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The Lee Lecture presents Professor Lauren Ginsberg from Duke University.  She will be speaking on "Remembered Resistance: Telling the Life stories of Claudia Octavia’s Household in and out of Literature".  The ancient historical tradition on Nero’s divorce of his first wife involves a dramatic scene in which Octavia’s household is tortured for evidence of (non-existent) adultery. The bravery of these individuals, most of whom would be enslaved, is what draws the historical eye of Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio, but there is more to say about the life stories of these people, several of whom have names, occupations, and family dynamics that can be traced through the surviving epigraphic record. By studying the fragments of their histories through the perspectives of critical fabulation theory, this talk aims to people Claudian and Neronian past with particular attention to Valeria Hilaria, Octavia’s nurse, who, I argue, was a lifelong companion who can often be glimpsed as an overlooked yet key historical figure in the silences of Tacitus’ text.  This lecture is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by: Department of Classical Studies

Contact

Joyce Holmes at [[jrholm]]

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