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    Tacitus's Dangerous Word
    Classical Antiquity 23 (1): 33-61. 2004.
    The fact that vocabulum appears with far more frequency in Tacitus' texts than in any other author except for the encyclopaedists argues for his idiosyncratic usage of the term. This article argues that imperial discourse, nearly identical in structure and expression to that of the Republic but divorced from Republican connotations, provided an empty site where Roman fantasies of self-definition took strong hold, and that Tacitus uses vocabulum to indicate words and concepts that illustrate this…Read more
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    Tyranny, Self, and Genre in Pliny's Letter 5.8
    Classical Antiquity 38 (1): 58-90. 2019.
    In Letter 5.8 Pliny shows that in the post-Domitianic era historia has become an impossible genre, both as a vehicle for conventional moral wisdom and because of the authoritative narrative voice it necessitates. The letter's literary strategies of deferral express these problems even as its content appears to argue positively the merits of historia and compare it with those of oratio. Pliny emphasizes the insufficiency of the narrative ā€œIā€, suggesting instead the importance of dialogue as the m…Read more
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    Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History (review)
    American Journal of Philology 126 (4): 630-632. 2005.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:...