On 10-11 May 2013 the Department of Ancient Classics hosted a conference with the title Praise and the Construction of Character in Late Antiquity. The aim of the conference was to explore the praise-literature of late Antiquity with particular emphasis on character-construction and image-creation.
Christopher Kelly (University of Cambridge) delivered the keynote address, with the title ‘The Problem of Praise’.
The other speakers and topics are listed below.
Virginia Burrus (Drew University), ‘Gender, Genre, and Biblical Exemplarity in The Life of Saint Helia’.
Marco Formisano (Universiteit Gent), ‘Reading Boredom: Pliny’s Praise of Trajan and the Rhetoric of Sincerity’.
Bruce Gibson (University of Liverpool), ‘In Praise of Gratian: Ausonius’ Gratiarum Actio’.
David Scourfield (Maynooth University), ‘Undying Praise: Memorialization in the Consolatory Letters of Jerome’.
Michael Trapp (King’s College London), ‘And I Mean This Very Sincerely: Encomium and Ethos in Lucian’.
Lieve Van Hoof (Lichtenberg-Kolleg, Universität Göttingen), ‘Praise through Characterization through Praise: The Forged Epistolary Exchange between Basil and Libanius’.
Catherine Ware (Maynooth University /University of Liverpool), ‘The Emperor Constantine and his Virtues’.
Michael Williams (Maynooth University), ‘How Shall I Praise Thee? Martin of Tours in the Works of Sulpicius Severus’.
