The Mountains: Representations of Italic Landscapes in the Aeneid

Alessandro Barchiesi, Professor of Latin Literature at the University of Siena at Arezzo and G. and H. Spogli Professor of Italian Studies at Stanford University, holds the 2011-2012 Sather Lectureship at UC Berkeley.
Professor Barchiesi’s talk will examine representations of Italic landscapes in the Aeneid, especially wilderness, as seen in mountains and woods, and (super)natural phenomena, volcanic and sulphurous. He will discuss these images in a double perspective: on the one side ‘wild Italy’ anticipates ideas of Roman control over nature, on the other it allows the poem to be read not only as a meditation on the Italic past, but as a foundational text for Roman imperial expansion, colonial and diasporic.

This event is sponsored by the Department of Classics in cooperation with the Ancient Mediterranean Studies program and the Ancient Borderlands Research Focus Group.

jwil 30.iii.2011