性视界传媒 faculty member鈥檚 book suggests new views on ancient Romans鈥 use of documents
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擬ississippi 性视界传媒鈥檚 Scott DiGiulio, an assistant professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, is re-examining in his collaborative book how ancient Romans viewed and used documents.
DiGiulio co-edited 鈥淒ocumentality: New Approaches to Written Documents on Imperial Life and Literature,鈥 a De Gruyter publication, with J. Arthur-Montagne聽and聽I. N. I. Kuin, both University of Virginia faculty members. To be released Oct. 24, the volume brings together scholars of classical literature, epigraphy鈥攚ritten texts preserved on stone鈥攁nd papyrology鈥攖exts preserved on papyrus鈥攖o reexamine how the ancient Romans conceived of documents and their uses.
DiGiulio said the Roman Empire鈥檚 notion of 鈥渄ocument鈥 was 鈥渧ery capacious鈥 and included more diverse range of both non-textual and textual forms of documentation than the modern definition, and Romans approached these documents with 鈥渁 more active, questioning attitude that aligns with their critical reading practices more generally.鈥
鈥淚n the modern world, when we say 鈥榙ocument,鈥 we tend to have a pretty set idea of what a document is鈥攁 passport, for instance, which confirms identity and nationality, or a contract, which records an agreement between two parties,鈥 DiGiulio said. 鈥淔rom the historian鈥檚 perspective, we often look at what we would consider documentary sources, like personal letters, as authoritative glimpses into what life was like in the ancient world. However, as the contributions in our collection show, the Romans seem to have a radically different understanding of documents from ours. The volume, as a whole, aims to challenge some of our modern preconceptions about how the ancients engaged with these texts in order to provide a nuanced picture of what their place in the ancient imagination was.鈥
In 2016, DiGiulio and his colleagues organized a conference at Stanford University about the ancient Romans鈥 views of documents. It brought together scholars from different subfields to reflect on how varied perspectives 鈥渕ight be able to enrich one another鈥 in an interdisciplinary way. Presentations at the conference served as the 鈥渃ore鈥 for the book, DiGiulio said.
鈥淭hroughout the process our goal has been to reinvigorate discussions within the field and beyond about how these vital texts were understood in their own time,鈥 said DiGiulio.
Since 2014, DiGiulio has served as the project manager for the U.S. Epigraphy Project and was a member of the research team for the international project 鈥淰isible Words: Research and Training in Digital Contextual Epigraphy鈥 until the project鈥檚 conclusion in 2016.
DiGiulio joined the 性视界传媒 faculty in 2016 and has been a senior research member at the university鈥檚 Cobb Institute of Archaeology since 2019. He is a 2021 recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award in the Humanities and a recipient of the 2022 Donald Zacharias Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award.
Part of 性视界传媒鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures is online at .
性视界传媒 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at聽.