Neil Bernstein

Neil Bernstein, portrait
Professor
Ellis 243, Athens Campus
Classics and Religious Studies
email address bernsten@ohio.edu
phone number 740-597-2107

Ohio University faculty member since 2004

Recent News (opens in a new window)

Education

2000 Duke University. Ph.D., Classical Studies.

1994 Amherst College. B.A. summa cum laude, Classics and English.

Research Interests

  • Roman epic, drama, and rhetoric
  • Kinship in Roman literature
  • Digital analysis of classical literature
  • Reception of classical literature

Courses Taught

  • CARS 2110 Rome Under the Caesars
  • CARS 2300 Heroes in Classical Literature
  • CARS 2310 Classical Mythology
  • Greek
  • Latin

Awards and Honors

Professional Experience

Research and Publications

Solo-authored Books

Poppaea Sabina: The Life and Afterlife of A Roman Empress. Under contract for Women in Antiquity (opens in a new window) series. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The Complete Works of Claudian. Translated with an Introduction and Notes. London: Routledge, 2023. ISBN 9781032416786 (opens in a new window).

Silius Italicus, Punica 9. Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. ISBN 9780198838166 (opens in a new window).

Seneca: Hercules Furens. Bloomsbury Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. xv + 151 pp. ISBN 9781474254922 (opens in a new window).

Silius Italicus, Punica 2. Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. liv + 318 pp. ISBN 9780198747864 (opens in a new window).

Ethics, Identity, and Community in Later Roman Declamation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. x + 229 pp. ISBN 978-0199964116 (opens in a new window).

  • Reviews: Classical Philology 112.1 (2017) 108-111; Bollettino di Studi Latini 45 (2015) 607-609; Classical World 108.2 (2015) 306-307; Mnemosyne 68.3 (2015) 524-527; Sehepunkte 15.4 (2015); Classical Journal Online 2014.12.01 (opens in a new window); Greece & Rome 61.2 (2014) 281-282.

In the Image of the Ancestors: Narratives of Kinship in Flavian Epic. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. ix + 281 pp. ISBN 978-0802098795 (opens in a new window).

Co-authored Books and Journals

A Commentary on Seneca: Hercules Furens. Co-edited with Christopher Francese, Kyle Gervais, et al. Dickinson College Commentaries (opens in a new window), 2022.

Silius Italicus’ Punica: Rome’s War With Hannibal. Translated with Antony Augoustakis. London: Routledge, 2021. ISBN 9781138291454 (opens in a new window).

Digital Methods and Classical Studies. Co-edited with Neil Coffee. Digital Humanities Quarterly 10.2 (opens in a new window) (2016).

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

“The siege of Amida and epic tradition: Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 19.1-9.” Mnemosyne (opens in a new window) 72.6 (2019) 994-1012.

“Nec tibi sufficiat transmissae gloria uitae: otium and ambition from Statius to Ennodius.” Classical Journal 115.1 (2019) 63-85.

“Light on the water in Silius Italicus' Punica and Claudian's De Raptu Proserpinae.” Mnemosyne 69 (2016) 1050-1057. Preview. (opens in a new window)

“Introduction: Digital Methods and Classical Studies (opens in a new window).” Co-authored with Neil Coffee. Digital Humanities Quarterly 10.2 (2016).

“Rome’s Arms and Breast: Claudian Panegyricus Dictus Olybrio et Probino Consulibus 83- 90 and its Tradition.” Classical Quarterly 66.1 (2016) 417-419 (opens in a new window).

“Comparative rates of text reuse in classical Latin hexameter poetry (opens in a new window).” Co-authored with Kyle Gervais and Wei Lin. Digital Humanities Quarterly 9.3 (2015).

“‘Torture her until she lies’: Torture, Testimony, and Social Status in Roman Rhetorical Education.” Greece & Rome 59.2 (2012) 165-177 (opens in a new window).

“Adoptees and Exposed Children in Roman Declamation: Commodification, Luxury, and the Threat of Violence.” Classical Philology 104.3 (2009) 331-353 (opens in a new window).

“The white doe of Capua (Silius Italicus, Punica 13.115-137).” Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity 18 (2009) 89-106.

“Each Man’s Father Served as His Teacher: Constructing Relatedness in Pliny’s Letters.” Classical Antiquity 27.2 (2008) 203-230. (opens in a new window)

“Bodies, substances, and kinship in Roman declamation: The sick twins and their parents in Pseudo-Quintilian Major Declamations 8.” Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature 36.2 (2007) 118-142.

“Fashioning Crispinus through his Ancestors: Epic Models in Statius, Silvae 5.2.” Arethusa 40.2 (2007) 183-196. (opens in a new window)

“Mourning the puer delicatus: Status Inconsistency and the Ethical Value of Fostering in Statius, Silvae 2.1.” American Journal of Philology 126.2 (2005) 257-280. (opens in a new window)

“Auferte oculos: modes of spectatorship in Statius Thebaid 11.” Phoenix: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 58.1-2 (2004) 62-85 [PDF] (opens in a new window). Reprinted in: Flavian Epic (opens in a new window). Oxford Readings, ed. Antony Augoustakis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 234-261.

“Revisiting Ovid’s Philomela: Silence, Revenge, and Representation in André Brink’s The Other Side of Silence.” Classical and Modern Literature 24.2 (2004) 11-27.

“Ancestors, status, and self-presentation in Statius’ Thebaid.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 133 (2003) 353-379. [PDF] (opens in a new window)

“The Text of Pervigilium Veneris 90: A Proposed Emendation.” Classical Quarterly 50.1 (2000) 327-329. [PDF] (opens in a new window) Co-authored with Francis Newton.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

“Literary Patronage and the Roman Imperial Court from Augustus to the Severan Dynasty.” In: The Roman Emperor and His Court c. 30 BC–c. AD 300. Volume 1: Historical Essays (opens in a new window), ed. Benjamin Kelly and Angela Hug (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). Chapter 18, pp. 438-460.

Angela Hug, Benjamin Kelly, and Neil Bernstein. “Court Relationships.” In: The Roman Emperor and His Court c. 30 BC–c. AD 300. Volume 2: A Sourcebook (opens in a new window), ed. Benjamin Kelly and Angela Hug (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). Chapter 3, pp. 79-131.

“Claudian’s Silius.” In: Silius Italicus and the Tradition of the Roman historical epos (opens in a new window), ed. Antony Augoustakis and Marco Fucecchi (Leiden: Brill, 2022). Pp. 103-123.

“Silius’ Punica and the traditions of Greek and Roman tragedy.” In: Elements of Tragedy in Flavian Epic, ed. Sophia Papaioannou and Agis Marinis (opens in a new window). (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021). Pp. 25-42.

“Qualitative and quantitative perspectives on the use of poetic tradition in Silius Italicus’ Punica.” In: Intertextuality in Flavian Epic Poetry: Contemporary Approaches (opens in a new window), ed. Neil Coffee et al. (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020). Pp. 377-392.

“A Greater Love: Fides in Statius’ Silvae.” In: Fides in Flavian Literature (opens in a new window), ed. Antony Augoustakis, Emma Buckley, and Claire Stocks (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019). Pp. 68-82.

“Inuitas maculant cognato sanguine dextras: Civil war themes in Silius’ Saguntum episode.” In: After 69 CE: Writing Civil War in Flavian Rome (opens in a new window), ed. Lauren Ginsberg and Darcy Krasne (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019). Pp. 179-197.

“Continuing the Aeneid in the First Century: Ovid's Little Aeneid, Lucan’s Bellum Civile, and Silius' Punica.” In: Brill’s Companion to Prequels, Sequels, and Retellings of Classical Epic, ed. Robert Simms (Leiden: Brill, 2018). Chapter 13, pp. 248-266.

“Declamation (opens in a new window).” In: Oxford Bibliographies in Classics, ed. Dee Clayman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.

“Persona, Identity, and Self-Presentation in Roman Declamation.” In: Self-Presentation and Identity in the Roman World (opens in a new window), ed. Andreas Gavrielatos (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017). Chapter 1, pp. 1-16.

“Revisiting Ovidian Silius, along with Lucretian, Virgilian, and Lucanian Silius.” In: Repeat Performances: Ovidian Repetition and the Metamorphoses (opens in a new window), ed. Laurel Fulkerson and Tim Stover (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2016). Pp. 225-248.

"Mutua vulnera: dying together in Silius’ Saguntum.” In: The Family in Flavian Epic, ed. Nikoletta Manioti. (Leiden: Brill, 2016). Pp. 228-247.

“Epic Poetry: Historicizing the Flavian Epics.” In: A Companion to the Flavian Age of (opens in a new window) Imperial Rome, (opens in a new window) ed. Andrew Zissos (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016). Pp. 395-411.

“Auferte oculos: Modes of Spectatorship in Statius' Thebaid 11.” In: Flavian Epic (opens in a new window). Oxford Readings in Classical Studies, ed. Antony Augoustakis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016). Pp. 234-261.

“Omnibus patemus insidiis: elite vulnerability in Major Declamations 11.” In: Reading Roman Declamation. (opens in a new window) The Declamations Ascribed to Quintilian, ed. M.T. Dinter, C. Guérin, and M. Martinho (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016). Pp. 255-267.

“‘The Clash of Weapons and the Sight of War’: Spectatorship and Identification in Roman Epic.” In: War as Spectacle. (opens in a new window) Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Display of Armed Conflict, ed. A. Bakogianni and V. Hope (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015). Pp. 58-72.

“Family and Kinship in the Works of Statius.” In: Brill’s Companion to Statius (opens in a new window), ed. W.J. Dominik, Kyle Gervais, and Carole E. Newlands (Leiden: Brill, 2015). Pp. 139-154.

“Romanas ueluti saeuissima cum legiones Tisiphone regesque mouet: Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica and the Flavian Era.” In: Brill’s Companion to Valerius Flaccus (opens in a new window), ed. M.A.J. Heerink and Gesine Manuwald (Leiden: Brill, 2014). Pp. 154-169.

“Distat opus nostrum, sed fontibus exit ab isdem: Declamation and Flavian epic.” In: Flavian Epic Interactions, (opens in a new window) ed. Gesine Manuwald and Astrid Voigt. (Berlin: Walter DeGruyter, 2013). pp. 139-156.

“Ritual Murder and Suicide in Statius’ Thebaid.” In: Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (opens in a new window), ed. Antony Augoustakis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). Chapter 13, pp. 233-248.

“The Dead and their Ghosts in the Bellum Civile: Lucan’s Visions of History.” In: Brill’s Companion to Lucan, ed. Paolo Asso (Leiden: Brill, 2011). Chapter 13, pp. 257-279.

“Family and the State in the Punica.” In: Brill’s Companion to Silius Italicus (opens in a new window), ed. Antonios Augoustakis (Leiden: Brill, 2010). Chapter 16, pp. 377-397.

“Cui parens non erat maximus quisque et uetustissimus pro parente: paternal surrogates in imperial Roman literature.” In: Growing Up Fatherless in Antiquity (opens in a new window), edd. Sabine Huebner and David M. Ratzan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Chapter 13, pp. 241- 256.

Forthcoming Work

“The Performing Arts and their audiences.” Co-authored with Hallie Marshall. In: A Cultural History of Leisure in Antiquity, ed. Jerry Toner. Forthcoming, Bloomsbury.

“Latin Sophists and Rhetors From the Age of Trajan to the Age of Constantine.” In: The Cambridge History of Later Latin Literature, ed. Gavin Kelly and Aaron Pelttari. Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press.

“The Madness of Hercules From Euripides through the Renaissance.” In: Hercules: a Hero for All Ages, ed. Eleftheria Ioannidou, Helen Slaney, and Emma Stafford. Under consideration, Brill.

“‘Though the Great Song Return No More’: Silver Latin Epic and Its Tradition.” In: The Blackwell Companion to Latin Epic, 14-96 CE, ed. Lee Fratantuono. Under contract, Wiley-Blackwell.

Recent Service to the Profession

Classical Association of the Middle West and South First Book Award Committee (2015-2021; Chair, 2021-present).

Editorial board, Transactions of the American Philological Association (2016-2022).

College Board, Advanced Placement Latin Development Committee (2017-2020).

Recent Book Reviews (last 3 years)

Alison Sharrock and Alison Keith, edd., Maternal Conceptions in Classical Literature and Philosophy. Toronto, 2020. Journal of Roman Studies 112 (2022) 267-268.

Andrew M. McClellan, Abused bodies in Roman epic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2020.09.47.

Antony Augoustakis and R. Joy Littlewood (eds), Campania in the Flavian Poetic Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Journal of Roman Studies 110 (2020) 297-299.

Recent Conference Papers and Invited Lectures (last 3 years)

“Reading Mob Violence and Treason with Pseudo-Quintilian and Lorenzo Patarol.” Ohio State University; University of Genoa; Classical Association of Canada Conference, April-May 2022.

“The Battle of Cannae in the Roman Poetic Imagination.” University of British Columbia, November 2020.

“In the shadow of the Master: reading the pseudo-Quintilianic corpus.” Western University, London ON, October 2019; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, March 2019.

Thesis and Dissertation Participation

2021. Committee member: Kenneth Elliott, “Rewards for Violence: praemia in Roman Declamation.” Ph.D., Classics, University of Iowa.

2020. Committee member: Stephen Froedge, “Monsters in Flavian Epic”. Ph.D., Classics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2018. External examiner: Michelle Sugar, “Guilt in Vergil’s Aeneid and Lucan’s Bellum Civile”. Ph.D., Classical Studies, University of Western Ontario, London ON.

2016. External examiner: Geoffrey G. Thompson, “The Application of Citations in the Prose Corpus of Lucius Annaeus Seneca: A Digital Approach.” Ph.D., Classics and Ancient History, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

2013. Committee member: James M. Lohmar, "The Anatomy of Roman Epic: A Study of Poetic Violence." Ph.D., Department of Classics, University of Florida.

2013. External examiner: Kyle J. Conrau-Lewis, “The two voices of Statius: patronymics in the Thebaid.” M.A., Classics and Archaeology, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Internal Grants

2015 Ohio University College of Arts and Sciences grant ($7,500) to co-lead Faculty Learning Community “Challenges in Teaching”

2014 Ohio University College of Arts and Sciences grant ($5,000) to co-lead faculty seminar “Taking Risks in Teaching”

2012-13 Ohio University Research Council grant ($7,123) for project “Developing Data Mining Strategies for Classical Latin Poetry”