Steven H. Rutledge
Associate Professor Steven H. Rutledge (shr@umd.edu) graduated with his BA from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1989 and earned his doctorate from Brown University in 1996. He also attended the American Academy in Rome (summer 1994) and was a student at the American School for Classical Studies in Athens (1994-95). He wrote his thesis on the literary, cultural, and historical background of Tacitus's Dialogus de oratoribus. He has been a professor at the University of Maryland since September of 1996.
His research interests are in Tacitus, ancient historiography, and rhetoric, and his publications include "Trajan and Tacitus' Audience: Reader Reception of Annales 1-2," Ramus 27: 1998, 141-159; "Delatores and the Tradition of Violence in Roman Oratory," American Journal of Philology 120: 1999, 555-73; "Plato, Tacitus, and the Dialogus de oratoribus," Latomus 254: 2000, 345-57; "Tacitus in Tartan: Textual Colonization and Expansionist Discourse in Tacitus' Agricola," Helios 27: 2000, 75-95; and Imperial Inquisitions: Informants and Prosecutors from Tiberius to Domitian (Routledge 2001). He is currently at work on two studies: The Lives of the Ancient Artists and Mirabilia Romae: The Ancient City as Museum. His other publications include book reviews, an on-line "Reality-Check" review/interview with MovieFone.com of the film Gladiator (spring 2000), and letters published in the Washington Post's BookWorld on ancient historiography.
In addition to teaching introductory courses to Latin, Ancient Greek, and Classical Literature, he teaches seminars on Tacitus, Cicero, and Roman Historiography. He also leads a winter term course to Italy every January (Classics 100: Greek and Roman Explorations).
A frequent lecturer, his public and professional talks include "Superstar or Sinner? The Trial of Jesus in its Roman Context" (Juniata College, Annual Calvert N. Ellis Memorial Lecture, October 9, 2000); "Defining the Delator: Problems in Our Sources and Methodologies" (at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association [hereafter APA], 1999); "Some Ambiguities in Tacitus' Presentation of Delatores" (Classical Association of the Mid-West and South [hereafter CAMWS] fall 1998); "Visigoths in Tweed Togae: Tacitus' Dialogus de oratoribus and the Culture Wars" (joint meeting of the Classical Association of New England-Classical Association of the Atlantic States [hereafter CAAS], spring 1998); "Rhetoric, Empire, and Social Identity in Tacitus' Dialogus" (APA, 1996); "Megalomania and Mega-Buildings: Tacitus and Trajanic Building Programs" (CAAS, fall 1996); "The Ancient City" (part of a Smithsonian lecture series in summer 1998); "Rome: A Virtual Reality Tour" (a six part Smithsonian lecture series in summer 2000); and "The Unraveling of a Civilization: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (an eight part lecture series at the Smithsonian winter 2001). In 1998 he was also the writer, producer, and artistic director of Latin Day 1998: Greek and Roman Mythology.
Future activities include his acting as a consultant/subject for a series of interviews by the editor of the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, Bob Thompson, who hopes to do a feature on what it is like to be immersed in ancient culture in the 21st century. He is also tentatively scheduled to be interviewed by the History Channel for a story on the amphitheater in Pompeii. Future scholarly work includes a study on Rhetoric and Imperialism in Ancient Rome.
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