Late Republic to the High Empire.