Numbers and Numeracy in Classical Greece - 02-03-04/09/2016, Leiden (Netherlands)
Numbers, quantification, and calculation are ubiquitous in the historical record of Classical Greece and exhibit a range of ideological and communicative meanings. This conference will bring together the growing number of scholars working on numbers in contexts of mass communication – both real (inscriptions, oratory, drama) and imagined (e.g. speeches in historiographical contexts), and those working on ancient numeracy. Our aim will be to explore the ideological meanings and communicative functions of numbers in classical Greece, and democratic Athens in particular:
- What communicative situation and communicative relationship does the use of numbers presuppose?
- What is the relationship between the presentation of numbers (whether as quantification or calculation) and their communicative function? Is the communication purely ‘utilitarian’ or are other values such as accountability, transparency, expertise, or objectivity being communicated?
- What is the relationship between the mass communication of numbers and numerical calculation in daily life (e.g. economic exchange, political organisation)?
Confirmed speakers include Serafina Cuomo (Birkbeck, London), Stephen Johnstone (University of Arizona), Lisa Kallet (Oxford), Athena Kirk (Cornell), Stephen Lambert (Cardiff), Robin Osborne (Cambridge), Catherine Rubincam (Toronto), and Richard Seaford (Exeter).
FECHA /DATE/DATA: 02-03-04/09/2016
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Universiteit Leiden
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Robert Sing (University of Cambridge); Tazuko van Berkel (University of Leiden)
INFO: rjs234@cam.ac.uk T.A.van.berkel@leiden.hum.leidenuniv.nl
INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE: online
PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA:
Friday, 2nd September - Gravensteen Building
09:30 - 10:00 Registration & Refreshments
10:00 - 10:15 Tazuko van Berkel & Robert SingOpening Remarks
Session 1: Law and Epigraphy I
10:15 - 11:00 Lisa Kallet - A Counting People: Valuing Numeracy in Democratic Athens
11:0 - 11:45 Steven Johnstone - Punishing and Valuing in Ancient Greek Laws
11:45 - 13:00 Lunch
Session 2: Law and Epigraphy II
13:00 - 13:45 Robin Osborne - The Appearance of Numbers
13:45 - 14:30 Athena Kirk - Counting the Infinite in Homer and Attic Inventories
14:30 - 15:00 Afternoon Tea
Session 3: Oratory
15:00 - 15:45 Robert Sing - Numbers in the Inheritance Lawsuits of Lysias
15:45 - 16:30 Elisabete Cação - Demosthenes' Proposals in the First Philippic: Political Numeracy
Keynote
17:00 - 18:00S erafina Cuomo - Numbers, Numeracy and Democracy
18:00 Drinks Reception
20:00 Conference Dinner at Porto Pino restaurant - tickets on sale throughout the day
Saturday, 3rd September - Lipsius Building
Session 4: Literature
09:00 - 09:45 Kai Brodersen - Jokes on Numbers and Numeracy in the Philogelos
09:45 - 10:30 Richard Seaford - On the Metaphysics of the Number in the Archaic and Classical polis
10:30 - 11:00 Morning Tea
Session 5: Counting and Accounting
11:00 - 11:45 Daniel Sicka - Creative Accounting? Strategies of Enumeration in Epinician Texts
11:45 - 12:30 Tazuko van Berkel - The Act and Agency of Counting
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
Session 6: Historiography
13:30 - 14:15 Catherine Rubincam - Numeric Communication in the Greek Historians: Quantification and Qualification
14:15 - 15:00 Valeria Sergueenkova - Seeing Numbers in Herodotus' Histories
15:00 - 15:30 Afternoon Tea
Session 7: Philosophy and Mathematics
15:30 - 16:15 Eunsoo Lee - Ancient Greek Geometry without Numbers: Ambivalent Value in Numbers in Classical Greece
16:15 - 17:00 Florin Calian - From one to One: Plato and the Origin of Numbers
17:00 - 17:15 Tazuko van Berkel & Robert Sing - Concluding Remarks