DANIEL PETER SOLOMON

daniel.p.solomon@vanderbilt.edu

Senior Lecturer, Department of Classical Studies

 PhD, Classical Philology. Yale University. 1998.

BA, Literae Humaniores (Classical Literature and History). Christ Church, Oxford University. 1991.

I joined the Vanderbilt Department of Classical Studies in August 1998, after completing my doctoral dissertation on "Lucretius and the Deception of Rome: an Adaptation of Epicurean Epistemology." The original plan was to stay for a year or two and seek a tenure-track appointment elsewhere. But the exciting challenges and responsibilities of my position, the energy and enthusiasm of our students, and especially the warmth and support of my classicist colleagues, have all persuaded me to stay right where I am.

As Senior Lecturer in the Department, I supervise our Latin language program, while teaching a variety of Latin courses from introductory through graduate seminars, as well as larger lecture courses on Roman and Greek Civilization. I recently added an Intensive "refresher" course that takes students from pronunciation on the first day to Cicero's "First Catilinarian" speech by the last. As a result we now have between 60 and 70 undergraduates passing through our Introductory Latin sequence each Fall. My primary responsibility to the Department is the close supervision of our graduate student teachers, each of whom teaches at least one section of Latin while completing their Masters degree. In addition, I am building bridges with local Latin teachers at the Secondary level though the Tennessee Foreign Language Teachers Association, and with Vanderbilt foreign language teachers by serving on the Committee for Second Language Acquisition.

My research interests are wide-ranging, focusing in particular on literature and society of Late Republican/Early Imperial Rome; literature and society of 5th/4th century Athens; Epicureanism in Greece and Italy; and issues in Latin language pedagogy. I have taught advanced Latin classes on "Roman Letters"; "The lyric poetry of Catullus and Horace"; "Lucretius"; a graduate seminar on "Horace"; and individual directed studies on "Catullus" and "Roman philosophical literature." At the moment I am developing for publication a reinterpratation of the didactic strategy advanced by the poet Lucretius. Appended below is a list of papers, publications, and awards, which should give a broader picture of my priorities and approaches.

I grew up in Italy, where I developed my twin passions for soccer and classics. I am indebted both to Vanderbilt and to the Nashville Soccer Association for allowing me to pursue both, and I am always eager to share my enthusiasm with any unsuspecting student or colleague passing by my office door. No appointment necessary; just come on by to Furman 327, and if the door is open, the Doctor is in!

 

 

 

PAPERS PRESENTED:

"Superstitious 'Addition of Opinion' in Lucretius, 2. 598-660." Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, January 2-5, 2004.

"Ides of March." Address and discussion as part of Carmichael Towers lecture series. Vanderbilt University. March 20, 2003.

"Popular Perceptions of Roman Republic and Empire." Annual Meeting of the Tennessee Foreign Language Teachers Association, November 1-2, 2002.

"The Sound of Silence: Pleasure, Pain, and the Weather in the De Rerum Natura." Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, January 3-7, 2001.

"Carpe Diem: a Reassessment of the Epicurean 'Good Life' in Horace, Odes, 1.11." "Latin Day" lecture to Secondary School students from throughout the Southeast. Vanderbilt University, October 17, 1998.

"Horace the Fair Weather Epicurean in Sat., 1.5." Conference on "Intertextuality in the Ancient World." Yale University, April 11-12, 1998.

"Learning Latin in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura." Conference entitled "Compono: comparison and exchange in the Ancient Mediterranean World." SUNY, Buffalo, April 3-5, 1998.

"Insiders and Outsiders in Epicurean cult." Conference on "Greek Religion: Tradition and Transmission," University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, March 28, 1998.

Ho Nouthetetikos Tropos: Epicurus on Emotional Education." Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, December 27-30, 1997.

 

PUBLICATIONS:

"The Poetic 'Hodeporicum' of Flavio Cardinal Chigi's Mission to Paris in 1664: 'Iter Romam in Galliam ac Reditus,' in Humanistica Lovaniensia (forthcoming, December 2003)

Review of Schrijvers, P. H., Lucrèce et les Sciences de le Vie, Brill, 1999, in The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 37 (3), 2001

"Lucretius and the End of the World. Should We Care?," in Ancient Philosophy, 19 (1999).

 

HONORS:

Harriet S. Gilliam Award for Lecturer of the Year, 2000-01. Vanderbilt University

Alice Derby Lang Prize for best essay on ancient literature, 1998. Yale University

Whiting Dissertation Fellowship, 1997-1998.

Nominated for Yale University Prize Teaching Fellowship, 1997.

Berkeley, Biddle, Woolsey Grant, 1994. Yale University.

Oxford University Scholarship, 1989.

First Class, Honor Moderations, 1989. Oxford University.