Did Josephus Write About Jesus? A Debate with Thomas C. Schmidt & Giovanni Bazzana
Harvard Classics Lectures
Did Josephus Write About Jesus? A Debate with Thomas C. Schmidt & Giovanni Bazzana
Moderated by Annette Yoshiko Reed
Special session of the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean Workshop
Monday April 6, 6pm-8pm
Center for the Study of World Religions Common Room, Harvard Divinity School
[event open to Harvard affiliates only; please RSVP to areed@hds.harvard.edu] / *Refreshments to be served, including kosher for Passover options*
Greek and other manuscripts of Flavius Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities famously include a brief reference to Jesus (18.3.3), commonly called the Testimonium Flavanium and traditionally treated as the oldest non-Christian references to Jesus (ca. 93/94 CE). Did a first-century Jewish historian really mention Jesus? Or was this passage inserted or shaped by later Christian scribes? In a recent book, Thomas Schmidt revisits the evidence of its reception and counters the prior scholarly consensus concerning its Christianized form to posit its authorship by Josephus. This…
Event contact to appear in listing: Annette Yoshiko Reed - areed@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, April 6, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
Center for the Study of World Religions Common Room
Harvard Divinity School, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge.
Margaret Andrews (Harvard University)
Solving a Problem like the Sabines in Mid-Republican Rome.
Event contact to appear in listing: Christopher Cochran (Christopher.Cochran@umb.edu).
Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM.
UMASS BOSTON, Integrated Science Center, 3rd floor, Room 3300.
Emily Greenwood (Harvard University, 2026 Sather Professor at UC Berkeley)
Thrice Removed: Black Classical Separation
Oblique Classicisms/Hidden Histories: The IGRCT Director's Annual Reception Series 2025/26
A new series dedicated to exploring emergent research at the intersections of antiquity and modernity
Classical Reception Studies is often centred on frontal forms of engagement, prioritising aspects of antiquity that more clearly and directly impact modernity. Indirect classical links and undercurrents are typically neglected since, arguably, their influence is much harder to spot. In this series, experts in Critical Classical Reception, Rhetoric, Music and Performance, and Comparative Literatures flip this approach on its head. Each talk will focus on twentieth- and twentieth and twenty-first-century receptions where connections with antiquity are indirect, tangential, tenuous, silent, distorted –even contactless, but nonetheless significant in shaping accounts of selfhood, the modern condition, creativity, race, sexuality, conflict, and the environment. Speakers will…
Event Series (if not listed): Oblique Classicisms/Hidden Histories: The IGRCT Director's Annual Reception Series 2025/26.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
Zoom.
For more info visit www.tickettailor.com. Claire Bubb (ISAW, NYU)
The John C. Rouman Classical Lecture Series
presents a free and public lecture | refreshments available following lecture
Diet as Medicine in Greco-Roman Antiquity, by Dr. Claire Bubb
Assoc Prof of Classical Literature and Science, ISAW, NYU
Visiting Assoc Prof of Classics, University of Southern California
Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 7:00PM-8:30PM, Hamilton Smith Hall, Room 210, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824
Livestream link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81546864248
The John C. Rouman Classical Lecture Series at the University of New Hampshire. Created in 1997 by the Christos and Mary Papoutsy Charitable Foundation, this extraordinary series of lectures and events continues to promote and enhance awareness of the Classics in New Hampshire. throughout New England, and beyond. Topics explored each year by the series will cover a range of subjects wthin Greco-Roman civilization including mythology,literature, history, philosophy, art and language, and will feature lectures delivered by…
Event contact to appear in listing: Lisa.hartford@unh.edu or Scott.Smith@unh.edu. Event Series (if not listed): The John C. Rouman Classical Lecture Series.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 | 7:00PM-8:30PM
Hamilton Smith Hall, Room 210
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
Durham, NH 03824.
For more info visit cola.unh.edu. Euripides' Medea, A New Translation by V. Sophie Klein
A new translation of Euripides' Medea by V. Sophie Klein (Boston University), directed by Christine Hamel, produced by the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theater.
Five performances:
4/9 ~ 7:30pm
4/10 ~ 7:30pm
4/11 ~ 2:00pm
4/11 ~ 7:30pm
4/12 ~ 2:00pm.
Event contact to appear in listing: sophiek@bu.edu.
Thursday, April 9, 2026, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY; COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF THEATER Studio One, 55 Comm. Ave. Boston MA.
For more info visit www.bu.edu. The Boston Area Roman Studies Conference
Hellenism & Greek Literature in the Roman Empire
Generous sponsorship provided by Boston University Center for the Humanities & the Department of Classical Studies.
Event contact to appear in listing: Steven Smith (sds74@bu.edu). Event Series: Boston Area Roman Studies Conference.
Friday, April 10, 2026, 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 745 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA. Room B19.
For more info visit www.bu.edu. Euripides' Medea, A New Translation by V. Sophie Klein
A new translation of Euripides' Medea by V. Sophie Klein (Boston University), directed by Christine Hamel, produced by the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theater.
Five performances:
4/9 ~ 7:30pm
4/10 ~ 7:30pm
4/11 ~ 2:00pm
4/11 ~ 7:30pm
4/12 ~ 2:00pm.
Event contact to appear in listing: sophiek@bu.edu.
Friday, April 10, 2026, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY; COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF THEATER Studio One, 55 Comm. Ave. Boston MA.
For more info visit www.bu.edu. Public Symposium: Celtic Art Up Close
This daylong symposium, featuring five guest speakers, will focus on some of the most intricately decorated objects included in the exhibition Celtic Art Across the Ages (March 6–August 2, 2026). The presenters will first take a close look at the objects, then explore such topics as their materials and making; contexts of use and deposition; actual and symbolic functions; and their roles in encounters between the Iron Age populations of western Europe and the Roman Empire. A roundtable discussion highlighting current approaches and new finds will close the symposium.
Session 1: 10:30am–12:30pm
Welcome and Introduction
Susanne Ebbinghaus, George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art, and Head, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums
Ode to the Humble Safety Pin: The Multivocality of Fibulae in Iron Age Europe
Bettina Arnold, Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Old Acquaintances in a New Light: Current Research on the Finds from “Princely” Tombs in the…
Saturday, April 11, 2026, 10:30 AM – 4:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, Lower Level, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit harvardartmuseums.org. Euripides' Medea, A New Translation by V. Sophie Klein
A new translation of Euripides' Medea by V. Sophie Klein (Boston University), directed by Christine Hamel, produced by the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theater.
Five performances:
4/9 ~ 7:30pm
4/10 ~ 7:30pm
4/11 ~ 2:00pm
4/11 ~ 7:30pm
4/12 ~ 2:00pm.
Event contact to appear in listing: sophiek@bu.edu.
Saturday, April 11, 2026, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY; COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF THEATER Studio One, 55 Comm. Ave. Boston MA.
For more info visit www.bu.edu. Euripides' Medea, A New Translation by V. Sophie Klein
A new translation of Euripides' Medea by V. Sophie Klein (Boston University), directed by Christine Hamel, produced by the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theater.
Five performances:
4/9 ~ 7:30pm
4/10 ~ 7:30pm
4/11 ~ 2:00pm
4/11 ~ 7:30pm
4/12 ~ 2:00pm.
Event contact to appear in listing: sophiek@bu.edu.
Sunday, April 12, 2026, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY; COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF THEATER Studio One, 55 Comm. Ave. Boston MA.
For more info visit www.bu.edu. Pádraic Moran (University of Galway)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"Unity in diversity? Connecting threads in a ninth-century scholar's notebook (the Reichenauer Schulheft)"
Three days of seminars April 13, 14 and 15.
Brought to you by the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, The Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities, The Mahindra Humanities Center and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies at Harvard.
Monday, April 13, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Kates Room, Warren House, 11 Prescott St, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit celtic.fas.harvard.edu. I-Kai Jeng (National Taiwan University / Harvard-Yenching Institute)
A Reading of Phaedrus's Speech in Plato's Symposium
Phaedrus's speech in the Symposium is often judged to be poor, excessively reliant on poetic authorities, and so evidently self-contradictory that it almost refutes itself. However, such a negative assessment falls short of fully explaining its role in the larger design of the dialogue. But in fact, that speech has more merits than is usually thought.
I first offer a close reading of Phaedrus's praise of Eros. To anticipate: Phaedrus sees a conflict between nomos and physis: nomos demands self-sacrifice, but our physis is to fear death and preserve life. Phaedrus suggests a resolution of this conflict by his speech, which, I argue, is an attempt to convince us that eros overcomes fear of death. His praise of Eros is ultimately a praise of rhetoric, which for him is perhaps the highest manifestation of human reason. I then explore the role his speech plays in the dialogue. To begin with, it establishes the polis as the fundamental background within which…
Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 745 Commonwealth Ave, School of Theology room 541 (5th floor).
Pádraic Moran (University of Galway)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"Reading Old Irish texts in the Reichenauer Schulheft"
Three days of seminars, April 13, 14, and 15.
Brought to you by the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, The Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities, The Mahindra Humanities Center and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies at Harvard.
Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Kates Room, Warren House, 11 Prescott St, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit celtic.fas.harvard.edu. Pádraic Moran (University of Galway)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"Greek in the Reichenauer Schulheft"
Three days of seminars, April 13, 14, and 15.
Brought to you by the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, The Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities, The Mahindra Humanities Center and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies at Harvard.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Kates Room, Warren House, 11 Prescott St, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit celtic.fas.harvard.edu. Brian Krostenko (University of Notre Dame)
TITLE TBD
Krostenko’s research centers on the culture and law of the Late Roman Republic, Cicero, rhetoric, and Latin linguistics. He is the author of Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance (Chicago, 2001), which discusses the problem of aestheticism in Roman culture by means of historical semantics. He is also the author of The Voices of the Consul: The Rhetorics of Cicero's de lege agraria I and II (Oxford, 2024), the first book-length study of the rhetoric of those speeches, which uses the techniques of discourse analysis to reveal how and why Cicero lays claim to contested political slogans and ideologies in the turbulent late Republic.
Thursday, April 16, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; LOCATION TBD.
Victor Caston (University of Michigan)
Idealism and Greek Philosophy: Appearance and Reality in Aristotle & Alexander of Aphrodisias
Victor Caston, University of Michigan
Myles Burnyeat famously claimed that idealism is “one of the very few major philosophical positions which did not receive its first formulation in antiquity” and so Bishop Berkeley was wrong to find his own views in Plato and Aristotle. But this is mistaken. Aristotle attacks idealism in Metaphysics Gamma 6: those who accept Protagoras’ homomensura, that “man is the measure of all things,” he claims, make all things relative, because anything that appears appears to a subject. His arguments presuppose not just the Measure Doctrine – that anything that appears to someone is (exists, is the case) – but its converse as well, that anything that is (exists, is the case) appears to someone. Protagoras’ homomensura is often assumed to involve both directions. But the Converse Measure Doctrine is much more radical, for it implies that nothing can be (exist, be the case) unless it…
Friday, April 17, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Emerson Hall Rm. 305.
Rebecca Moorman (Boston University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
Event Series: Methods and Practice in Classics Workshop.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Boylston 237, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA.
"Rediscovering the Discovery: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Their First Audience" - Prof. Alex Jassen (NYU)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"Rediscovering the Discovery: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Their First Audience"
The Dead Sea Scrolls have been described as the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times. This presentation examines the first public exhibition of the scrolls in 1949 as a case study into how scholars, journalists, and public figures taught the world about the scrolls in the early years after their discovery. The Library of Congress exhibit “Ancient Hebrew Scrolls” showcased three scrolls. The impact of this event on public excitement about the scrolls cannot be overstated. The scrolls were brought to Washington D.C. under the protection of the Secret Service. Extended hours accommodated the overwhelming interest as thousands of guests visited over two weeks. The world’s most famous Bible scholar, William F. Albright, gave an opening night lecture to a packed audience in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. Paramount News and Fox Movietone News sent crews to document the opening night and these newsreels played in theaters and h…
Event Series: Ancient Studies at Harvard Visitors Series.
Wednesday, April 22, 2026, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
Sever Hall 103
Quincy Street, Cambridge MA.
Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture, David G. Wigg-Wolf (Leicester University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture: "Gods? Beasts? Warriors? Interpreting the Imagery of Celtic Coinages"
Speaker:
David G. Wigg-Wolf, Honorary Professor, Leicester University
Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is encouraged. Register here.
Celtic coins present a remarkable world of varied, often fantastic images. The earliest coinages were generally close copies of Hellenistic coins from the Mediterranean world, but gradually they developed a distinct visual language. Elements of the original prototypes were adapted or became disjointed; because these were combined with new elements, the resulting designs can be difficult to understand today. Different regions also followed different iconographical traditions, leading to a wide variety of designs. In a later phase, the arrival of Rome on the political stage led to the re-appearance of coinages with a classical look, particularly in Britain. In this lecture, David G. Wigg-Wolf, of Leicester University, will trace the iconography…
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit harvardartmuseums.org. Conference—Past and Present: Cultural Politics in Byzantium and Beyond
Harvard Classics Lectures
TBD.
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: roilos@fas.harvard.edu.
Friday, May 1, 2026 – Saturday, May 2, 2026.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge MA.
CANCELLED - Brettman Memorial Lecture Reception: Jacopo Tabolli (Università per Stranieri di Siena)
...But the Past: When Everything Changes in the New Discoveries of Bronzes at San Casciano dei Bagni
Jacopo Tabolli is associate professor of pre-Roman Archeology and Etruscology at the Università per Stranieri di Siena and director of the Center of Archeology for Diversity and Mobility in Pre-Roman Italy. Jacopo—who currently directs the archeological excavations at San Casciano dei Bagni and at Isola del Giglio, both in Italy, as well as the excavation at the tumulus of Laona in Palaepaphos, Cyprus—delivers this year’s Estelle Shohet Brettman Memorial Lecture, titled "...But the Past: When Everything Changes in the New Discoveries of Bronzes at San Casciano dei Bagni.".
Event contact to appear in listing: A.
Saturday, May 9, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
For more info visit www.mfa.org.