Dr Kathryn Tempest

 

Job Title: Senior Lecturer Qualifications: BA, MA, PhD (Lond.) Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 5790 Email Address: K.Tempest@roehampton.ac.uk

Academic Interests

Ancient oratory, especially Cicero and the Attic orators; Augustan Literature; Neronian literature; Latin language; Roman Republic and the early Principate.

Current and Future Research

I have recently completed a book on Cicero: Politics and Persuasion in Ancient Rome for Continuum (publication date: March 2011). This book is about the life and times of M. Tullius Cicero but it considers his career primarily as an orator. In particular, it examines how it was that Cicero's natural talent for oratory enabled him to make his name and career in the competitive world of Republican Rome, from which he would otherwise have been excluded.

I am currently working on an edited volume with Christos Kremmydas (Lecturer in Greek History, Royal Holloway) entitled Continuity and Change: Oratory in the Hellenistic Period . This follows on from a successful, international two-day conference which we hosted in London, July 2009. The study of Hellenistic Oratory is problematic for the fact that no speech survives from this fascinating period. However, by inviting specialists to speak on the evidence for Hellenistic oratory across a range of historical, literary and epigraphical sources, this conference assessed the debt of Hellenistic oratory to the Classical oratorical paradigms and examined its impact and influence upon the emerging rhetorical culture at Rome. More information about the conference (including abstracts from the papers) can be found at: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/classics/news-and-events/HellenisticOratoryConference/index.html.

My future plans include a monograph on the rhetorical strategies in Cicero's Verrines , which was the topic of my PhD research. My research into the Verrines has already resulted in three publications (see below).

Other news: I have several forthcoming articles in Wiley-Blackwell's Encyclopedia of Ancient History. These include: T. Pomponius Atticus, M. Porcius Cato (the younger), Q. Hortensius Hortalus, M. Tullius Tiro, and Q. Tullius Cicero.

I have also completed entries on several of Cicero's speeches for the Literary Encyclopedia (www.litencyc.com)including: the Verrine Orations, the speeches Against Catiline, and his speech in defence of Sextus Roscius of Ameria.

Organisation of Conferences

• Classics and Employability, held at Roehampton University, London, September 2008

• After Demosthenes: Continuity and Change in Hellenistic Oratory, co-organised with C. Kremmydas (Royal Holloway), London, July 2009

Role, Responsibilities and Office hours

Work placement co-ordinator (Art History, History, Classical Civilisations)


Tuesdays 5-6pm or by individual appointment.

Please note that I am on Study Leave until January 2010. Office hours will resume on my return.

Outreach

I can offer papers for schools or other groups on a wide variety of topics connected to the study of Latin literature and Roman history. I have given many over the last few years to a wide range of age groups and to audiences of different sizes (from GCSE groups to sixth-formers to INSET days and school teacher conferences). Some of the areas I have talked on are:

Cicero's life and times
Cicero and Catiline at Rome
Teaching Cicero
Cicero, Rhetoric and the Lawcourts
Virgil, Aeneid 10
Forgotten Influences on Virgil's Aeneid
Classics and Employability
What jobs you can get with Classics degrees

I am always happy to be approached with other ideas ...

Publications

(2011) Cicero, Hambledon Continuum (forthcoming).

(2010) Combating the odium of self-praise: Cicero’s Divinatio in Caecilium., C. J. Smith, R. J. Covino (eds) Praise and Blame in Roman Oratory (Classical Press of Wales, forthcoming).

(2008) Review: Dubouloz and Pittia (edd.) La Sicile de Cicéron: Lectures des Verrines (Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté, 2007), The Classical Review, 58.2, 450-452.

(2008) Thinking about Employability, Bulletin of the Council of University Classics Departments, 37, 1-3.

(2007) Cicero and the art of dispositio: the structure of the Verrines., LICS, 6.02, 1-25.

(2007) Saints and Sinners: some thoughts on the presentation of character in Attic oratory and Cicero's Verrines., BICS supplement 97, 19-36.

Membership of professional bodies

• Classical Association (member of council since April 2010)

• American Philological Association

Teaching Expertise

Latin Language
Latin Literature under Augustus and Nero
The Age of Augustus
Conflicts in the Late Roman Republic
Tyrants, Kings and Dictators in the Classical World

Undergraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Classical Civilisation

Postgraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Historical Research
Early Modern Literature and Culture