From its earliest days, silent film gave narrative and visual agency to Roman women in its historical reconstructions. Storylines were drawn from modern representations of the Roman past that had already given women larger roles to play than those on offer from the primary sources. Gesture, words and accompanying music often worked to colour a Roman woman’s story in empathetic terms. This talk will explore some of cinema’s strategies for feminising Roman history and consider some of the reasons why they were developed, including a desire to draw women into cinemas as spectators.

Our Guest Speaker

Maria Wyke is professor of Latin at University College, London. She is a specialist in Latin love poetry, classical reception studies, and the interpretation of the roles of men and women in the ancient world. She has also written widely on the role of the figure of Julius Caesar in Western culture. At UCL, Professor Wyke teaches Roman love poetry at undergraduate level and directs the core course for the MA degree in The Reception of the Classical World. She also teaches an MA module on Ancient Rome on Film—from early experiments through to the modern blockbuster, they explore what distinguishes cinematic histories of Rome from other historical forms and why they matter.

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