The Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values were established as a biennial venue in which scholars could investigate the diverse aspects of Greek and Roman values. Each colloquium focuses on a single theme, which participants explore from various perspectives and disciplines. Since the first colloquium in Leiden (in 2000), a wide range of topics has been explored, including manliness, free speech, the spatial organization of value, badness, ‘others’, aesthetic value, the past, landscapes, competition, nighttime, and labor. All earlier colloquia have resulted in edited volumes published by Brill publishers (see list below).
The topic of the thirteenth colloquium, to be held at Leiden University, June 12-14, 2025, will
be: The Values of Language(s) in the Ancient World.
The poet Ennius used to say that he had three hearts, because he knew how to speak Greek,
Oscan, and Latin (Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 17.17.1)). Language is who we are and who we
want to be: this is true in ancient times as well as in the contemporary world. While language
as such is crucial for human communities to survive, language diversity can be a cause of
dispute: the story of the Tower of Bable has never lost its significance. In the ancient Greek
world, reflections on the nature and power of language can be found from the poems of Homer
and Hesiod onwards. Logos was one of the most prominent objects of research for the
presocratic philosophers, sophists, Plato, Aristotle, and Stoics; Greek and Roman grammarians,
rhetoricians, and critics thought about language as a system of signs, as a method of
communication, and as a tool for persuasion.
This conference will examine the ways in which Greeks and Romans valued language in
general, their own languages, and other languages. What values are connected with Greek and
Latin terms like λόγος, γλῶσσα, διάλεκτος, lingua, sermo, and oratio? How does language
acquire sociocultural value within specific Greek or Roman contexts? What are the values or
powers ascribed to language in general, to language diversity, and to specific languages?
Ancient and modern voices have tended to associate the Greek language with such values as
precision, euphony, and paideia; the Latin language in its turn has been thought to express order,
rationality, and monumentality. Such evaluations are now considered analytically flawed; but
the subjective connotations of languages do reveal how human beings understood and presented
themselves and others.
Lucretius famously complains about the poverty of the Latin language (patrii sermonis
egestas). How did Romans think about the language of the Greeks, and how did Greeks
evaluate Latin? What are some of the Greek and Roman prejudices about ‘barbarian’
languages? What policies were adopted to discourage the use of languages other than Greek or
Latin, such as Syrian, Hebrew or Etruscan? How did language values structure understandings
of racial and ethnic difference, of class difference, and of gender? In what circumstances was it
acceptable for Romans to speak Greek? Why was Latin sometimes considered to be a corrupt
form of Greek? What narratives were told about migrants who struggled to speak the language
of their hosts, or about people who were fluent in two or more languages, like Ennius? How did
anthropocentrism shape the understanding of language in the ancient world? Through these and
further questions the conference will examine how language and languages were valued in the
ancient Greek and Roman worlds.
Papers may address ancient perspectives on the languages of gods, human beings, animals, and
even nature. They may discuss the values of written, spoken and body languages, ancient
reflections on the nature, origins, and histories of languages, and ancient views on bilingualism,
multilingualism, language diversity, and hierarchies of languages or dialects. We are interested
in literary, philosophical, and rhetorical approaches to language, but also in ancient language
politics, including regulations for the use of language in contexts of law, education, religion,
migration, and administration.
‘The Values of Language(s)’ is a highly relevant topic in our contemporary society, in which
questions of languages are contested issues. Examples include the call for linguistic integration
and participation of minority groups and the (political and academic) debates about the use of
English at Dutch universities.
This conference will not only celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Penn-Leiden Colloquia on
Ancient Values, but also pay tribute to prof. Ineke Sluiter, co-founder (with Ralph Rosen) of
the Penn-Leiden Colloquia. Ineke Sluiter is co-organizer of many of the colloquia, co-editor of
many volumes, and one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient views on language.
We invite abstracts for papers (25 minutes + 10 minutes discussion) that address the values
ascribed to language(s) in the ancient world. We hope to bring together junior and senior
researchers in all areas of ancient world studies, including literature, philosophy, linguistics,
history, and visual and material culture, and hope to discover the significant points of
intersection and difference between these areas of focus.
Selected papers will be considered for publication by De Gruyter Brill. Those interested in
presenting a paper are requested to submit an abstract of 300 words (maximum) in English, as
email attachment, by 1 October 2024. Unfortunately, the organizers will probably not be able
to recompense travel expenses. They hope, but cannot promise to be able to offer some
assistance for accommodation.
Contact (please copy each with email correspondence):
Rita Copeland Casper de Jonge
rcopelan@sas.upenn.edu c.c.de.jonge@hum.leidenuniv.nl
2000: ‘Andreia’— Manliness and Courage in Classical Antiquity. (published in 2003, edd. Ralph Rosen and Ineke Sluiter).
2002: Free Speech in Classical Antiquity (2005, edd. Ineke Sluiter and Ralph Rosen).
2004: City, Countryside, and the Spatial Organization of Value in Classical Antiquity (2006, edd. Ralph Rosen and Ineke Sluiter).
2006: KAKOS: Badness and Anti-Values in Classical Antiquity (2008, edd. Ineke Sluiter and Ralph Rosen).
2008: Valuing Others in Classical Antiquity (2010, edd. Ralph Rosen and Ineke Sluiter).
2010: Aesthetic Value in Classical Antiquity (2012, edd. Ineke Sluiter and Ralph Rosen).
2012: Valuing the Past in the Greco-Roman World (2014, edd. James Ker and Christoph Pieper).
2014: Valuing Landscapes in Classical Antiquity (2016, edd. Jeremy McInerney and Ineke Sluiter).
2016: Eris vs. Aemulatio: Competition in Classical Antiquity (2018, edd. Cynthia Damon and Christoph Pieper).
2018: The Values of Nighttime in Classical Antiquity: Between Dawn and Dusk (2020, edd. James Ker and Antje Wessels).
2021: Valuing Labor in Antiquity (in preparation, edd. Miko Flohr and Kim Bowes)
2023: Meanings and Values of the Sacred in Greco-Roman Antiquity (in preparation, edd.
Kim Beerden, Jeremy McInerney, Irene Polinskaya)