How the Romans kept their past alive
A distinguished Professor of Ancient History from Germany is to give a public lecture at the University of New England titled “How the Romans recorded, remembered, thought about, and used their past”.
Andreas Mehl has been Professor of Ancient History at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg since 1992. In his lecture – at 5.30 pm on Friday 5 March – he will discuss the various ways in which the Romans kept their past alive.
“Historiography was only one of these,” Professor Mehl says. “It came late to the Romans, under Greek influence; but it became the most important way for the past to be remembered.”
An English edition of Professor Mehl’s book Roman Historiography was published in 2009. He has also published books on the Roman historian Tacitus’ portrayal of the Emperor Claudius, and on the Hellenistic empire of Seleukos Nikator.
His lecture, in the Earle Page College Gallery, will be the first for 2010 in UNE’s “Aspects of Antiquity” lecture series, now in its 17th year. Everyone is welcome.