Classical Studies

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James Romm on Thebes for Classical Wisdom Podcast

James Romm, James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics at Bard College, contributed a presentation on the Sacred Band of Thebes as part of a group discussion hosted by Classical Wisdom Speaks Podcast on the ancient Greek city state. Romm discusses the mythical and factual aspects of the the Sacred Band, a troop of select soldiers consisting solely of pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC, in the aftermath of Thebes’s defeat of Sparta in the Battle of Leuctra. “This was an epochal event in Greek history,” Romm tells Classical Wisdom. “It was the first time the Spartans had been defeated in open field battle, it punctured the myth of Spartan invincibility, and led to an enormous shift in the balance of power among the Greek city states: Thebes essentially became the superpower of mainland Greece.” He continues, “The Thebans knew that Spartan retribution was coming… the Sacred Band was formed… as a way to protect the city and especially defend it against Sparta. We’re told by Plutarch, who supplies us really our only substantive information, that the Thebans drafted pairs of male lovers—150 couples, so 300 men—on the principle that male lovers would fight to defend one another.”

Post Date: 12-12-2024

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Robert Cioffi Publishes an Essay on Newly Uncovered Euripides Papyrus in the London Review of Books

Bard Assistant Professor of Classics Robert Cioffi published his essay “Euripides Unbound” in the most recent issue of the London Review of Books (LRB). The essay tells the story of a papyrus artifact found in 2022 that contained 97 lines of two plays by Euripides, one of the most important discoveries of the author’s work. Cioffi, who is an expert on Greek tragedy and papyri, notes the difficulty of deciphering works like this, especially when so many others have been lost. He says the two years it took to decipher and print its contents shows the importance of collaboration for the field of papyrology, and that “for papyrology to continue, techniques and expertise must be shared.”

Alongside his essay, Cioffi appeared on the LRB Podcast to talk about the papyrus’s excavation from a cemetery in Philadelphia (Egypt) by archaeologist Heba Adly. He also discussed his recent book Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Greek Novel, which explores the relationship between Egyptian and Greco-Roman materials and explains how important the Nile River Valley was in Roman imperial literature. Cioffi is currently working on site at Hermopolis Magna in Egypt, where he hopes to find more unexcavated texts: “That’s what makes archaeology exciting—you cross your fingers and hope to find something amazing.”
 

Post Date: 09-30-2024