Classical Studies Faculty Directory
Christopher Polt
Associate Professor
Christopher Polt
Ph.D.
Contact
Telephone: 617-552-3662
Email: christopher.polt@bc.edu
Education
- Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Courses
"Roman Spectacles" and "The City of Rome," as well as advanced Latin seminars on Lucretius and Plautus. In past years: Ancient and modern comedy, nature and the environment in the ancient world, and translation theory and practice, as well as a broad range of language courses from introductory to advanced (in Greek, Homer, Herodotus, and Greek tragedy; in Latin, Roman love poetry, Vergil, and Ovid's Fasti).
Profile
Christopher Polt specializes in Latin poetry, particularly the ways in which Roman authors reshape prior traditions. His current book project examines the reception of Roman comedy in Catullus' poetry and in the 1st century BCE generally. He is also working on a second book on Cicero's theory and practice of translation. He argues that Cicero reworks Greek texts to advance his own philosophical and political agendas and that, as with the flurry of philosophical work he undertakes late in life, translation comes to offer him an oblique way to critique and counsel Romans at the end of the Republic.
Publications
Catullus and Roman comedy: theatricality and personal drama in the late Republic. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
"'I found someone'…Or did I? Teaching Persona Theory Through Popular Music." Forthcoming in Classical World 112 (2018).
"Furrowing Prows: Varro of Atax's Argonautae and Transgressive Sailing in Vergil's Aeneid." Classical Quarterly 67 (2017) 542-557.
"A Catullan/Apollonian 'Window Reference' at Vergil Eclogue 4.31-36." Hermes 144 (2016) 118-122.
Review of Benjamin Eldon Stevens, Silence in Catullus. Madison, WI. 2013. Classical Journal Online 2015.05.10.
"Polity Across the Pond: Democracy, Republic, and Empire in Phaedrus Fables 1.2." Classical Journal 110 (2014/15) 161–90.
"Allusive Translation and Chronological Paradox in Varro of Atax's Argonautae." American Journal of Philology 134 (2013) 603–36.
"The Origin of the Idaean Dactyls (Apollonius Argonautica 1.1129–1131)." Classical Philology 108 (2013) 339–46.
"The Humour and Thematic Centrality of the patera in Plautus' Amphitruo." Greece & Rome 60 (2013) 232–45.
Review of George W.M. Harrison and Vayos Liapis (edd.), Performance in Greek and Roman Theatre. Leiden. 2013. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.11.27.
"Apollonius, the Launch of the Argo and the Meaning and Significance of decurrere at Catullus 64.6 and Valerius Flaccus 1.186." Classical Quarterly 62 (2012) 692–704.
Review of R. Alden Smith, Virgil. Blackwell Introductions to the Classical World. Malden, Mass. 2011. Classical Journal Online 2012.12.12.
Review of Siobhan McElduff and Enrica Sciarrino (edd.), Complicating the History of Western Translation: The Ancient Mediterranean in Perspective. Manchester. 2011. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.07.17.