Dr Frederik Vervaet
Lecturer
- Telephone:
- (+61 3) 8344 7496
- Email:
- fvervaet@unimelb.edu.au
- Fax:
- (+61 3) 8344 7894
- Location:
- Room 322
History, Arts West
The University of Melbourne VIC 3010
Biography
Frederik Vervaet received his PhD from Ghent University as a Research Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders. After graduation he moved to UC Berkeley where he spent the academic years 2002-2004 as Francqui Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation and Lecturer in the Departments of Classics (Fall 2003) and History (Spring 2004). This was followed by a three-year stint as Assistant Professor back at Ghent University, including a term at Oxford as Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College and Research Associate of the Classics Centre. He joined Melbourne's promising new interdisciplinary School of Historical Studies in June 2007.
Research
In addition to being a good husband and trying to raise two lively little boys (both sine much manu), Frederik seeks to solve questions concerning the social, political and institutional history of the Roman Republic and the Early Empire and Roman public law in general. As the Republic's political and religious institutions were inextricably intertwined, he also takes a keen interest in Rome's religious life and its distinct priestly colleges of which the manipulative augural college is his personal favourite.
Whereas 19th century scholarship studied these matters from a predominantly legalistic angle, the next century would produce historians who instead concentrated on the realities of power or on the structural and informal determinants of Roman social and political life. Frederik makes a humble attempt to convert this potential field of tension into an integrated approach, believing that the complement of both methods should result in more complete and coherent historical insights. Roman political and institutional history can best be understood if one carefully scrutinizes the content and scope of institutions and customary or statutory rules as well as the mentality and ethos of the individual and collective actors who shaped and incarnated them.
In his award-winning Master's thesis he discussed the remarkable career of Cn. Domitius Corbulo (suff. 39), illustrious general under the emperors Claudius and Nero. His doctoral dissertation concerned a comprehensive diachronic and comparative analysis of the so-called extraordinary commands of the Roman Republic from the Second Punic War to the definitive breakdown of the republican political order in January 49. The immortal gods willing, Frederik intends to publish the key parts of this inquiry in book form at some point in the not too distant future.
Frederik is a Member of the International Network Impact of Empire (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen) and the Roman Society Research Centre (Ghent University & Free University of Brussels). He also took part in five campaigns of Ghent University's excavations at Pessinus, Turkey.
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
- F.J. Vervaet, 'The Secret History: The Official Position of Imperator Caesar Divi filius from 31 to 27 BCE', forthcoming in Ancient Society 40 (2010)
- F.J. Vervaet, 'The Monopolisation of the summum imperium auspiciumque: from Cornelius Sulla to Imperator Caesar Augustus', forthcoming in Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Antiquité 122 (2010)
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Pompeius' Career from 79 to 70 BCE: Constitutional, Political and Historical Considerations', Klio. Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte 91 (2009) 406-434
- F.J. Vervaet, Review article of M. Beard, The Roman Triumph (Harvard 2007), The Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.09.39 (5072 words)
- F.J. Vervaet, 'The Scope and Historic Significance of the Lex Metilia de Aequando M. Minuci Magistri Equitum et Q. Fabi Dictatoris Iure (217 B.C.E.)', Studia et Documenta Historiae et Iuris 73 (2007) 197-232
- F.J. Vervaet, 'The Official Position of Cn. Pompeius in 49 and 48 BCE', Latomus - Revue d'études latines 65 (2006) 928-953
- F.J.Vervaet, 'The Scope of the lex Sempronia Concerning the Assignment of the Consular Provinces (123 BCE)', Athenaeum - Studi di Letteratura e Storia dell'Antichità 94 (2006) 627-656
- F.J. Vervaet, 'The lex Valeria and Sulla's Empowerment as Dictator (82-79 BCE)', Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz 15 (2004) 37-84
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Domitius Corbulo and the Rise of the Flavian Dynasty', Historia - Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 52 (2003) 436-464
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Caesennius Sospes, the Neronian Wars in Armenia and Tacitus' View on the Problem of Roman Foreign Rolicy in the East: a Reassessment', Mediterraneo Antico 5 (2002) 283-318
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Domitius Corbulo and the Senatorial Opposition to Nero', Ancient Society 32 (2002)135-193
- F.J. Vervaet, 'A Note on Syme's Chronology of Vistilia's Children', Ancient Society 30 (2000) 95-113
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Tacitus, Domitius Corbulo and Traianus' Bellum Parthicum', l'Antiquité Classique 68 (1999) 289-297
- F.J. Vervaet, 'CIL IX 3426: a New Light on Corbulo's Career, with Special Reference to his Official Mandate in the East from AD 55 to AD 63', Latomus - Revue d'études latines 58 (1999) 574-599
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Tacitus, Corbulo en het contemporaine debat over de Romeinse oriëntpolitiek', Hermeneus - Tijdschrift voor Antieke Cultuur 71 (1999) 196-204
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Corbulo's clientela militaris en het principaat van Vespasianus', Handelingen van de Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal-en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis 52 (1998) 297-317
Refereed Book Chapters
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Reducing Senatorial Control over Provincial Commanders: A Forgotten Gabinian Law of 67 BCE', forthcoming in O. Hekster & T. Kaizer (eds), Frontiers in the Roman World. Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Leiden & Boston 2010)
- F.J. Vervaet, 'The Pompeian Model for Augustan dissimulatio', forthcoming in A.J. Turner, K.O. Chong-Gossard & F.J. Vervaet (eds), The Discourse of Despotism and Deceit in the Ancient World (Leiden & Boston 2010)
- F.J. Vervaet, 'In What Capacity Did Caesar Octavianus Restitute the Republic', in F. Hurlet & B. Mineo (eds), Le Principat d'Auguste. Réalités et représentations du pouvoir Autour de la Res publica restituta (Rennes 2009) 49-71
- F.J. Vervaet, 'The reappearance of the supra-provincial commands in the late second and early third centuries C.E.: constitutional and historical considerations', in O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn & D. Slootjes (eds), Crises and the Roman Empire. Proceedings of the Seventh Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Leiden & Boston 2007) 125-139
- F.J. Vervaet, with T. Ñaco Del Hoyo, 'War in Outer Space: Nature and Impact of the Roman War Effort in Spain, 218–197 BCE', in L. de Blois & E. Lo Cascio (eds), The Impact of the Roman Army (200 BC- AD 476). Economic, Social, Political, Religious and Cultural Aspects. Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Leiden & Boston 2007) 21-46
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Tacitus Ann. 15, 25, 3: A revision of Corbulo's imperium maius (AD 63- AD 65?)', in C. Deroux (ed.), Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, Volume X (Brussels 2000) 260-298
Refereed Encyclopedia Entry
- A 2495 word entry on 'Triumph (all periods)' for Wiley-Blackwell's Encyclopedia of Ancient History, edited by Roger Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige Champion, Andrew Erskine and Sabine Huebner (ISBN: 9781405179355; 13 volumes)
Non-refereed Book Chapters
- F.J. Vervaet, 'Metellus and Pompeius in Spain, 77-71 BCE: Reinventing the Past in the Face of War', in I.B. Antela-Bernárdez & T. Ñaco del Hoyo (eds.), Setting landscapes into motion in the Ancient Empires. A first approach: citizenship, social conflicts, and war (Oxford 2009) 53-61
Reviews
- Itgenshorst, Tania, Tota illa pompa. Der Triumph in der römischen Republik (Göttingen 2005) in l'Antiquité Classique 76 (2007) 546-549
- Galinski, Karl (ed.), The Cambridge Companion of the Augustan Age, (Cambridge 2005) in l'Antiquité Classique 76 (2007) 536-538
- Morstein-Marx, Robert, Mass oratory and political power in the late Roman Republic (Cambridge 2004) in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 119 (2005) 77-79
- Lovano, Michael, The Age of Cinna: Crucible of Late Republican Rome (Stuttgart 2002) in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 117 (2003) 414-416
- Lintott, Andrew, The Constitution of the Roman Republic, (Oxford 1999) in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 114 (2000) 87-89
Teaching
Frederik's teaching fits his profile as a Roman historian perfectly. His two undergraduate lecture courses cover approximately ten centuries of Ancient Rome's turbulent and fascinating history, whereas his 4th/5th year research seminar addresses a variety of key matters in Roman history. The emphasis in all these subjects is on making critical use of the available literary, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological evidence.
- HIST20007 The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic
- HIST30007 Imperial Rome: Mediterranean Superpower
- HIST40006 The Roman Way of Life
Supervision
- Heath Blake (PhD), Major Issues in the Life of Mark Antony
- Michael Crennan (PhD), Sejanus In Early Modern English Literature (Working Title)
- Patrick Murray (Hons), The Colonial Policies of Marius and Sulla
- Owen Pettit (MA), The Political Implications of Domitian's Consular Choices
- David Rafferty (PhD), The Political Activity of Consuls in the Late Roman Republic