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345Certum atque Confessum: Lorenzo Valla on the Forensics of CertaintyRhetorica 36 (3): 244-268. 2018.Im Zentrum von Vallas Umgestaltung der Dialektik als rhetorischer Methode steht ein neues Verständnis von certum, das aus Quintilians Institutio oratoria stammt. Diesem Verständnis zufolge ist Gewissheit in dem begründet, was allgemein akzeptiert wird, nicht in dem, was wahr ist. Damit trennt Valla certum und verum. In den Dialecticae disputationes stellt er Dialektik nicht als eine logische oder philosophische Methode zum Beweis von Wahrheiten dar, sondern als Praxis Geständnisse herbeizuführe…Read more
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16Fourth-Century FakesClassical World: A Quarterly Journal on Antiquity 115 (2): 179-204. 2022.Although Gaius Julius Victor has attracted scholarly attention due to his inclusion of letter-writing in his fourth-century rhetorical manual, his peculiar notion of sermocinatio or “impersonation” has gone largely unnoticed. Set against the backdrop of earlier accounts of sermocinatio as a technique of the grand style—including accounts in Quintilian and Cicero—Julius Victor presents impersonation as a method of subtle eloquence most germane to plain-style rubrics. Given Julius Victor’s couplin…Read more
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24Quasi Labor Intus: Ambiguity in Latin LiteratureThe Paideia Institute. 2018.For forty years, American priest and friar Reginald Foster, O.C.D., worked in the Latin Letters office of the Roman Curia’s Secretary of State in Vatican City. As Latinist of four popes, he soon emerged as an internationally recognized authority on the Latin language—some have said, the internationally recognized authority, consulted by scholars, priests, and laymen worldwide. In 1986, he began teaching an annual summer Latin course that attracted advanced students and professors from around the…Read more
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314The Ethics of Ambiguity in QuintilianIn William Michael Short, Charles McNamara & Michael Fontaine (eds.), Quasi Labor Intus: Ambiguity in Latin Literature, The Paideia Institute. pp. 205-223. 2018.
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535Stoic Caricature in Lucian’s De astrologia: Verisimilitude As ComedyPeitho 4 (1): 235-253. 2013.The inclusion of De astrologia in the Lucianic corpus has been disputed for centuries since it appears to defend astrological practices that Lucian elsewhere undercuts. This paper argues for Lucian’s authorship by illustrating its masterful subversion of a captatio benevolentiae and subtle rejection of Stoic astrological practices. The narrator begins the text by blaming phony astrologers and their erroneous predictions for inciting others to “denounce the stars and hate astrology” (ἄστρων τε κα…Read more
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491Quintilian's Theory of Certainty and Its Afterlife in Early Modern ItalyDissertation, Columbia University. 2016.This dissertation explores how antiquity and some of its early modern admirers understand the notion of certainty, especially as it is theorized in Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria, a first-century educational manual for the aspiring orator that defines certainty in terms of consensus. As part of a larger discussion of argumentative strategies, Quintilian turns to the “nature of all arguments,” which he defines as “reasoning which lends credence to what is doubtful by means of what is certain” (…Read more
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University of MinnesotaNon tenure-track faculty
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Classics |