Interests
Cicero and Roman reception/transformations of Greek thought
Philosophy (esp. Platonism and Academic scepticism)
(Post-) Classical rhetoric
Roman translational practices
The Second Sophistic and the Greek reception of Roman culture
Epic in late Antiquity
Intellectual history, classical receptions and intertextuality
Stev Talarman received his BA and MA in Classical Philology from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2026. His thesis examined Cicero’s first literary dialogue, the De Oratore (On The Ideal Orator, 55-4 BCE), specifically Cicero’s construction of the figure of Socrates and the generative and highly intertextual functioning of what Stev terms Cicero’s “(Platonic) ambivalence.” Other work has touched on Plutarch’s (Greek) view of Roman social and political institutions in his Lives, as well as on the influence of Homeric Hymns in Nonnus of Panopolis’ Dionysiaca. Behind these seemingly disparate projects lies a central meta-interest in how texts, in their various forms, migrate, transform, and accrue new meaning and are made to authorize new claims in new contexts across languages and periods.
Alongside his native English, Stev speaks fluent German and engages with literature in Latin, Ancient Greek, German, Italian, French, and Spanish, and has begun learning Sanskrit. Stev has lived in Berlin for 8 years. Prior to that, he earned his BM in Music Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory, near his hometown of Oakland, California.
Selected Publications
“‘Earthborn’ Indians in the Dionysiaca” (Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 65.3–4, 2025 [2026]), 467–482.