John T. Ramsey, PhD

Areas of Research and Publication:

Roman Republican prose authors (Cicero and Sallust) and Roman history and law; ancient comets as reported in the Greco-Roman tradition and in classical Chinese sources.

Courses recently taught:

• Classics 250 "Greek and Latin Epic Poetry" (in English translation)
• Latin 299 "Sallust's Bellum Catilinae"
• Classics 298 "The Rise to Power of Julius Caesar, General & Politician”
• Latin 103 "Intermediate Latin I: Apuleius" Cupid & Psyche and Cicero's Somnium Scipionis"
• Latin 299 "Latin Epistles: Pliny, Seneca, and Cicero" (in Latin)
• Latin 104 "Intermediate Latin II: Ovid, selections from Metamorphoses"
• Latin 299 "Virgil's Aeneid, books 2 and 6"
• Latin 299 "Cicero's Second Philippic"
• Latin 299 "Catullus: selections"

Books:

• Cicero, Philippics I & II, Latin text, edited with introduction and commentary. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series (CUP 2003) pp. xxvi/350.
• Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae (text with introduction and commentary), 2nd edition (American Philological Association/Oxford University Press, 2006; corrected reprint, Feb. 2009) pp. xx/252.

Monograph:

• A Descriptive Catalogue of Greco-Roman Comets from 500 B.C. to A.D. 400. Special issue of the journal Syllecta Classica, vol. 17 (2006: published March 2007; corrected reprint, Apr. 2008), 242 pp .

Loeb Library Edition

• Cicero’s Philippics, translated by D. R. Shackleton Bailey (1986), revised in collaboration with Gesine Manuwald, vol. 1 (pp. lxxii + 321), vol. 2 (pp. x + 365): Harvard Univ. Pr., 2009.
  ISBN: 978-0-674-99634-2/. . . .99635-9.

Articles:

• “A reconstruction of Q. Gallius’ Trial for Ambitus: One Less Reason for Doubting the Authenticity of the Commentariolum Petitionis,” Historia 29 (1980) 402-21.
• “The Prosecution of C. Manilius in 66 B.C. and Cicero’s pro Manilio,” Phoenix 34 (1980) 323-36.
• “Cicero, pro Sulla 68 and Catiline’s Candidacy in 66 B.C.,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 86 (1982) 121-31.
• “Cicero, Mur. 29: the Orator as Citharoedus, the Versatile Artist,” Classical Philology 79 (1984) 220-25.
• “Asconius p. 60 (Clark), † Prima Pars: The Trial and Conviction of C. Manilius in 65 B.C.,” American Journal of Philology 106 (1985) 367-73.
• “The Senate, Mark Antony, and Caesar’s Legislative Legacy,” Classical Quarterly 44 (1994) 130-45.
• “Mithridates, the Banner of Ch’ih-yu, and the Comet Coin,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 99 (1999) 197-253.
• “Beware the Ides of March: An Astrological Prediction?” Classical Quarterly 50 (2000) 440-54.
• “Did Mark Antony Contemplate an Alliance with his Political Enemies in July 44 BC?” Classical Philology 96 (2001) 255-70.
• “Did Julius Caesar Temporarily banish Mark Antony from his Inner Circle?” Classical Quarterly 54 (2004) 161-73.
• “The Elder Seneca, Controversiae 2.1.1: sub domino sectore,” Classical Quarterly 54 (2004) 307-10.
• “Virile ac Muliebre Secus : A Revival of its Appositional Use at Tac. Ann. 4.62,” Philologus 149 (2005) 321-27.
• “Mark Antony’s Judiciary Reform and its Revival under the Triumvirs,” Journal of Roman Studies 95 (2005) 20-37.
• “A Catalogue of Greco-Roman Comets from 500 B.C. to A.D. 400,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 28 (2007), 175-97.

Chapters in Books:

• “Senatorial Rhetoric,” chapt. 10 in A Companion to Roman Rhetoric, ed. W. J. Dominik and J. C. R. Hall (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), 122-35.
• “At What Hour did the Murderers of Julius Caesar Gather on the Ides of March 44 B.C.?” in In Pursuit of Wissenschaft: Festschrift für William M. Calder III zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. Stephan Heilen et al. (Olms, 2008), 351-63. — Download “Supplementary Tables” in PDF format
• “Caesar as Proconsul: Politics at a Distance”, chapt. 4 in A Companion to Julius Caesar, ed. Miriam Griffin (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009), 37-56– “Debate at a Distance: A Unique Rhetorical Strategy in Cicero’s Thirteenth Philippic” in Form and Function in Roman Oratory, ed. D. H. Berry and Andrew Erskine (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 155-74.

Reviews:

• Nino Marinone, Cronologia Ciceroniana. 2nd ed. rev. by Ermanno Malpaspina (Rome 2004). reviewed in Classical Philology 101 (2006) 424-29.
• Asconius: Commentaries on Speeches by Cicero, translated with introduction and commentary by R. G. Lewis, Clarendon Ancient History Series (Oxford, 2006). reviewed in Classical Review 58 (2008), 456-58.
• The invectives of Sallust and Cicero : critical edition with introduction, translation, and commentary, Anna A. Novokhatko. Berlin : Walter de Gruyter, 2009. reviewed in Journal of Roman Studies 100 (2010), 40-41.
• Cicero’s Philippics. History, Rhetoric and Ideology. ed. T. Stevenson and M. Wilson (Prudentia 37 and 38.). Auckland: Polygraphia Ltd, 2008. reviewed in Classical Review 61.1 (2010), 109-12.

Biographical Memoir:

• of D(avid) R(oy) Shackleton Bailey (10 Dec. 1917-28 Nov. 2005), Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature (Harvard), Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society152.2 (2008) 268-78.

Work in Press:

• articles for Virgil Encyclopedia (Wiley-Blackwell), ed. Richard Thomas and Jan Ziolkowski
  • “Astronomy” (983 words).
  • “Comet” (504 words).
  • “Oratory” (596 words).
• articles for Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell), ed. Roger Bagnall, Andrew Erskine, et al.
  • Marcus Antonius (RE 30)—Mark Antony—(1,470 words).
  • Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (RE 118)—(962 words).
• “A Tribute to the Memory of Brian G. Marsden,” International Comet Quarterly 1911 (2,000 words).

AB, Harvard
BA, MA, Oxford
PhD, Harvard

• articles for Virgil Encyclopedia (Wiley-Blackwell), ed. Richard Thomas and Jan Ziolkowski
  • "Astronomy" (983 words).
  • "Comet" (504 words).
  • "Oratory" (596 words).
• articles for Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell), ed. Roger Bagnall, Andrew Erskine, et al.
  • Marcus Antonius (RE 30)—Mark Antony—(1,470 words).
  • Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (RE 118)—(962 words).
• "A Tribute to the Memory of Brian G. Marsden," International Comet Quarterly 1911 (2,000 words).
• "The Jewish Revolt of Bar Kokhba (AD 132-135) and the Star of Antinous"
• Commentary on Cicero's Philippics 10-14
• new Loeb edition of Sallust, including all fragments of the Historiae (to be completed 1 September 2012)