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SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Late Antiquity’s Library: Re-assessing the Classical 
 Canon in the Age of Synesius - Full speaker listing on website
DTSTART:20200416T080000Z
DTEND:20200416T160000Z
UID:TALK139018@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:49145
DESCRIPTION:This two-day interdisciplinary conference aims to re-assess th
 e shape and make-up of classical culture in the context of the fourth-cent
 ury transformation of the literary\, philosophical\, and theological past 
 of Greece and Rome. The structure of the event is conceived as an experime
 nt in form. The touchstone of each panel will be the life and writings of 
 one of the most complex\, heterodox\, and polyvalent figures of the time: 
 Synesius of Cyrene. Politician\, poet\, rhetorician\, philosopher\, (reluc
 tant) bishop\, consecutively (or simultaneously) pagan and Christian\, Syn
 esius\, self-confessed heir to a vast classical tradition\, represents in 
 his eclecticism an ideal way to understand the strange new forms that the 
 cultural canon that he received was to take in his hands and in the tradit
 ions that followed him. A descendent (or so he claimed) of the ancient Spa
 rtans\, he was born in Libya\, educated in Alexandria of Egypt\, posted fo
 r three years to Constantinople\, railed and fought against the barbarians
 : he represents the cross-roads of impulses deriving from both the core of
  the Greco-Roman empire\, as well as its far-flung peripheries\, not only 
 around the Mediterranean littoral\, but also across the Near East. \n\nEac
 h panel will explore a different theme central to Synesius’ work and of 
 interdisciplinary impact\, including the mind and body problem\; the relat
 ionship between Greco-Roman and Near Eastern cultures\; elite relationship
  with lower classes\; strategies for political rhetoric\; forms of worship
  of the divine\; and the challenge of laughter in an age of rising dogmati
 sm. In every panel\, a paper on Synesius will be matched by one that looks
  at the same theme or genre through the eyes of one of his near-contempora
 ries (e.g. the bishop and theologian Augustine of Hippo\; John Chrysostom\
 , charismatic preacher and bishop of Constantinople\; Claudian\, poet and 
 propagandist on behalf of the Western Roman emperor\; Proclus\, philosophe
 r resident in Athens\, and a militant pagan). As Synesius worked in a dazz
 ling array of genres – including philosophy\, lyric (Hymns)\, political 
 rhetoric\, homily\, even allegorical history (Egyptian Tales)\, philosophi
 cal anthropology (Dion) and epistolography – his works are easily put in
  dialogue with major thinkers of his time\, allowing scholars today the ch
 ance to achieve\, through him and his works\, for a synoptic view of conte
 mporary culture. \n\nAll papers will be pre-circulated to speakers and reg
 istered participants.   
LOCATION:Rooms SG1 &amp\; SG2\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Ca
 mbridge\, CB3 9DT
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