Duncan to present AIA lecture on Ancient Rome on Feb. 12

calendar icon06 Feb 2020    

Lincoln, Neb.—University of Nebraska–Lincoln Associate Professor of Classics and Religious Studies Anne Duncan will present the next Archaeological Institute of America Omaha-Lincoln Society Lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Richards Hall Room 15. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Her lecture is titled “Dying Well and Dying Badly in Ancient Rome.”

Ancient Rome gave its heroes lavish public funerals and impressive tombs, while it gave its villains elaborate public executions.  By looking at funeral monuments, arenas, and artistic depictions of blood sports, this talk will examine some of the ways that late Republican and early Imperial Rome (2nd c. BCE – 2nd c. CE) turned death into a public spectacle for its most valued statesmen and its most vilified criminals.

Duncan received her Ph.D. in Classical Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.  She is the author of Performance and Identity in the Classical World (Cambridge 2006) and numerous articles on Greek and Roman dramatic performance.  She is currently at work on two projects: a monograph called Command Performance: Tyranny and Theater in the Ancient World, and a textbook on Roman spectacle, under contract to Cambridge University Press.