Roman clothing in North Africa to be the topic of March 29 Moses Finley Memorial Lecture

Roman clothing in North Africa to be the topic ofMarch 29 Moses Finley Memorial LectureMarch 23, 2005Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

T. Corey Brennan, associate professor of classics at Rutgers University, will speak on Roman clothing in the second lecture of the semester in Syracuse University’s Finley Lecture Series, Tuesday, March 29 at 4:30 p.m., in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of the Hall of Languages.

The Finley Lecture Series is sponsored by the Program in Classics in The College of Arts and Sciences at SU; it is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the University’s visitor lots on Comstock and Waverly Avenues.

In an illustrated talk, Brennan will examine the symbolic importance that the toga had during the era of the high Roman empire in North African provincial cities such as Carthage, where the Punic and African background played a large role. Among other topics, Brennan will attempt to reconstruct the ideology of the toga-clad “effeminate” males, a group said to be prominent in Carthage; they were the object of violent polemic from Christian writers such as Tertullian (second/third century A.D.) and Salvian (fifth century A.D.).

Brennan holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University, a B.A. Hon. from Oxford University and a B.A. summa cum laude from The University of Pennsylvania in classics. His publications include “The Praetorship in the Roman Republic” (Oxford University Press, 2000) and numerous articles and reviews.

The Finley Lecture Series honors the memory of Sir Moses I. Finley. Finley, one of the most influential historians of the 20th century, enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a professor of ancient history and master of Darwin College at Cambridge University. He was a 1927 graduate of Syracuse University.