Stanford Humanities Center
Paul Johnston received his PhD in Classical Philology and Comparative Literature from Harvard
University and his BA and MA from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Before coming to
Stanford, he spent a year teaching at the University of Miami. His research interests range widely in
the literature, culture and history of the ancient Mediterranean (and beyond), and he has published
articles on Greek tragedy, Roman literature, ancient Greek onomastics, and the reception of the
classics in the 20th century.
SHC Project
Roman Literature in Greek and Latin: Bilingualism, Empire and the Shaping of the Classical Canon
Paul Johnstonʼs first book project, Roman Literature in Greek and Latin: Bilingualism, Empire and
the Shaping of the Classical Canon, argues that we can reach a better understanding of the textual
record and cultural history of the ancient Roman world by moving beyond the misleading equation
between “Roman” and “Latin” that pervades and structures the study of Roman literature. Applying
theoretical approaches from comparative literature and translation studies, this book situates the
Greek and Latin literatures of the Mediterranean within the context of a bilingual cultural system
closely connected to the Roman state apparatus. It shows that writers in both of the empireʼs major
literary languages belonged to interconnected social milieux and addressed overlapping
readerships. This project develops a better understanding of the social and institutional contexts
that shaped the Roman literary record, providing frameworks for studying Roman literature as a
product of a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic, and multi-ethnic world in which patterns of literary and
cultural influence and engagement were much more fluid, complex and reciprocal than traditional
monolinguistic approaches have been able to contend with.
