For Assistant Professor of Classics Randall McNeill it was a visit to the Art Institute in his native Chicago as an eight-year-old to see an exhibition of artifacts from the unfortunate city of Pompeii that first sparked his interest in the ancient world. Remnants of walls covered with graffiti revealed the similarities between the interests of the ancient Romans and those of contemporary society -- from political statements to love notes -- and made a powerful and lasting impression.
A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University with a degree in classics, McNeill earned the Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in classics from Yale University before joining the Lawrence faculty in 1999.
His research and professional interests focus on Latin poetry and Roman history. First among his favorites is the poet Horace, about whom he has written frequently. Earlier this year McNeill contributed the article "So How Was the Dinner? The Anxiety of Exclusion in Horace Satires 2.8" to the festschrift Essays in Honor of Gordon Williams.
He has also completed his first book, Horace: Image, Identity, and Audience, which was published in June by John Hopkins University. The book is a literary study of the techniques Horace used to depict the intricacies of his personal existence. In it, McNeill also examines how similar techniques influenced, and were adapted by, many later Roman poets, including Ovid. One reviewer hailed McNeill's analytical approach as "new and useful."
He carries his interest in Roman poetry into the classroom as well, where he teaches a course on the works of Horace and Catullus and has led a tutorial on Virgil's poetic technique. This past year he also taught a tutorial on the Emperor Augustus' use of propaganda -- in literature, artwork, coins, and public spectacles -- to convey a feeling of "a new golden age."
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