Diana Dellantonio
Diana Dellantonio
I was born and raised in Bolzano, in South Tyrol (Italy). I attended a high school with Greek and Latin as principal subjects. Due to the desire of improving my German skills I decided to transfer to Austria. I attended the University of Innsbruck where I hold a B.A. degree in Classica et Orientalia (with specialisations in Classical Philology and Ancient History) and a M.A. degree in Ancient History and Near Eastern Studies. I undertook many journeys with the University of Innsbruck, having been to Ankara, Greece, Rome, Iran and Berlin. Before completing my B.A. in 2015 I attended a Seminar on Ancient Greek Music organised by the University of Trento. I also did an internship at Tyrol Castle, near Merano (South Tyrol). I moved to Vienna in 2017 where I started one year after the PhD in Ancient History under the supervision of Prof. Fritz Mitthof (Department of Ancient History) and Prof. Danuta Shanzer (Department of Classical Philology). In 2019 I attended a workshop at the Austrian Academy of Sciences where I have gained insights into Digital Humanities. In spring 2020 I attended an online interdisciplinary course about memory studies organised by the University of Trento.
Research interests: Medea in Greek literature; Alexander the Great’s representations in the Western and Eastern Medieval manuscripts of the Alexander Romance; ancient lieux de mémoire, especially of the Augustan period; Early Rome in Late Ancient historiography; reception of Classical antiquity in movies and in paintings.
Current research project: The Early History of Rome from the perspective of Late Ancient historiography (2nd – 7th century AD)
My dissertation deals with the perception of the period of Early Rome (which means the period that spans from the from the landing of the Trojan hero Aeneas on the Italian coasts to to the expulsion from Rome of the last Roman King Tarquin the Superb) in Late Antiquity, i.e. in the period between the 2nd and 7th century A.D. The five historians I selected for this analysis are: Cassius Dio (Roman History, 2nd/3rd century AD), Pseudo Aurelius Victor (De viris illustribus, 4th century AD), Paulus Orosius (History against the Pagans, 5th century AD), Jordanes (Romana, 6th century AD) and Johannes Malalas (Chronicle, 6th century AD). The selected authors came from different social milieus, professed different creeds and came from different places of the Roman Empire. The methods used for the investigation are three: the philological method, the historical method and the historical discourse analysis. The first method focuses on the texts themselves: it is going to be examined the style, genre and terminology of each text. The second method deals with the historical core of the reports on Early Roman history from the perspective of modern research. Here is where research has its voice in the matter and the attitude towards Early Rome of modern researchers will be compared with the one of Late antique authors. The core of the historical discourse analysis is discourse as a way of knowledge, on the basis of the Foucauldian discourse. The discourse on Early Rome can be constructed through the works of each Late ancient writer and their many contexts: the geographical context, the temporal context and the social background (origin, education, religious or political career) of each author.
Publications:
- Die Ara Pacis Augustae als „Erinnerungsort“, in: Akten des 14. und 15. JungAkademikerInnenTagungen der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (14. November 2019 / 24.-25. Juni 2021), in preparation