Connections in the ancient Mediterranean world

At City Lit

Connections in the ancient Mediterranean world

A stimulating day of lectures about the connections that existed around the Mediterranean in the ancient world.

At City Lit

Lectures and Seminars
at City Lit and online

City Lit will host talks, lectures and seminars at our Keeley Street all throughout the week.

Hugo Cook

Hieroglyphs: the most important invention ever?

Szerdi Nagy

The concept of Aethiopiopia in Classical literature

Roberta Marin

Communication and trading routes between the Mediterranean and Asia.

Judith Rice

Virgil's Aeneid: Connections through time and space.

Michael Bloomfield

Colosseum, Hub of Empire: Connectivity with Ambition and Addictive Appeal. 

Lecture 

Art and iconography on the ancient proto-Silk Road

Come and discover how art and iconography were used to share thoughts and ideas between very far-off cultures.

Lecture

From Marco Polo to Ibn Battuta. The travellers and explorers that have changed the perception of Asia

Find out more about travellers from the ancient world whose actions and writings helped creating closer ties between distant lands.

Lecture

From mythical heroines to the emperor's subjects: epistolography in the Roman Empire 

Discover the link between the riches coming from Persia and democracy in Athens.

Lecture

Interactions between the Mediterranean world and Anglo-Saxon England

This talk will explore some of the connections which maintained the Anglo-Saxons' feeling that Rome was part of their heritage.

Lecture

Greek philosophy: the late ancient period

The ‘mystical’ philosophy of Plotinus was key to the transition from ancient Greek to early Christian thought. This period gave rise to both modern esotericism and Christian theology. What ideas connect them?

Lecture

A culture of luxury: ancient China and modern fantasies

Explore the material culture of imperial China and its influence on modern and contemporary visual cultures.

Lecture

Ancient Beauty – Modern Stories: Helen from Homer to Modern Film and Literature

Come and discover how Helen has been represented in both books and films.

Lecture

Power, Allegory and and Resistance: Iranian Cinema in the Last Years of the Shah

This course will examine the context of 1970s Iranian cinema, in which a New Wave movement emerged under the brutal, autocratic regime of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. 

Lecture

Bathing and washing in ancient Rome

Find out more about the washing and toilet habits that were common in ancient Rome.

Lecture

Disastrous wealth: resources waste and sustainability in ancient Greek Drama

How would ancient Greece fare if we were to compare it to today's standards? Come and find out in this fascinating session.

Lecture

The enduring fascination of Medea: adapting Euripides for the modern stage

Euripides’ Medea has fascinated audiences for centuries, its tragic action confronting spectators with scenarios almost too terrible to contemplate. Successive generations have adapted the play for their own times, ensuring its place in theatrical repertoires and the cultural consciousness. 

Lecture

Showing the goods: luxury in Greek vascular painting

A the saying goes, “what’s the point of being rich if you cannot brag about it?”; well, the Ancient Greeks were masters at this art to the point of depicting it in plain sight across their vases and vessels. Let us look through this kaleidoscope into the lives of Athenian well-to-dos to see what form their wealth assumed and how its depiction became a synonym for luxury across the Mare Nostrum.