2025-2026
2025
September 23 Social event. Welcoming cheese and wine. Musical odyssey with Faidra Roumpeka and Harris Koliadimas. Room 7.02, Graham Hill Building, University of Strathclyde, at 7:30pm
The location is Room 7.02 in the Graham Hills Building at Strathclyde University. Enter the Graham Hills Building from Richmond Street and go to the 7th floor. Some further directions if you are coming by car: drive up N Portland St, from George St, and turn right on to Richmond St. Or if coming from Cathedral St, turn down Montrose St, and quickly turn left along Rottenrow, follow the road down N Portland St, and turn left into Richmond St. Parking is free on Richmond St or N Portland St or George St after 6pm.
October 21 Who is the Thessalian goddess Ebodia? Dr Maria Mili (University of Glasgow). Usual venue at the University of Glasgow at 7:00pm
November 18 What the Romans did for us! Scottish evening with Jim Mearns (Glasgow Archaeological Society) Usual venue at the University of Glasgow at 7:30pm
This presentation will relate the history of Glasgow Archaeological Society from its foundation in December 1856 to the present day. It will mention some of the interesting people who have been members of the Society, such as Miss Cranston of tea room fame; William Blackie the publisher; Lord Kelvin, several Lord Provosts of Glasgow, a Confederate General and several Glasgow University Principals among others.
The Society activities including lectures, excursions, campaigns and publications will be described and in particular its role in the excavation of sites along the Antonine Wall including forts in the neighbourhood of Kelvin Valley, especially Bar Hill Fort at Twechar. The Society has played a leading role in excavating, researching and publishing material on the Romans in Scotland and the Antonine Wall especially. The various reports of the Society on the Antonine Wall and the creation of its Handbook to the monument will be covered.
Some attention will be paid to the legacy of John Dalymple of Kirkintilloch who served the Society for several decades and bequeathed a significant sum for a lecture series that runs to this day. Several archaeological techniques will be briefly described in describing the work of the Society and others on the Antonine Wall.
December 16 Virtual social event via Zoom video-conferencing (details will be published nearer the time)
2026
January 13 Vasilopita (Elia restaurant)
February 17 KARKALAS LECTURE: Byzantine-Scottish (dis)connections from 306 to James VI and beyond.
Professor Niels Gaul (University of Edinburgh). Usual venue at the University of Glasgow at 7:30pm
This year’s Karkalas Lecture explores the manifold connections between Scotland and Byzantium over more than 1,700 years of history, from Constantine the Great’s proclamation as emperor – a few miles south of Scotland at Eboracum (York) – in 306 to the present day. The lecture proceeds in three steps. In the first, it traces potential medieval connections and convergences – such as in the royal name of Constantine, the use of the basileus title by Scottish kings and the role of the apostle Andrew – as well as early modern evocations of Constantine the Great in James Maxwell’s Carolanna celebrating James VI and I. In the second, it focuses on the innovative approach and attitude of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Göttingen alumnus and philhellene George Finlay toward Byzantium, especially in his monumental so-called History of Greece under Foreign Domination published in five instalments over twelve years, from 1844 to 1856. In the third and final, it looks at Byzantine objects now at home in Scottish collections, especially choice manuscripts in the University of Glasgow Library, the Scottish National Library and the University of Edinburgh Library.
March 17 Vulgar & Womanish or didactically vivid? Rethinking Hellenistic Historiography. Professor Lisa Hau (University of Glasgow). Usual venue at the University of Glasgow at 7:30pm
Hellenistic historiography is a notoriously murky area. Between the Hellenika of Xenophon, probably written in the 350s BCE, and the works of Sallust in the 40s BCE no complete work of history is extant. Substantial parts survive of Polybius’ Histories from the mid-2nd century BCE and Diodorus Siculus’ Historical Library from the mid-1st century BCE), but the rest of Hellenistic historiography exists now only in fragments. This is especially unfortunate since these centuries are the time when historiography came into its own as a literary genre and historical research became a recognised endeavour, both the genre and the endeavour acquiring rules, ideals, and expectations.
Int this paper, we shall take a broader view and try to place especially Polybius and, to a lesser extent, Diodorus in the context of the vast production of historiography that took place from the 3rd to the 1st centuries BCE. We shall examine fragments of Duris and Phylarchus, often sneeringly termed “tragic historians”, and of Agatharchides of Cnidus, whose thoughts on how to talk about violence and suffering may hold the key to understanding what Duris and Phylarchus were trying to do. I shall argue that ‘tragic history’ is a derogative misnomer for the type of historiography written by these and other Hellenistic historians, and that the appellation ‘immersive historiography’ better captures their goals, ideologies, and approaches to history.
Hellenika
of
Xenophon, probably written in the 350s BCE, and the works of Sallust in the 40s
BCE no complete work of history is extant. Substantial parts survive of Polybius’
Histories
from the mid-2
nd
century BCE and Diodorus Siculus’
Historical Library
from the mid-1
st
century BCE), but the rest of Hellenistic historiography exists
now only in fragments. This is especially unfortunate since these centuries are
the time when historiography came into its own as a literary genre and historical
research became a recognised endeavour, both the genre and the endeavour
acquiring rules, ideals, and expectations.
Int this paper, we shall take a broader view and try to place especially Polybius
and, to a lesser extent, Diodorus in the context of the vast production of
historiography that took place from the 3
rd
to the 1
st
centuries BCE. We shall
examine fragments of Duris and Phylarchus, often sneeringly termed “tragic
historians”, and of Agatharchides of Cnidus, whose thoughts on how to talk about
violence and suffering may hold the key to understanding what Duris and
Phylarchus were trying to do.
I shall argue that ‘tragic history’ is a derogative
misnomer for the
type of historiography written by these and other Hellenistic
historians, and that the appellation ‘immersive historiography’ better captures
their goals, ideologies, and approaches to history.
Hellenika
of
Xenophon, probably written in the 350s BCE, and the works of Sallust in the 40s
BCE no complete work of history is extant. Substantial parts survive of Polybius’
Histories
from the mid-2
nd
century BCE and Diodorus Siculus’
Historical Library
from the mid-1
st
century BCE), but the rest of Hellenistic historiography exists
now only in fragments. This is especially unfortunate since these centuries are
the time when historiography came into its own as a literary genre and historical
research became a recognised endeavour, both the genre and the endeavour
acquiring rules, ideals, and expectations.
Int this paper, we shall take a broader view and try to place especially Polybius
and, to a lesser extent, Diodorus in the context of the vast production of
historiography that took place from the 3
rd
to the 1
st
centuries BCE. We shall
examine fragments of Duris and Phylarchus, often sneeringly termed “tragic
historians”, and of Agatharchides of Cnidus, whose thoughts on how to talk about
violence and suffering may hold the key to understanding what Duris and
Phylarchus were trying to do.
I shall argue that ‘tragic history’ is a derogative
misnomer for the
type of historiography written by these and other Hellenistic
historians, and that the appellation ‘immersive historiography’ better captures
their goals, ideologies, and approaches to history.
Hellenistic historiography is a notoriously murky area. Between the
Hellenika
of
Xenophon, probably written in the 350s BCE, and the works of Sallust in the 40s
BCE no complete work of history is extant. Substantial parts survive of Polybius’
Histories
from the mid-2
nd
century BCE and Diodorus Siculus’
Historical Library
from the mid-1
st
century BCE), but the rest of Hellenistic historiography exists
now only in fragments. This is especially unfortunate since these centuries are
the time when historiography came into its own as a literary genre and historical
research became a recognised endeavour, both the genre and the endeavour
acquiring rules, ideals, and expectations.
Int this paper, we shall take a broader view and try to place especially Polybius
and, to a lesser extent, Diodorus in the context of the vast production of
historiography that took place from the 3
rd
to the 1
st
centuries BCE. We shall
examine fragments of Duris and Phylarchus, often sneeringly termed “tragic
historians”, and of Agatharchides of Cnidus, whose thoughts on how to talk about
violence and suffering may hold the key to understanding what Duris and
Phylarchus were trying to do.
I shall argue that ‘tragic history’ is a derogative
misnomer for the
type of historiography written by these and other Hellenistic
historians, and that the appellation ‘immersive historiography’ better captures
their goals, ideologies, and approaches to history.
April 21 AGM followed by wines from Greece tasting. This event will commence at 7:00pm, provisionally at the University of Strathclyde (venue details nearer the time)