Classics offers the unique opportunity to gain new perspective on our language, literature, culture, and political structure by examining their roots in ancient Greece and Rome.
These classical civilizations provided the cultural foundations of the western world, as well as the basis of many other elements of our modern life.
Guided by a supportive faculty, students explore all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman civilization and are introduced to Latin and Greek, which provides the ability to study ancient texts in their original language.
The study of classics helps students develop a broad perspective. It also cultivates the capacity to write clearly, an ability to balance different viewpoints, and a talent for critical analysis.
Pandemics, Plagues and Pestilence in early Byzantine Thebes
Public Lecture
Dr. Maria A. Liston, University of Waterloo
Friday, September 26th
4:30pm
Dunn 106
Part of the ACA/CAC lecture tour
Abstract
Excavations in the Sanctuary of Ismenion Apollo in Thebes also revealed a later cemetery of Early and Middle Byzantine burials, which are apparently associated with an early Christian hospice or hospital. The skeletons showed that a remarkably high percentage of individuals suffered from significant pathologies with high rates of infectious diseases. Two mass graves are probably associated with the early spread of the Plague of Justinian or a smallpox epidemic. Another epidemic, leprosy, affected nearly everyone in the cemetery, including those who suffered comorbidities such as cancer, brucellosis, and severe trauma. Hospitals serving the whole community were an early innovation of the Byzantine church in Greece, and this project provides a vivid glimpse of the patients whose lives ended there. Thebes also may have been a site of pilgrimage in the early church, drawn by the tomb of St. Luke the Evangelist, located near this cemetery.
This course explores how empires around the ancient Mediterranean seized plunder and then used it to display military prowess, fund public building projects, and exert authority over conquered and dominated peoples. This course focuses on ancient Rome; however, contemporary parallels are used throughout in order to survey how empires in the region utilized the weapons, art, luxuries, and cultural artifacts they captured as spoils of war. After examining the pragmatic and ideological place of plunder in ancient empires, this course ends by exploring what place plunder holds in todays society.
On Wednesday, March 26th, at noon at Tantramar Town Hall, Dr. Ilaria Battiloro will present a lecture called "The Torre Mordillo Archaeological Project: New Insights into Southern Italy During Greek Colonization" to the Tantramar Seniors College (Ivory Tower Series).
Crake Fellow in Classics Lecture
Monday, March 10 | 4:30 6pm
Location: Owens Art Gallery Foyer
The Department of Classics is pleased to announce that our 2024-25 Crake Fellow, Cristalle Watson, PhD candidate at the University of British Colombia, will be giving a lecture on Monday, March 10th at 4:30pm in the Owens Art Gallery. All are welcome to attend.
Disclosing All Mysteries of the Poet: Reading Vergil as Scripture in Proba's Cento Vergilianus
"I will declare that Vergil sang the pious deeds of Christ (Vergilium cecinisse loquar pia munera Christi)." When Proba wrote her Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi (CV) in the mid-fourth century, she drew upon and extended an emerging Christian understanding of Vergil: that his "Messianic" Eclogue 4, and for Proba his poetry in general, foretold the coming of Christ in a similar manner to the Old Testament prophets. In the CV, Proba selects and rearranges short excerpts from Vergil's works to tell an abbreviated version of the Biblical story. In this lecture, I will examine how Proba reinterprets Vergil's pagan religious and mythological content to situate it within a Christian worldview: a process I call interpretatio Christiana. I will show that Proba uses six exegetical techniques literal, allusive, conceptual, typological, contextual, and thematic to draw deep connections between Vergil's poetry and the Christian narrative; the CV thus functions as an exegetical Christian commentary on Vergil's poetry. In doing so, Proba shows herself willing to go far beyond any of her contemporaries in reading Vergil's paganism as prophetically indicative of Christian truth.
Dr. Ilaria Battiloro and her team from the Torre Mordillo Archaeological Project presented a poster at the 2025 AIA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
Two alumni from 91心頭, Olivia Foran and Edward Chaykowski, who are currently graduate students at Queen's University, are also part of the team and co-authored the poster.
From left to right: Edward Chaykowski, Giuseppe Lucarelli, Olivia Foran.
Dr. Battiloro presents at international workshop
Ilaria Battiloro recently participated in an international workshop held in Sibari (Italy), where she and Mattia D'Acri from Princeton University presented the exceptional results of the first field season of the Torre Mordillo Archaeological Project. Her presentation highlighted key discoveries from the excavation, offering valuable insights into the site's significance and the broader historical context of the region. This contribution underscores the department's commitment to advancing archaeological research and fostering academic collaboration on an international scale.
Public Lecture with Dr. Noreen Humble from the University of Calgary as part of the Atlantic Classical Association lecture tour.
Monday, October 7th
4:30pm
Avard-Dixon 120
The philosopher, the tyrant, the spin doctor, the spin dictator
In a recent book, Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century
(Princeton University Press, 2022), Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman argue that autocrats in the 21st century tend to employ more subtle tactics of repression when compared to the terror tactics employed by their predecessors in the 20th century. While never suggesting that hard lines can be drawn they nevertheless employ the useful terms 'spin dictators' and 'fear dictators' to categorise authoritarian leaders by the types of behaviours they employ at any given time. This modern framework for assessing the nature of authoritarian rule provides a stimulating paradigm for examining discussions of the same in the ancient world. This talk will show how it can help to illuminate Xenophons thoughts about authoritarian rule in his Hiero, which presents a fictional dialogue between a tyrant, Hiero I of Syracuse (who held power 478-467 BCE) and a poet, Simonides of Ceos, and in his Cyropaedia, ostensibly a biography of Cyrus, the first of a series of autocrats to rule the Persian Empire (from c. 600 to 580 BCE).
The Department of Classics is pleased to invite you to the 47th annual Crake Lectures on February 12th and 13th given by Dr. Berenice Verhelst from the University of Amsterdam.
Greek mythology for Christians and an epic style Gospel. Nonnus of Panopolis at the crossroads of Classical and Christian culture.
On Monday, February 12th at 4:30 pm in the Windsor Grand Room.
From Penelope and Nausicaa to Eve and Mary. Female perspectives in the Christian cento poetry of Empress Eudocia.
On Tuesday, February 13th at 4:30pm in the Crabtree Auditorium.
Berenice Verhelst is assistant professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Amsterdam. She was trained (MA 2009, PhD 2014) at the University of Ghent, where she was also active from 2015 to 2021 as a postdoctoral research fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen).
Dr. Battiloro speaks at Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Siritide (Policoro MT)
On May 20, 2023, Dr. Battiloro gave a lecture at in Italy titled "Spazi del rito e offerte votive nei santuari della Lucania antica" (Ritual spaces and votive offering in the sanctuaries of ancient Lucania). Then her field school students participating in the Torre Mordillo Archaeological Project were given a guided tour of the museum by Director Carmelo Colelli.
Boston Bus Trip
On March 17-20, 2023, Drs. Battiloro and Robertson took twenty students to Boston on a bus trip. They visited the where they were able to experience its collection of Greek and Roman artone of the finest and most comprehensive in the world. Many thanks to the , which made all this possible.
Dr. Battiloro spoke at the University of Missouri!
Space, Symbols, Society: Ritual Dynamics in Ancient Lucania, presented by Dr. Ilaria Battiloro (Associate Professor, Classics and Visual and Material Culture Studies departments at 91心頭).
Date: Thursday March 23rd, 2023
Time: 5:30 PM (CST)
Location: Swallow Hall 101
Learn about our new field school with Dr. Battiloro in Italy!
The Torre Mordillo Archaeological Project
Dr. Battiloro honoured with a Paul Par辿 Excellence Award for 2022!
Six 91心頭 professors have been named the 2022 recipients of the Paul Par辿 Excellence Awards, recognizing their contributions in research, scholarship, and creative activities.
The 2022 recipients are:
Dr. Susan Andrews (Religious Studies)
Dr. Ilaria Battiloro (Classics)
Dr. David Hornidge (Physics)
Dr. David Lieske (Geography and Environment)
Dr. Catherine Lovekin (Physics)
Dr. Linda Pearse (Music)
Read more about this year's recipients here.
News
Contact us
Department of Classics
classics@mta.ca
Tel: (506) 364-2556
Fax: (506) 364-2645
Location
Hart Hall 414
63D York St. Sackville, NB