The Columbia Classics Lecture Series committee is excited to announce the following talk in our series:

Nathaniel Jones (Washington University in St. Louis) will give a talk entitled "Time, Space, and Experientiality on Roman Sarcophagi." Professor Jones has kindly agreed to pre-circulate an abstract, pasted below:

The body presents the principal problematic of the ancient Roman sarcophagus. A sarcophagus is sized to the body which it protects and encloses. It planarizes and stabilizes that body, hiding the inevitable metamorphosis of post-mortem decay behind an ordered and unchanging surface. Many Roman sarcophagi are also decorated with figural sculpture, meaning that their planar surfaces are themselves dissolved into compositions filled with represented bodies, some heroic, some tragic. In this way, the sarcophagus is also a site where the represented and real body come into contact, and in so doing creates a unique form of narrative experientiality. This paper seeks to examine how narrative experientiality functions on sarcophagi, in often surprising ways, to create a reciprocal relationship between viewer and deceased. It examines some well-known phenomena, including biographical and battle sarcophagi, and some lesser-known ones, such as the depiction of mile markers, across a wide range of sarcophagus types, and suggests that the evocation of experientiality may drive formal considerations as much as questions of narrative plot or the apposition of canonical Roman virtues.

The talk will take place on Friday, November 14th, at 4:10 pm in Hamilton 703.

Please note: In order to enter the Columbia campus, you will need either a valid CUID or a guest access QR code. To receive guest access, please email Jazmín Novoa Lara (jan2191@columbia.edu) at least two days before the event.

We hope you will be able to join us!