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Daniel Peter Solomon

Senior Lecturer, Department of Classical Studies

PhD, Classical Philology. Yale University. 1998.
BA, Literae Humaniores (Classical Literature and History). Christ Church, Oxford University. 1991.

daniel(DOT)p(DOT)solomon(AT)vanderbilt(DOT)edu
tel.: (34)3-4134

I joined the Vanderbilt Department of Classical Studies in August 1998, after completing my doctoral dissertation on "Lucretius and the Deception of Rome: an Adaptation of Epicurean Epistemology.” The original plan was to stay for a year or two and seek a tenure-track appointment elsewhere. But the exciting challenges and responsibilities of my position, the energy and enthusiasm of our students, and especially the warmth and support of my classicist colleagues, have all persuaded me to stay right where I am.

As Senior Lecturer in the Department, I supervise our Latin language program, while teaching a variety of Latin courses from introductory through graduate seminars, as well as larger lecture courses on Roman and Greek Civilization. I have added to our curriculum an Intensive "refresher" course that takes students from pronunciation on the first day to Cicero's "First Catilinarian" speech by the last. As a result we now have roughly 60 undergraduates passing through our Introductory Latin sequence each Fall. My primary responsibility to the Department is as Director of Undergraduate Studies, advertising our program and coordinating our advising for the 30-35 majors in our three programs: Classics, Classical Languages, and Ancient Mediterranean Studies. I also supervise our Latin Language sequences, which primarily involves close mentoring of our graduate student teachers, each of whom teaches at least one section of Latin while completing their Masters degree. Outside Classics I generally serve as pre-major adviser for 35-40 freshmen and sophomores as they navigate both the complexities of our College curriculum and the stresses of being away from home. I maintain close contacts with the other language instructors by serving on the Vanderbilt Arts and Sciences Committee for Second Language Acquisition. And finally I coordinate with classical students and teachers at the secondary level, actively participating in the Tennessee Classical Association, the Junior Classical League, and the American Classical League, at whose Institute I delivered the plenary speech in June 2007.

My research interests are wide-ranging, focusing in particular on literature and society of Late Republican/Early Imperial Rome; literature and society of 5th/4th century Athens; Epicureanism in Greece and Italy; and issues in Latin language pedagogy. I have taught advanced Latin classes on “Roman Letters”; "Catullus"; "Horace's lyric poetry"; "Lucretius" graduate seminars on "Horace" and "Vergil's Georgics" (team-taught); and individual directed studies on "Catullus" and "Roman philosophers: Cicero and Seneca." In the near future I hope to be offering courses on Roman Satire and Latin Prose Composition.

I am especially interested in how the philosopher-poet Lucretius (c. 90-55 BCE) applies Epicurean theories of psychology and education to manipulate reader-response: by alternating passages designed to arouse pleasure and pain, Lucretius traumatically rearranges the atomic make-up of his reader's soul, thus promoting through temporary disturbance a more stable emotional state of "disturbancelessness."
We may not have have any reliable images of Lucretius left, but we certainly know what Epicurus looked like, thanks to the almost talismanic images worshipped by his disciples; here is one of the many surviving busts of the "professor of pleasure" himself.

I grew up in Italy, where I developed my twin passions for soccer and classics. I am indebted both to Vanderbilt and to the Nashville Soccer Association for allowing me to pursue both, and I am always eager to share my enthusiasm with any unsuspecting student or colleague passing by my office door. No appointment necessary; just come on by to Furman 327, and if the door is open, the Doctor is in!