Loyola University Chicago

Department of Classical Studies

Faculty

James Townshend

Title/s:  Assistant Professor

Office #:  Crown Center 575

Email: jtownshend@luc.edu

External Webpage: https://www.jamestownshend.org

Degrees

L.L.B. (public law), B.A., M.A., University of Auckland
A.M., Ph.D., Harvard University

Research Interests

Roman literature of the Late Republic and Early Empire, Ancient Greek & Roman Law, Ancient Aesthetics

Selected Publications

Publications:

  • "Mulier Testabilis:  Women as Witnesses in Roman Law." In Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by Karolina Frank, Greg Gilles, Christine Plastow, and Lewis Webb.  Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 2024.
  • "'Shut Up!  You Can't Even Read Latin!' Ancient Greek and Roman Material in Natsume Sõseki's I Am a Cat."  International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 2023 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-023-00648-8
  • "O Ego Non Felix: Inachia, Lesbia, and Horace's Epodes." AJP 141.4, 2020:499-536.
  • "Lex Claudia (218 BC)" and "Lex Villia Annalis 180 BCE".  In The Oxford Classical Dictionary, digital ed. Ed. Sander M. Goldberg. New York: Oxford University Press, March 2017.
  • "Stop me if you've heard this one: Faux Alexandrian Footnotes in Vergil." Vergilius (2015) 61: 77-96.
  • "William Shakespeare" In The Virgil Encyclopedia, R. Thomas and J. Ziolkowski (eds.) Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.
  • Review of G. B. Cobbold (trans.) Vergil's Aeneid: Hero — War — Humanity. Prudentia (2007) 39.2: 127-129.

Recent Papers:

  • “Mulier Testabilis: Women as Witnesses in Roman Law.” University of Miami Roman Law Conference: “The Legacy of Roman Law.”(Coral Gables, FL: 23–24 January 2020).
  • “‘Keep Quiet! You Can't Even Read Latin!’ The Satirical Purpose of Western Classics in Natsume Sōseki’s I Am a Cat.” 151st Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting. (Washington, DC: 4 January 2020).
  • “Camilla and Virgil’s Aesthetics of the Grotesque.” Meeting of the Antiquities Interdisciplinary Research Group, University of Miami. (Coral Gables, FL: 3 December 2019).
  • “‘Fighting evil by moonlight; quoting Virgil by daylight’: an unexpected reference to Virgil in Sailor Moon.” Drawing on the Past: the Pre-modern World in Comics. (London: 11 September 2018).