News: Conference, Literature and Power in Middle Republican Rome, Bergamo, 23-24 May 2025

Literature and Power in Middle Republican Rome

University of Bergamo, 23-24 May 2025

Organizer: Lucia Degiovanni

The conference will explore how Roman authors reflected and responded to the phenomenon of Roman expansionism, examining the ways in which key literary figures portrayed the growth of Roman power and its impact on both Roman and foreign societies. We will analyze how literature served both to glorify Roman achievements and to critique the costs of imperialism. Topics of discussion will include the representation of war and conquest, the portrayal of Rome’s enemies, and the ways in which Roman identity was shaped in relation to the expanding borders of the empire.

Confirmed Speakers

Olivia Elder (University of Oxford, Oriel College), Politics by the book: politics and empire in early Latin literature

Dennis Pausch (Philipps-Universität Marburg), Greek views on Roman imperialism: Livy’s rendering of the debate at the assembly of the Aetolian League in 199 BC (31.29–32)

Giuseppe Pezzini (University of Oxford, Corpus Christi College), Pergamon, Telephos, and Accius: cultural interactions between Rome and the Attalid Kingdom in 2^nd c. BC.

Daniel Kiss (Universitat de Barcelona), Cato the Elder on foreigners and foreign policy: between pragmatism and principles

Federico Russo (Università degli Studi di Milano), “Cura pacis concordiae quoque intestinae causa fuit” (Liv. 3.65.7). Roman historiographical reflection on the early Republican Age between expansionism and civil discord

Daniela Galli (Università di Bergamo), Il dialogo tra Philus e Laelius nel libro III del ‘De re publica’ di Cicerone: per una giustificazione dell’imperialismo

Alessandro Russo (Università di Pisa), Ennio e la guerra. A proposito di un controverso frammento degli Annales (247-253 Skutsch)

Lucia Degiovanni (Università di Bergamo), La maledizione della stirpe: Antigonidi e Pelopidi tra storia e teatro

Giampiero Scafoglio (Université Côte d’Azur, Nice), Bacco e i suoi riti nella tragedia romana arcaica

Antonella Duso (Università di Padova), Grammatica e politica a Roma tra II e I secolo a.C.: l’influsso delle scuole di Alessandria e di Pergamo

Vincenzo Casapulla (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II), Livy’s judgment on Roman military expansion: new critical perspectives

Michele Bellomo (Università degli Studi di Milano), Imperium Romanum in Transition: Livy’s Representation of Roman Power in the Middle Republic.

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