The Annals and Agrippina

About the lecture

In this lecture we think about the structure of Tacitus’ Annals and one of the central figures in Book 12-14 – Agrippina the Younger – focusing in particular on: (i) the hexadic structure of Tacitus’ Annals; (ii) the arresting start of Book 13 – Prima novo principatu mors (“The first death in the new principate…”); (iii) the figure of Agrippina the Younger; and (iv) the degree of misogyny with which powerful women were treated by elite male writers such as Tacitus.

About the lecturer

Ed is interested in all areas of antiquity, the classical world and its interlocutors. At Oxford, he teaches most ancient history papers. For the past decade and a bit more he has been thinking about how historians should and can use archaeological data, and vice versa. He has been very lucky to be able to go to the mountains in central Italy and think about this while other people shovel large amounts of soil around. Currently he is chairman of the Sub-Faculty of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology: his present project involves trying to find out what this means in practice.

His research interests fall broadly into three categories at the moment: the history, archaeology and epigraphy of Italy, especially the impact of the Roman conquest; the political and cultural history of the Roman Republic; early Roman historiography. He is Co-Director of the Sangro Valley Project (Phase II), with Prof. Susan Kane, of Oberlin College, Ohio.