Centre for Late Antique Studies, St Andrews

27/04/2026

"Myth and Poetry in Dracontius’ 'De raptu Helenae' (Rom. 8) "
Benjamin Goldlust (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur)


📆 29 April,⏰4pm
Online: 💻 MS Teams. (to get link email [email protected] and [email protected])

17/04/2026

"The Audiences of Quintus of Smyrna’s 'Posthomerica' "
Vincent Tomasso (Trinity College Connecticut)

CLAS
📆 22 April,⏰4pm
Online: 💻 MS Teams. (to get link email [email protected] and [email protected])

10/04/2026

We're hosting work-in-progress next week. Join us!

📆 15 April at 3pm.
📍 In-person: room s11 Swallowgate, St Andrews.
ℹ️ Enquiries? email [email protected] and [email protected].

"Desert Dwellers and Economic Anxieties on the Frontiers of Late Antique Egypt" Anna Kelley (St Andrews, Classics)

"Luxorius beyond the Pleasure Principle"
Talitha Kearey (St Andrews, Classics)

23/03/2026

"Some Odor of Frankincense: Law, Narrative, and an Unpublished Illustrated Papyrus (BNF Suppl. gr. 1294)"
Rob Cioffi (Bard College)

CLAS
📆 25 March,⏰4pm
Online: 💻 MS Teams. (to get link email [email protected] and [email protected])

Acquired in 1902, BNF Suppl. gr. 1294 is one of a very few extant illustrated papyri with a literary text, but it has yet to be edited. This talk will present a preliminary text of the papyrus and discuss the relationship between its illustrations and content.

10/03/2026

CLAS work-in-progress , 11 March at 3pm!
Hybrid event: room s11 Swallowgate, St Andrews/Teams.
To get meeting link, email [email protected] and [email protected].

"Greek versions of Armenian texts in Late Antiquity: when, where and why?"
Timothy Greenwood (St Andrews, History)

"Land Distribution and Family Repercussions in the Late Roman World: East and West"
Becca Grose (St Andrews, Classics)

10/02/2026

Save the dates!
We're starting an exciting schedule of on 11 March, with papers from Timothy Greenwood and Becca Grose.

For info, please email either Sophie Schoess ([email protected]) or Anna Kelley ([email protected])

**Schedule**

👉11 March, 3 to 5pm, work-in-progress seminars (in-person, room TBC)
- Timothy Greenwood (St Andrews, History)
"Greek versions of Armenian texts in Late Antiquity: when, where and why?"
- Becca Grose (St Andrews, Classics — Land and Loyalty Project)
"Land Distribution and Family Repercussions in the Late Roman World: East and West"

👉25 March 2026, 4pm, CLAS seminar (online)
- Rob Cioffi (Bard College)
"Hermopolis Magna (Egypt) in Late Antiquity (title TBC)"

👉15 April, 3–5pm, work-in-progress seminars (in-person, room TBC)
- Anna Kelley (St Andrews, Classics)
"Desert Dwellers and Economic Anxieties on the Frontiers of Late Antique Egypt"
- Talitha Kearey (St Andrews, Classics)
"Luxorious beyond the Pleasure Principle"

👉 22 April 2026, 4pm, CLAS seminar (online)
- Vincent Tomasso (Trinity College Connecticut)
"The Audiences of Quintus of Smyrna’s Posthomerica"

👉29 April 2026, 4pm, CLAS seminar (online)
- Benjamin Goldlust (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur)
"Myth and Poetry in Dracontius’ De raptu Helenae (Rom. 8 )"

19/12/2025

"Land and Power in the Later Roman World"


📆 29 June to 1 July 2026
📍 Tübingen

** Call For Papers **

Land and landownership underpinned the socio-economic fabric of the late Roman world. Land played a defining role in the working of the state and secular elites, providing their revenue and assuring their power over substantial parts of the rural population. The consolidation of the Christian Church as a large landowner was central to the establishment of Christianity as a major social and economic player in this period, as well as a basis for the religious authority of its leaders. Rights associated with land and control over it were a catalyst for the development of legal principles and fiscal practices that remained influential for centuries. Understanding the close connection between land and power is thus essential, and doing so has prompted scholarly debates in various disciplines, from social and economic history to archaeology and Roman law.

The conference is part of the project “Land and Loyalty: the Politics of Land in the Late Roman World” — directed by Profs. Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner (Tübingen) and Carlos Machado (St Andrews). It aims to re-examine the links between land and power in the late Roman world in their legal, socio-economic, and material dimensions. By bringing together scholars from different disciplines and academic traditions, the project team will survey recent academic developments and hope to establish a comprehensive, interdisciplinary framework for understanding land ownership in the period between 300 and 600 CE.

The following questions are of particular interest:

* How was land and its ownership conceptualized in legal and moral terms, and how did this change at a time when the very sources of law were redefined?
* What were the impacts of political and demographic changes on the sociology of landownership?
* How was land managed and exploited, and how did changes to this landscape of property impact wider late antique populations?

Confirmed speakers include Paul Du Plessis, Pierfrancesco Porena, Simona Tarozzi, John Weisweiler. We are particularly keen on papers by early career scholars working on related topics.

The conference will take place in Tübingen, Germany, between June 29 and July 1, 2026. Conference language will be English. Travel and accommodation for speakers will be covered. The papers presented at the conference will be considered for inclusion in an edited volume that aims to map the state of the art in this field.

Submit proposals of ~200 words, with a one-page CV and an academic link if available, to Dr Giordana Franceschini ([email protected]) by 11 January 2026.

View on the Land and Loyalty site:

Tübingen, June 29 to July 1, 2026 Codex Justiniani I-IX cm glosa Franciscus Accursius, Guido de Suzaria, Guillelmus de Ferreriis, Petrus de Ferreriis, Petrus de Cerveriis (BHSL.HS.0021) Land and l…

25/11/2025

: "Reforming Justinian’s empire: The praetorian prefect John the Cappadocian"
Giordana Franceschini (Tübingen)

🗓️ 28 November, 4:15pm
📍Room SO3, Swallowgate
💻 Teams (email [email protected], and put “subscribe classics-ressem” in subject)

10/11/2025

Join us for our Annual lecture this Friday!

"Mary of Egypt: Gender, sanctity and landscape"
Speaker: Leslie Brubaker (Birmingham)

🗓️ 14 November
⏰ 4.15pm
📍 Hybrid: Room SO3 Swallowgate, or Teams

(To get the Teams meeting link: email [email protected], and put “subscribe classics-ressem” in the subject)

01/11/2025

SAIMS seminar: "‘East’ and ‘West’ in the Middle Ages"
Speaker: Robert Bartlett (St Andrews)

📆 Monday 3 November, ⏰ 5:15pm
📍 Parliament Hall, St Andrews

View all SAIMS seminars: https://saims.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/seminars-2

06/10/2025

"Adomnán mac Ronáin, Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan and a Tale of Two Synods?"
Alex Woolf (St Andrews)

CLAS
📆Wednesday 8 October ⏰4pm
📍Hybrid: Room S4 Swallowgate/Teams

👉For meeting link, email A. Sophie Schoess ([email protected]) or Anna Kelley ([email protected]).

26/09/2025

Save the dates!

Our CLAS team has been busy putting together our seminar series for the semester and identifying a few other events around St Andrews that might be of interest to members. They’ve included some that might fall outside the late-antique timeframe, but might still be of thematic interest.

If you’d like to attend the CLAS lunch on 10 October (12.30–2pm in the Undercroft), please send your RSVP with any dietary requirements to Sophie ([email protected]) by Thursday 2 October.

**Schedule**
📆Monday, 29 September 2025, 5.15pm — Parliament Hall
Simon Maclean (St Andrews): ‘Worrying about queenship in the Carolingian Life of Empress Helena‘
(Part of the SAIMS lecture series)

📆Monday, 6 October 2025, 5.15pm — Parliament Hall
John Arnold (Cambridge): ‘Firmiter credimus: The Changing Dynamics of Lay Belief‘
(Part of the SAIMS lecture series)

📆Wednesday, 8 October 2025, 4pm — Hybrid: Room S4 Swallowgate/ Teams
Alex Woolf (St Andrews): ‘Adomnán mac Ronáin, Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan and a Tale of Two Synods?‘
(CLAS Seminar)

📆Friday, 10 October 2025, 12.30–2 — CLAS lunch
The lunch will be an in-person event, hosted in the Undercroft. Please RSVP with any dietary requirements to Sophie ([email protected]) by Thursday 2 October.

📆Wednesday, 15 October 2025, 4pm — Teams
Anna Athanasopoulou (Ghent University): ‘Chromatic reverberations: the prismatic ecology of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca‘
(CLAS Seminar)

📆Thursday, 30 October 2025, 5.30pm — Old Class Library, St John’s House 65-71 South Street
Brigid Ehrmantraut (St Andrews): ‘Battle Spirits and Evil Omens: Writing about Civil War with Lucan in Fourteenth-Century Ireland’
(ISHR seminar)

The paper is followed by a book launch celebration for Brigid’s new book, Classical Myth in Medieval Ireland (Boydell & Brewer, 2025).

📆Monday, 3 November 2025, 5.15pm — Parliament Hall
Robert Bartlett (St Andrews): ‘East’ and ‘West’ in the Middle Ages
(Part of the SAIMS lecture series)

📆Monday, 17 November 2025, 5.15pm — Parliament Hall
Simon Parsons (Bristol): ‘The Social Function of the Twelfth-Century Crusade Epic‘
(Part of the SAIMS lecture series)

📆Friday, 14 November 2025, 4.15pm – Hybrid: Room SO3 Swallowgate/Teams
Leslie Brubaker (Birmingham): ‘Mary of Egypt: Gender, sanctity and landscape’
(Annual Lecture for the Centre for Late Antique Studies / School of Classics Seminar)

📆Friday, 28 November 2025, 4.15pm – Hybrid: Room SO3 Swallowgate/Teams
Giordana Franceschini (Tübingen): ‘Reforming Justinian’s empire: The praetorian prefect John the Cappadocian’
(School of Classics Seminar)
All queries about this seminar should go to Talitha Kearey, [email protected].

📆Thursday, 4 December 2025, 4pm — Hybrid: Room S4 Swallowgate/ Teams
Susanna Elm (UC Berkeley): TBC.
(CLAS Seminar)

https://late-antiquity.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/