DAY TWO: Medicine and the Law under the Roman Empire: Professionalism, Intellectual Pursuit, Entertainment, and Socio-Political Competition

Ancient Roman medicine and ancient Roman law have traditionally been viewed by scholars as highly specialized and are, therefore, often studied in isolation. This conference will juxtapose the two fields and place them, as a pair, back into their wider ancient context. The first day of the conference will delimit this wider context, probing the topics of competition, rhetoric, professionalism, and literature in the period of the Roman Empire. The second day will highlight the uniquely interesting affinities between the fields, which are nevertheless squarely apiece with the trends of their time. The panels will explore the rhetoric that imbued both the written and the performative aspects of each field; their literatures, which, though technical in subject, nevertheless performed similar tasks for their authors that the more traditional genres of literature did; and the pragmatic, performative natures of both—in the law courts, at the bedside, and in public fora for debate—a dimension of these two fields that other literatures do not possess to the same degree. Finally, the day will close with a consideration of ancient philosophy and the degree to which it shares, and can illuminate, all these aspects of law and medicine. In short, the conference aims to open a new window into our understanding of intellectual life, writ large, in ancient Rome.

PROGRAM - DAY 2 - October 4, 2019
ISAW Lecture Hall
9:00am-5:15pm

Undercutting the Subject-Matter? The Rhetorical Side of These Technical Literatures

9:00am: Rhetoric in Legal Writing: The Ethos and the Pathos of Roman Jurists
Ulrike Babusiaux (Universität Zürich)

9:30am: Rhetoric in Medical Writing: Artistic Prose?
Caroline Petit (Warwick University)

10:00am: Response
Joseph Howley (Columbia University)

10:20am: Discussion

10:45am: Break 

Over-Shooting the Subject-Matter? Non-Pragmatic Aspects of the Literatures

11:00am: Juristic Literature and the Law: Competition and Cooperation
Bruce Frier (University of Michigan)

11:30am: Medical Literature and Medicine: Aspects of the Literature that Go Beyond the Practical
Claire Bubb (ISAW, NYU)

12:00pm: Response
Roger Bagnall (ISAW, NYU)

12:25pm: Discussion

12:45pm: Lunch Break

Selling the Subject-Matter? Competitive Display and Public Entertainment

2:00pm: Law as Performance: Performative Aspects of the Legal Process in Roman Courts
Anna Dolganov (Universität Wien)

2:30pm: Medicine as Performance: Eristic and Erudition, Galen on Erasistratus and the Arteries
Luis Salas (Washington University, St. Louis)

3:00pm: Response
Kendra Eshleman (Boston College)

3:25pm: Discussion 

3:45pm: Break 

Comparative Capstone

4:15pm: How does Philosophy Compare?
Michael Trapp (King’s College London)

4:40pm: Concluding Discussion

The conference is co-sponsored by ISAW and the NYU Department of Classics.

Registration is required at isaw.nyu.edu/rsvp

Please check isaw.nyu.edu for event updates.

Please note that separate registration is required for Day 1 (October 3rd) and Day 2 (October 4th). Also, please note that Day 1 takes place at the NYU Kimmel/Global Center and Day 2 takes place at ISAW. Access to the NYU Kimmel/Global Center requires an NYU ID card or a government-issued photo ID.

ISAW is committed to providing a positive and educational experience for all guests and participants who attend our public programming. We ask that all attendees follow the guidelines listed in our community standards policy.