Agora Speaker Series 2023 - Professor Alastair Blanshard


Surveying the Reception of Rome: Sex, violence, myths, and factoids

This lecture offers a broad overview of some of the dominant observable trends in the reception of ancient Roman history and culture. It looks at which particular Roman stories and motifs have flourished, and why. It locates these trends within both historical and generic contexts. In particular, it is interested in charting the ways in Rome has been framed as place of sex, violence, and (a very Protestant version of) Christianity.

Alastair Blanshard is the Paul Eliadis Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland. He is director of UQ’s Centre for Western Civilisation and is the program director for the Advanced Humanities degree.