Stéphane Benoist
Stéphane Benoist is a professor in Roman History at the University of Lille, HALMA (History, Archaeology, Literature of Ancient Worlds — UMR 8164, Univ. Lille, CNRS, French Ministry of Culture) and a visiting fellow at the MfO and Brasenose College during Trinity Term 2023.
His main subjects of research are the Roman imperial power and its representations from the 1st century BCE to the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century CE, the notion of Political and Social Identities, Time and Space in the city of Rome, Imperial Epigraphy (titulatures, erased inscriptions), and in the perspective of his present research program ‘Politics in Ancient Rome: Thought, practices and representations front the 2nd c. BCE to the 4th c. CE’, the Political philosophy and Ideology (Imperial discourse, Stoicism). He is working on a European Project named FeelCom — ‘To Feel Part of a Community: The Uniting Force in the Roman Empire as a ‘Republic’’
He has published widely on imperial power, political discourses and memory, festivals and ceremonies in the city of Rome: La Fête à Rome au premier siècle de l’Empire. Recherches sur l’univers festif sous les règnes d’Auguste et des Julio-Claudiens, “collection Latomus” n° 248, Bruxelles, 1999; Rome, le prince et la Cité. Pouvoir impérial et cérémonies publiques (Ier siècle av. – début du IVe siècle ap. J.-C.), “collection Le Nœud Gordien”, Puf, Paris, 2005; Rome. Des origines au VIe siècle de notre ère, “Une histoire personnelle”, Puf, Paris, 2016 and Le pouvoir à Rome : espace, temps, figures (Ier s. av. – IVe s. de notre ère), douze variations (scripta varia 1), CNRS Éditions, Paris, 2020. A volume of other papers is to be published next year in English: The Emperor at Rome from Augustus to Constantine. Festivals, Ceremonies, and Imperial discourse (scripta varia 2).
He organizes three public events during this term: —firstly, two lectures by Oxonian colleagues: on Friday 28 April at 5pm Beate Dignas (Somerville College) about ‘Aristotle’s attempt to ‘heroize’ Hermias of Atarneus’ and on Friday 5 May at 5pm Nicholas Purcell (Brasenose College) about ‘Deserting Rome: a history through crime and punishment’ at the MfO; —secondly, a day-conference: on Friday 26 May from 9am to 6 pm at about ‘Performativity, Ancient discourse and Roman Imperial Res publica’, he will convene with Nicholas Purcell (Brasenose College).
