Athens, Ga. – Erich Gruen, Gladys Rehard Wood Professor Emeritus of History and Classics at the University of California at Berkeley, will present a lecture on Monday, Sept. 10, at 4:40 p.m. in room 250 of the University of Georgia Student Learning Center. The event is open free to the public and will be followed by a reception.
Gruen’s lecture, “The Seeds of the Great Rebellion: Anti-Semitism, Roman Repression, Jewish Recalcitrance or None of the Above?,” addresses the question of why, after the Jewish revolt against Roman rule in 66 C.E., the Romans used such extreme punitive measures against the Jews, in view of their previous relations with them.It includes an examination of attitudes toward the Jews in Juvenal, Tacitus and other Latin authors.
Gruen is the author of 10 books, including Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of the Jewish Tradition and Diaspora: Jews amidst Greeks and Romans. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards over his many years of scholarship. He has taught at Harvard, Oxford and Princeton, as well as at Berkeley, where he started and for many years directed the doctoral program in ancient history and Mediterranean studies.
“This event should appeal to faculty, grad students and undergrads in classics and in religion, as well as anyone interested in religious tensions in the first century C.E.,” said Nancy Felson, professor of classics and an organizer of the event.
The lecture is sponsored by the classics department, the Jewish studies area in the department of religion and the Willson Center for the Arts and the Humanities.
