Inscriptions and their Uses in Ancient Literature

DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER25-26TH JUNE 2009

Inscribing written documents on permanent media such as bronze and stone was among the most distinctive and enduring practices of Greek and Roman antiquity. The extant material evidence of inscriptions offers a huge body of material with which to investigate the ancient deployment of the written word in both public and private contexts. But it provides only part of the evidence: ancient Greek and Latin literary texts also offer insight into the deployment and interpretation of inscriptions. Ancient literary authors, both poets and prose-writers, discussed and quoted inscriptions (both real and imaginary) as ornamental devices; as alternative voices to that of the narrator; to display scholarship; to make points about history, politics and morality; and for a whole range of other reasons.
This conference aims to explore the possibilities which the literary record of ancient inscriptions offer both to those interested in understanding ancient attitudes towards inscriptions and to those interested in exploring the broader relationship (and overlaps) between epigraphical and non-epigraphical modes of expression from a range of literary, historical and epigraphical angles.
BookingIf you would like to attend the conference please complete this form .
There is a conference fee of £30 (which includes tea, coffee and lunch on both days).
The deadline for registration is 31st May 2009.


Programme
Thursday 25th June
9.00-9.30: Registration & Welcome
9.30-10.50: Session 1
Prof. J. Day (Wabash College), ‘Aspects of Epigraphic Literacy in Fifth-Century Greece’
Dr D. Fearn (University of Warwick), ‘Kleos v Stone? Lyric Poetry and the Contexts of Memorialization’
10.50-11.10: Coffee
11.10-12.30: Session 2
Professor J. Lougovaya (Columbia University), ‘Inscriptions in Athenian Drama’
Dr A. Petrovic (Durham University), ‘Inscribed Epigrams in the Classical Orators’
12.30-2.00: Lunch
2.00-3.20: Session 3
Dr M. Haake (Westfälische-Wilhelms Universität, Münster), ‘Epigraphic documents in Hellenistic biography’
Professor D. Langslow (University of Manchester), ‘Archaic Latin inscriptions in Greek and Roman authors’
3.20-3.40: Tea
3.40-5.00: Session 4
Prof. Y. Tzifopoulos (Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki), ‘Inscriptions as literature in Pausanias’ exegesis of Hellas’
Professor P. LeVen (Yale University), ‘The philosopher’s stone: Aristotle’s ‘Hymn to virtue’ and funerary epigraphy’
Friday 26th June
9.00-9.40: Session 5
Dr M. Dinter, (King’s College, London), ‘Epitaphic Gestures in Latin Epic Poetry’
9.40-10.00: Coffee
10.00-11.20: Session 6
Dr A. Morrison (University of Manchester), ‘fr. 64 Pf. of the Aetia and the (vanished) epitaph of Simonides’
Dr L. Houghton (University of Glasgow), ‘Epitome and Eternity: Some Epitaphs and Votive Inscriptions in the Latin Love Elegists’
11.20-11.40: Coffee
11.40-1.00: Session 7
Prof. D. Nelis (University of Geneva) and Dr J. Nelis-Clément (Université Bordeaux 3), ‘Inscriptions in the Roman Historians’
Dr A. Hartmann (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt), ‘Inscriptions and other material relics of the past in Greco-Roman antiquity’
1.00-2.20: Lunch
2.20-3.40: Session 8
Professor E. Kosmetatou (University of Illinois at Springfield), ‘Herodotus and Temple Inventories’
Dr M. Mari (University of Cassino ), ‘Ancient Knowledge of Delphic History and Institutions: From Inscriptions to Literary Sources’
3.40-4.00: Tea
4.00-5.30: Session 9
Dr A. Zadorozhnyy (University of Liverpool), ‘Shuffling Surfaces: Epigraphic Ideologies in Greco-Roman Narratives’
Closing Discussion, led by Prof J.K. Davies (Liverpool) & Prof A. Scafuro (Brown)
Venue
The conference will take place in the Rain Bar [http://www.rain-bar.co.uk/], 80 Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester M1 5JG. [Google map link: http://www.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=M1+5jg]. The closest railway station is Manchester Oxford Road (2 minutes walk from the Rain Bar). From Manchester Piccadilly, the Rain Bar can be reached on foot (10 minutes walk), by tram to St. Peter’s Square or Deansgate, or by taxi (£3-4).
Accommodation
Unfortunately we are unable to provide accommodation, but we would suggest the following places to stay (listed in ascending order of price):
Manchester University Business School, Booth St West (10-15 minutes walk from the conference venue): http://www.mbs.ac.uk/aboutus/conference-hotel/hotel-services.aspx
Premier Inn Manchester GMEX, Lower Mosley St (5 minutes from the conference venue): http://www.premierinn.com/pti/hotelInformation.do?hotelId=24126
Premier Inn Manchester Deansgate Locks, River St (5 minutes from the conference venue): http://www.premierinn.com/pti/hotelInformation.do?hotelId=24128
Ibis Hotel, Charles St (10 minutes from the conference venue): http://www.ibishotel.com/gb/hotel-3143-ibis-manchester-charles-street/index.shtml
Jury’s Inn, 56 Great Bridgewater St, Manchester (next door to the conference venue): http://manchesterhotels.jurysinns.com/jurysinn_manchester
Details of other Manchester hotels can be found on the Visit Manchester website: http://www.visitmanchester.com/where-to-stay-home.aspx
Getting to Manchester
By air
Manchester Airport [http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk] has direct flights from and to most major European cities, as well as direct transatlantic flights. Details of routes and timetables are available on their website. A regular train service (15 minutes, £3) links the airport to the city centre. Budget airlines (particularly Easyjet and Ryanair) have a wider range of routes into Liverpool Airport [http://www.liverpoolairport.com/], which is about an hour from Manchester by bus or train.
By train
Most mainline train services arrive at Manchester Piccadilly, on the eastern edge of the city centre. From Piccadilly, the conference venue and accommodation can be reached on foot or by bus (No. 147 links Piccadilly with the University, including the Business School), tram or taxi.
Local trains and some trains from the airport also call at Manchester Oxford Road: this is the closest station to the conference venue.
More information on public transport in Manchester is available here [http://www.gmpte.com/]

http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/subjectareas/history/