[Usyd_Classics_Events] USYD Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar #5, 2024: Kimberly Harris

[Ben Brown]

Dear Friends of Classics and Ancient History at USYD,

Please join us at the Boardroom of the V. Gordon Childe Centre (formerly CCANESA) or on Zoom (link below) for the fifth presentation in our Semester 1, 2024 Research Seminar Series.



May 2nd (Thursday, 4pm AEST/UTC+10)




Kimberly Harris (University of Sydney)




Beheading the body politic in Tacitus’ Annals and Histories




Abstract

Tacitus opens the Histories (Tac. Hist.1.2) with a striking metaphor of Roman citizens turning against their own Capitol. As scholars have noted, this imagery evokes the self-inflicted violence of civil war (e.g., Joseph 2012) and, more significantly for this paper, it can also be read as a figurative decapitation of the Roman body politic (e.g., Ash 2007; Woodman 1997). Tim Joseph (2012) has recently offered a compelling reading of the metaphorical decapitation of the Capitol, the decapitation of the emperor Galba (Tac. Hist. 1.41), and the burning of the Capitol (Tac. Hist. 3.71-72) that emphasises the repetitiveness of civil war in the first three books of Tacitus’ work. So far, however, no study has fully examined the other historical decapitations in Histories I-III. This paper offers a new reading of these decapitations alongside the figurative beheading of the Capitol that is actualised by the siege of December 69 CE. It argues that Tacitus employs decapitation as a powerful political metaphor for the destabilising nature of civil war and the overthrow of imperial power in a post-69 CE world. It has arisen out of a chapter from my PhD thesis that more broadly examines metaphors of violence against the body politic in a range of early imperial texts.



Biography

Kim Harris is a current PhD researcher and tutor in Ancient History at the University of Sydney.

Zoom details: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/85192829117<https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/VR_TCK1DvKT8r5OkrSMjKh0?domain=t.e2ma.net>
Need help using Zoom? Visit the Zoom Help Center: https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/_NkdCL7EwMfNYnK2YiqVD6i?domain=support.zoom.us

All best,

Ben
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