Past Events

Events Archive

A record including programmes, photos and videos of the Society's past events and conferences is available below. You can also see events listed by type: conferences, lectures & AGMs, and exhibition/site visits.
For lectures hosted jointly with the Classical Association local branches around the UK, see Classical Association Joint Lectures.

Visit the Roman Society's YouTube channel to browse videos of past lectures.

2024

3 October: Dr Elizabeth Key Fowden: The Evliyan Marbles: Ottoman viewers of Athenian Antiquities. Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House (video).
28 September: Visit to Fishbourne Roman Palace & Bignor Roman Villa (Flyer).
29 June: AGM & Colloquium: New Discoveries at Pompeii and Hadrian's Wall in our Time
9 May: Professor David Mattingly (Leicester): Talking to the Ancestors: Iron Age Painted Tombs of the Wadi Draa, Morocco. Society of Antiquaries of Antiquaries, Burlington House (video).
27 April: Visit to the Villa Ventorum, Newt, Somerset (Flyer).
26 March: Joint Event with the Hellenic Society: Changing Attitudes to the Olympic Games
6 February: M.V. Taylor Lecture - Professor Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Princeton): 338 BCE and the Transformation of Ancient Afro-Eurasia

2023

7 November: Dr Fiona Haarer (Roman Society / KCL): 'Justinian, Theodora and Cultural Change in the Sixth Century'
4 November: Reconnecting Roman Britain
10 June: AGM & Colloquium - Ancient Enslavement: fresh perspectives
28 March: Joint Event with the Hellenic Society: The Antikythera Mechanism
25 March: Visit to the Roman Baths, Bath. (Flyer)
4 March: 50th Annual Archaeology Forum - Lancaster University, supported by the Roman Society.
22 February: Dr Peter Sarris: 'Justinian: Holy Emperor and Demon King'
13 February: Alicia (A.E.) Stallings - Love Poems from the Institute of Classical Studies. In aid of HARL
2 February: Dr Yannis Galanakis: 'The antiquities trade in late 19th century Greece – stories of people & objects'. Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House. (video)
13 January: Gina Coulthard Memorial Lecture: 'Sinope in a Black Sea World' delivered by Dr Jane Rempel. Hosted with the British Institute at Ankara and the Hellenic Society.

2022

6 December: Dr Emilio Zucchetti (Roman Society Germanicus Scholar 2020-2022): 'Were Private Debts Publicly Recorded in the Late Republic? Tabulae novae, the Multitude, and the Leader in the Debt Crisis of 48-47 BCE'
19 November: Remembering Joyce Reynolds - A joint online event with the British Epigraphy Society to remember Joyce Reynolds (President of the Roman Society, 1986-1989)
11 November: Reconnecting Roman Britain
8 November: Presidential Lecture - Professor Tim Cornell: ‘The Consular Fasti and the early history of the Roman Republic’
19 October: Natalie Haynes: Stone Blind - in aid of the Hellenic and Roman Library (HARL)
7 June: Joint event with the Hellenic Society and Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies - Professor Judith Herrin: Rethinking Late Antiquity as Early Christendom
21 May: AGM & Colloquium on Hadrian
26 April: M. V. Taylor Lecture - Professor Ida Östenberg: Death and Dynasty. Commemorating Gaius and Lucius Caesar
6-8 April: The Roman Archaeology Conference (RAC 2020) - Split, Croatia: http://www.romansocietyrac.ac.uk/
29 March: Being an Islander

2021

4 December: Colchester guided visit (Circus, Temple of Claudius, and Decoding the Roman Dead exhibition)
27 October: City of Rome colloquium
19 October: Nero: The Man Behind The Myth. Behind the scenes with the curator, Thorsten Opper. (video)
29 September: Knowledge and Curiosity at the Court of Nero
3 July: Brading Roman Villa - guided visit
1 July: Wood and Ceramic: introducing digital methods with Classics Library special collections
19 June: Roman Society Archaeology Committee Biennial Conference - New Discoveries Across the Empire
15 May: New Research on Nero - With the Association for Roman Archaeology
23 April: Joint event with the Hellenic Society - Race: Antiquity and its Legacy
9 March: Joint event with the Hellenic Society - Domesticity and Domestic Life
6 March: Lancaster University Regional Heritage Centre - 48th Annual Archaeology Forum

2020

10 November: Online lecture - Dr Guy Bradley: Rome and the sea: rethinking early Roman history from a Mediterranean perspective (video)
10 March: Joint Event with the Hellenic Society - Animals in the Ancient World
7 March: Lancaster University Regional Heritage Centre - 47th Annual Archaeology Forum
28 January: M. V. Taylor Lecture - Professor Mireille Corbier: Fêter les anniversaires à Rome / Celebrating anniversaries in Rome (video)
16 January: British Museum lecture & exhibition viewing, Troy – Myth and Reality

2019

7 December: Visit to the Ashmolean exhibition, Last Supper in Pompeii, and lecture by Dr Paul Roberts
29 November - 1 December: Romans in North-East England: recent research. A Conference with the Royal Archaeological Institute. Donwload the book of abstracts here.
16 November: Roman Temples in Britain and Gaul - recent discoveries and interpretations
12 November: Book Launch of Peter Wiseman's The House of Augustus, with Peter Wiseman, Mary Beard, Penny Goodman and Henry Hurst. Generously sponsored by Princeton University Press.
16 October: Homer Today - in aid of the Hellenic & Roman Library and Classics for All
12 October: Germanicus conference
4-8 July: FIEC / Classical Association Conference 2019
3 July: Saving Ancient Treasures for the World
4 June: Professor Ian Haynes and Dr Thea Ravasi: Enriching the soldiers, scorning the rest? New evidence for the impact of Septimius Severus' restoration of Rome (with the British School at Rome)
1 June: AGM & colloquium: Roman Dictators and Dictatorship
5 March: Joint Event with the Hellenic Society: ‘Memorialisation’

2018

17 November: The People of Roman Britain at Home and Abroad - a conference
13 November: Joan Pye Lecture - Professor Simon Esmonde Cleary: Chedworth: excavations and reimaginings at a Roman villa 1864-2018
6 November: Dr Christopher Whitton: The arts of imitation in Latin prose: Pliny’s Epistles / Quintilian in Brief - Video
6 October: Sensory Experience in Rome’s Northern Provinces - a workshop
21 July: Corinium Museum: Discovery to Display - Roman Society day excursion.
2 June: AGM & colloquium: Nero: art, politics, culture
1 June: Vagnari Roman Imperial Estate: The Settlement and its Material Culture - a workshop
15 May: Professor Simon Keay & Dr Peter Campbell: Navigating the Harbours and Canals of the Portus Romae: new approaches - (with the British School at Rome) - Video
24 March: A celebration of the life of Alan Cameron
6 March: The Culture of the Greek Cities in the East
3 March: The Regional Heritage Centre’s Annual Archaeology Forum
27 February: Professor Roger Bagnall: Papyrology and Ancient History: a changing relationship

2014

24 November: Joan Pye Lecture - Dr Peter Guest: The Legionary Fortress at Caerleon: recent discoveries and new perspectives
15 November: Beyond the Walls: the baths, temples, villages and fields outside the forts on Hadrian's Wall: recent work
11 November: William Fitzgerald, Three Latin Poets in a Word
1 November: Augustus, the First Emperor
18 October: Romans in Ryedale and Beyond
27 September: Fishbourne Roman Palace & Gardens
21 June: 1st Nottinghamshire History & Archaeology Day
17 June: AGM & Tiberius the Successor
27-30 March: RAC and TRAC at Reading
11 March: Dr Philip Kay - Rome's Economic Revolution. Economic Growth in the Late Roman Republic
2 March: Charlotte Higgins at the Bath Literature Festival
14 January: Dr Michel Amandry - Antinous: life and death of a god

2013

30 November: Commercial Archaeology and Romano-British Towns - Biennial Roman Britain Day Conference
12 November: Charlotte Higgins, Boudicea on the Caledonian Road
9 November: 150 Years of Roman Yorkshire conference
2 November: Health & Medicine Conference, British Museum
22 October: The African Frontiers book launch
14 September: Site Visit to Vindolanda
8 June: AGM & Virgil Colloquium
11 April: Life & Death in Pompeii & Herculaneum - British Museum Exhibition
27 March: Cotswold Archaeology Annual Public Lecture - Professor Ray Laurence: Childhood in Roman Pompeii
12 March: Professor Duncan Kennedy - Does Augustine put his finger on time?
15 January: Professor Werner Eck - Augustus' "Brave new world": Roman Society's reaction to the so-called social legislation

2012

London 2012 Olympics special events

29 November: Joan Pye Lecture - Dr Roger Bland: How coin finds are changing the face of Roman Britain: the contribution of the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme
13 November: Dr John Creighton - Silchester: Mapping the urban landscape from the 17th to 21st century
3 November: AD 312 Constantine & the Milvian Bridge Conference, British Museum
16 June: AGM, Olympics lectures & Ancient Sports Family Day at the British Museum
4-6 May: Trip to Bath & the Cotswolds
3 April: Oxyrhynchus: the city and its texts
29 March - 1 April: RAC and TRAC, Frankfurt Am Main
17 January: The M.V. Taylor Lecture - Professor Hannah Cotton: The Necropolis of Jaffa and the intriguing history of the Baron Plato von Ustinov: Hunting for inscriptions

2011

29 November: Professor Barry Cunliffe - The Brading Villa: the story emerges
26 November: Septimius Severus Conference, British Museum
25-28 July: Triennial Conference, Cambridge
4 June: AGM & Frontier News: old friends and new discoveries from Vindolanda
15 March: Dr Susan Walker - Rome in Oxford: new galleries at the Ashmolean Museum
18 January: Professor Michael Crawford - Language, Geography and the Roman conquest of Italy

2010

9 November: Professor Roland Mayer - Roman Ruinmindedness
5 June: 2010 AGM
16 March: Dr Josephone Quinn & Professor Andrew Wilson - Rome, Africa and Capitolia
19 January: Professor Kathleen Coleman - A Year in the Roman Empire: The Problem of Hindsight

Special events celebrating the Society's Centenary: