Bryn Mawr Classicists, Archaeologists Speak at Classical Association Meeting

The Classics and Archaeology departments were well represented at the 2018 Fall Meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, held from October 4-6th at the Inn at Penn Hotel and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. On Friday, October 5th, Associate Professor of Classics Annette Baertschi co-chaired the panel "Roman Historical Personages and Places" alongside T. Corey Brennan of Rutgers University. The Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology's Maggie Beeler, who recently defended her doctoral dissertation, spoke as a panelist in the workshop "Race and Ethnicity Syllabus Workshop for the College and High School Classroom."

Additionally, graduate students R.J. Barnes and Christie Villareal of Classics each presented papers. R.J. Barnes' talk, “Charm and Sublimity: Platonius on Eupolis,” was a study on the reception of Attic Comedy in Late Antiquity, particularly in the work of Plotinus. In particular, he argued that Plotinus drew upon Hellenistic and Imperial Roman period scholarly debates over literary style and canonization in Attic comedy. He suggests a more eclectic view of the ancient scholarly reception of ancient comedy than that of current scholarship.

Christie Villareal's talk, titled “Arma virginis cano: An Allegorical Review of Vergil’s Camilla,” took a close look at the Roman poet Vergil's sympathies for displaced populations during the Roman Triumvirate's military veteran settlement project. She argued that the poet used the figure of Camilla as an allegory for Fulvia’s involvement in the Perusine War to covertly express these sympathies in his poetry.