Rhodes, a large island in the southeast Aegean, was an important centre of learning in the ancient Mediterranean (ca. 200 BC–AD 100). The island was a naval power, a hub for international trading and banking, and a centre for learning for Greek and Roman elites. Its location made the island a meeting point of trade routes and lines of communication. It gained an international reputation for its art (particularly its sculpture), civic institutions, philosophers, scholars, rhetoric, and its outstanding wealth and beauty.
Rhodes was an area of cultural cross-fertilization and a unique venue where long-established disciplines (such as philosophy, rhetoric, and philology) blended together. A long list of intellectuals in every field are known to have worked there; all the philosophical disciplines were present, the rhetorical schools created a distinctive mix of Attic and Asianic oratory, and pioneering developments in science and engineering were made. Rhodian scholarship also had a major impact on the development of Roman culture: famous Latin authors such as Cicero, Caesar, Brutus, and Vitruvius cited and used the works of Rhodian antecedents.
This talk will use literary, archaeological, and epigraphic evidence to demonstrate the intellectual climate on the island during this period, show how Rhodes was a finishing school for Greeks and Romans, and outline its role in the development of Graeco-Roman culture.
Speaker
Dr. Thomas R. P. COWARD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Naples
ZOOM Meeting ID: 990 8868 4183
Meeting link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/99088684183