W.R. Johnson, the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor of Classics and Comparative Studies at the University of Chicago, will present "Ovid's Aeneas: The Poetics of Subversion in Late Augustan Rome" at 8 p.m. April 19 in Room 207 of the Hall of Languages. The lecture is the final installment of the Spring 2001 Moses I. Finley Memorial Lecture Series.
Johnson will explore the relationship between poetry and political ideology in first-century Rome. His publications have focused on Roman poetry and include "Darkness Visible: A Study of Virgil's Aeneid" (1976), hailed by critics as one of the most influential books on the Aeneid in the last 30 years; "The Idea of Lyric" (1982); "Momentary Monsters: Lucan and His Heroes" (1987); "Horace and the Dialectic of Freedom" (1993); and most recently, "Lucretius and The Modern World" (2000). Johnson has also published many scholarly articles and book reviews, and has delivered numerous lectures.
The Finley Lecture Series is presented by the classics department in The College of Arts and Sciences. The lectures are made possible by a contribution from Robert Papworth '68. Moses I. Finley '27 was an SU alumnus who became one of the most influential historians of the 20th century. He enjoyed a long, distinguished career as a professor of ancient history and master of Darwin College at Cambridge University.
