Lansdowne lectures in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies
2020-present
2016-2019
2010-2015
2000-2009
1990-1999
1999
1999 Denis Feeney
Fellow and Tutor in Classical Languages and Literature, New College, Oxford University
Giger Professor of Latin, Princeton University
- Sept. 27, 1999 "Mythic Time: The Ages of Gold and Iron in Catullus, Virgil, Ovid, and Seneca"
- Sept. 28, 1999 "Greek and Roman Time: Synchronising the Past of Greece and Rome in Cicero's and Horace's Literary Histories"
- Sept. 30, 1999 "Festival Time: Putting Sacred Time in its Place, on a Tour of Evander's and Augustus' Rome"
- Oct. 1, 1999 "Seminar: The Problem of Mimesis and Textuality in the Poetry of Catullus"
1999 Susan Walker
Deputy Keeper, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum
- March 1, 1999 "Hadrian and Hellenism"
- March 2, 1999 "Rome: The City of Marble"
- March 4, 1999 "Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt"
- March 5, 1999 "Seminar: Planning and Preparing a Special Exhibition"
1998
1997
1997 Erich Gruen
Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History & Classics - Berkeley University, California
- Nov. 3, 1997 "Hellenistic Kings and Jews"
- Nov. 4, 1997 "Jewish Twists on Pagan Tales"
- Nov. 6, 1997 "Pagans and Jews: the Roots of Anti-Semitism"
- Nov. 7, 1997 "Seminar: The Use and Abuse of the Exodus Story"
1996
1996 Natalie Kampen
Professor of Women's Studies and Art History, Barnard College, Columbia University
- Sept. 16, 1996 "Gender Theory and Roman Art"
- Sept. 17, 1996 "The Origins of Rome: Art and the Construction of Gendered History"
- Sept. 19, 1996 "Women and Space in Roman Culture"
- Sept. 20, 1996 "Seminar: Roman Art in McCarthy's U.S.A."
1995
1994
1994 Richard Seaford
Professor of Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter
- Sept. 26, 1994 "How Did Philosophy Begin?"
- Sept. 27, 1994 "Tragedy and Pre-Socratic Philosophy"
- Sept. 29, 1994 "Tragedy and Ambiguity"
- Sept. 30, 1994 "Seminar: Sophocle's Ajax: The 'Deception Speech'"
1994 John D'Arms
Gerald F. Else Professor of Classical Studies, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate school. University of Michigan
- Mar. 7, 1994 "Roman Convivial Equality - in Theory and Practice"
- Mar. 8, 1994 "Heavy Drinking and Drunkenness in the Roman World"
- Mar. 10, 1994 "Spectacle and the Roman Communal Meal"
- Mar. 11, 1994 "Seminar: Roman Emperors' Nighttime Brawls"
1993
1992
1992 George F. Bass
Abell Professor of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A&M University
- Sept. 28, 1992 "Underwater Archaeology: Techniques of Survey and Excavation"
- Sept. 30, 1992 "The Bronze Age Shipwreck at Ulu Burun, Turkey: Trade in the 14th Century B.C."
- Oct. 1, 1992 "Underwater Excavations at Serçe Limani, Turkey: An 11th Century Merchant Voyage"
- Oct. 2, 1992 "Seminar: The Phoenicians of Homer as Revealed through Nautical Archaeology"
1992 Averil M. Cameron
Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies and Professor of Ancient History, King's College London
Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History and Warden, Keble College, Oxford University
- Feb. 10, 1992 "The Meaning of Christianisation"
- Feb. 11, 1992 "Women and Private Life"
- Feb. 13, 1992 "Authority and Popular Belief"
- Feb. 14, 1992 "Seminar: Eusebius' Life of Constantine"
1991
1991 Keith Hopkins
Professor of Ancient History, University of Cambridge
- Sept. 16, 1991 "Rome and China"
- Sept. 17, 1991 "Seminar: Violence in Roman Life"
- Sept. 18, 1991 "The World Upside Down - Again: Novel Evidence for Roman Slavery"
1991 Mireille Corbier
Directeur de Recherche au C.N.R.S. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
- Mar. 18, 1991 "Writing and Public Space in the City of Rome"
- Mar. 19, 1991 "Constructing Kinship in Rome"
- Mar. 21, 1991 "The Ambiguous Status of Meat in Ancient Rome"
- Mar. 22, 1991 "Seminar: The House of the Caesars"
1990
1990 Jasper Griffin
Professor and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford
- Sept. 24, 1990 "Teach the Free Man How to Praise: Augustus and his Poets"
- Sept. 25, 1990 "The Emergence of Herodotus"
- Sept. 27, 1990 "How to Move Mobs: The Art of Roman Oratory"
- Sept. 28, 1990 "Seminar: The Origins of Pastoral"
1980-1989
1989
1989 Patricia E. Easterling
Professor of Greek University College, London
- Sept. 19, 1989 "Transmission: How and Why Greek Texts Survived"
- Sept. 20, 1989 "New Finds in the Twentieth Century"
- Sept. 21, 1989 "Ancient Greek Poetry and the Modern World"
- Sept. 22, 1989 "Seminar: Ancient Scholarship on Oedipus Coloneus"
1989 Paul Cartledge
University Lecturer in Ancient History and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge
- Mar. 17, 1989 "Seminar: The Myth of History"
- Mar. 20, 1989 "Herodotus and the Other"
- Mar. 21, 1989 "Thucydides and Soviet-American Relations"
- Mar. 23, 1989 "The Tacitism of Edward Gibbon: the Decline and Fall of an Idea"
1988
1988 Geoffrey E. Rickman
Professor of Roman History University of St. Andrews
- Sept. 19, 1988 "The Roman Grain Trade"
- Sept. 21, 1988 "Roman Ports"
- Sept. 22, 1988 "An Ancient Megalopolis: the Day-to-Day Functioning of the City of Rome"
- Sept. 23, 1988 "Seminar: Cleopatra: History and Evolution of a Myth"
1987
1987 T. Peter Wiseman
Professor of Classics and Head of Department, University of Exeter
- Oct. 26, 1987 "Julius Caesar and the Expanding Empire"
- Oct. 28, 1987 "Ancient Theatres: What Were They For?"
- Oct. 29, 1987 "The City of Rome, Ancient and Modern"
- Oct. 30, 1987 "Seminar: Roman Satyrs: the Background to Horace's Ars Poetica"
1987 Fergus G.B. Millar
Camden Professor of Ancient History, Oxford University
- Mar. 23, 1987 "Popular Politics and the End of the Roman Republic"
- Mar. 25, 1987 "The People and Roman Imperialism in the 60s B.C."
- Mar. 26, 1987 "Popular Politics and the Rise of Julius Caesar"
- Mar. 27, 1987 "Seminar: The Roman Near East: Perspectives and Problems"
1987 George P. Goold
Professor and Chairman, Department of Classics, Yale University
- Jan. 26, 1987 "About Cynthia's Death (Propertius 4.7)"
- Jan. 28, 1987 "A Paraclausithuron from Pompeii (CIL IV.5296)"
- Jan. 29, 1987 "What the Greek Stars Foretold: A Survey of Greek Astrology"
- Jan. 30, 1987 "Seminar: Recent Developments in Latin Lexicography"
1986
1986 Sir Kenneth J. Dover
Professor of Greek and Chancellor of the University of St Andrews
President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University
- Oct. 6, 1986 "Aristophanes on Slaves"
- Oct. 8, 1986 "Aristophanes on Women"
- Oct. 9, 1986 "Aristophanes on Peace"
- Oct. 10, 1986 "Seminar: Greek Homosexuality and the Anthropologists"
1986 Kenneth D. White
Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Reading
- Mar. 3, 1986 "Roman Ships and Ship Building"
- Mar. 5, 1986 "Recent Research in the Mechanics of Ancient Warfare"
- Mar. 6, 1986 "Water Supply in the Classical World"
- Mar. 7, 1986 "Seminar: Lean Acres: A Slice of the Agrarian History of Roman Italy"
1985
1984
1984 Geoffrey S. Kirk
Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge
- Oct. 1, 1984 "Myths and Imagination"
- Oct. 3, 1984 "From Myths to Philosophy in Ancient Greece: Some Further Thoughts"
- Oct. 4, 1984 "The Creation of the Olympian Gods"
1983
1983 Margaret Rule
Archaeological Director, Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth, England
- Sept. 29, 1983 "The Mary Rose: the Excavation and Raising of Henry VIII's Flagship"
1982
1982 Thomas G. Rosenmeyer
Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley.
- Nov. 1, 1982 "Phantasia and Imagination"
- Nov. 3, 1982 "Some Thoughts on Irony"
- Nov. 4, 1982 "Decision-Making in Classical Tragedy"
1981
1981 Michael Grant
Professor of Humanity, Edinburgh
University Vice-Chancellor, University of Khartoum
President and Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University, Belfast
- Feb. 26, 1981 "The Etruscans"
- Feb. 27, 1981 "Seminar: The Task of a Roman Emperor"
Lansdowne lectures at the University of Victoria
On March 23, 1978, the University of Victoria received $4.5 million from the British Columbia Ministry of Education for the sale of the University's former campus on Lansdowne Road, which was then to be further developed as the site of Camosun College. By formal agreement with the Ministry, this total amount was invested in trust, with the revenue dedicated to a special program of distinguished academic appointments. At first, the period of appointment might be for as long as two years; it became the typical pattern, however, to bring eminent scholars to the University for periods ranging from two to five days. The purpose of these short-term appointments was viewed as academic enrichment, complementing and enhancing a department's regular program of studies.
The first Lansdowne appointment in the Department of Classics was for a term of six months: W.J. Niall Rudd, Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics at the University of Bristol, accepted a Lansdowne position from July 1 to December 31, 1979, thus becoming one of the University of Victoria's earliest Lansdowne Visiting Scholars. All subsequent Lansdowne appointments in Classics or Greek and Roman Studies, as documented in the list that follows, have been for a period not longer than one week. These visitors have usually delivered three public lectures of broad interest, and one or two seminars of a more specialized nature.
Over the past twenty-five years, the Department has been highly successful in bringing to Victoria many of the world's leading classical scholars, in all the major branches of our discipline. The result has been richly rewarding for faculty members, students, and the wider community of Victoria residents.
Brief video history of Lansdowne Lecturers by Peter L. Smith, Professor Emeritus, Department of Greek and Roman Studies (requires Quicktime).