I’ll be reading at the Poetry & Song Series at the Falcon Theatre on February 15th, 2024. I’ll be reading poems from my collection Transfigurations as well as some new material. There will also be some wonderful music by Raison D’Etre and Freddy Bradburn. Show starts at 7pm, RSVP at rls@raison3.com.
In two weeks, Tuesday Sept. 5th, I’ll be reading from my poetry collection Transfigurations along with some newer poems. I’ll be joined by the wonderful poet Dick Westheimer. Open mic begins at 7:00. Come and read your work or just enjoy listening.
In July, I appeared on Ryan Sellers’ Quintilian: The Latin Teacher Podcast to talk about Cincinnati, Bob Dylan and the classical tradition, and lessons from the fall of the Roman Republic for the American people. Listen to the interview here:
Quintilian: The Latin Teacher Podcast: 30. Thomas Strunk on Apple Podcasts
I’m happy to announce that Main Street Rag Press will be publishing my poetry collection Transfigurations. This collection of poems, mostly written in the last couple years, reckons with loss and celebrates renewal. A few sample poems are available on my author’s webpage along with information on ordering advance copies. Transfigurations / Thomas E. Strunk | Main Street Rag (mainstreetragbookstore.com) 
Anthem Press has just released the paperback edition of my book On the Fall of the Roman Republic: Lessons for the American People. Bonus material is available on my blog LiberationNow.org.
On January 6, 2022, I will be delivering my paper “Cato, the Confederacy, and Lost Causes,” which focuses on the appropriation of Cato the Younger by Southerners late in the Civil War and in the Jim Crow Era; the paper will be presented at the Society for Classical Studies conference. The last time I delivered a paper at the Society for Classical Studies was last year on January 6, 2021. I gave the paper on Zoom in the morning and then went downstairs and turned on the news to watch in horror the attempted coup to disrupt the certification of the presidential election. I mention this not only because this is personally memorable but also because it is germane to my presentation topic, which addresses the attempt to use the past to reshape the present via a myth, a lie – the Lost Cause.
Temple of Vespasian Dedicated by Domitian, photo by Thomas E. Strunk, Forum Romanum
Pliny’s portrayal of his public life under Domitian has often come under fire from both thosewho approach Pliny’s Letters from a historical perspective and those who study them as a literary production. This article reevaluates Pliny’s experiences in five significant areas: public speaking, amicitia, political promotion, threats of political persecution, and survival and reconciliation. In all of these circumstances, Pliny is found to be an honest narrator of his own political struggles under Domitian and an eloquent voice for his generation’s endurance.
Strunk, Thomas E. “Rape and Revolution: Tacitus on Livia and Augustus.” Latomus 73 (2014): 126–148.
Although the Annales ostensibly begin “from the death of Augustus” (ab excessu Divi Augusti), Tacitus’ concise introduction covers the sweep of Roman history from the monarchy to the ascension of Tiberius. In charting this chronology, Tacitus carefully and subtly represents the transition from Republic to Principate as a transition from libertas to servitus. In this paper, I focus on how Tacitus uses Augustus’s abduction of Livia to signify the shift from freedom to autocracy just as earlier abductions and offenses against women marked revolutions in the constitutions of Rome and Athens.
While most accounts suggest that Livia and her husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero, were willing parties to their divorce and Livia’s remarriage to Augustus (Vell. 2.79.2; Suet. Aug. 62.2, Tib. 4.3; Dio 48.44), in Tacitus’s account Augustus appears to have taken Livia away from her previous husband forcefully (abducta Neroni uxor A. 1.10.5). According to Tacitus, the abduction of Livia had grave consequences for the Roman state (Livia gravis in rem publicam mater, gravis domui Caesarum noverca A. 1.10.5), as Livia asserted her power and influence in political affairs (anum . . . natura potentiae anxiam A. 4.12.4).
Tacitus’ account of Livia’s abduction contrasts with the rape of Lucretia under Rome’s monarchy and the offense against the sister of Harmodius by Hipparchos in Athens, which were both viewed as excesses of tyrannical power and resulted in the offender being expelled or murdered and in a more democratic constitution for the state. The abduction of Livia, however, led to a more authoritarian constitution and more closely mirrors the rape of the Sabine women by Romulus, to whom Augustus was compared as a second founder of Rome, and the establishment of monarchy at Rome. Tacitus seems to be suggesting that the Romans’ passive acceptance of Augustus’ rape of Livia inaugurated a new autocracy at Rome.
Colosseum from the Oppian Hill, photo by Thomas Strunk
The holding of high political office under the Roman Principate has often been regarded as evidence for collaboration with, or at least acceptance of, the imperial regime. Thus, Pliny and Tacitus are generally viewed as accepting the legitimacy of the Principate and its principes, both good and bad, because they held high political office and furthered their careers under the Flavians, Nerva, and Trajan. Conversely, the refusal to hold high political office or to seek to advance one’s political career has been interpreted as a mark of defiance and autonomy. In this paper, I challenge these assumptions in two ways: by examining the careers of the disloyal opposition, many of whom held high offices under the emperors they opposed, and the careers of the collaborators, many of whom despite their high offices eventually ran afoul of the regime, and by exploring how the opposition could actively use the cursus honorum as a means of opposition.
In summary, the fact that one held or did not hold high political office cannot be used as evidence of collaboration or dissent. Political opinions were often divorced from the political offices individuals held. This is of primary importance for determining the political views of writers like Pliny and Tacitus, whose political careers have inordinately influenced scholars in interpreting the political nature of their written works.
Strunk, Thomas E. “Socrates and St. Ignatius: The Mad Man, the Monk, and the Philology of Liberation.” Jesuit Higher Education 4.1 (2015). Available at Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal.
St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Shoes, photo by Thomas Strunk taken in St. Ignatius’ rooms, Church of the Gesu, Rome
This article explores the connections and contrasts between the modes of thinking of St. Ignatius of Loyola and Socrates of Athens. Though the two men diverge in many ways, their behavior and ways of examining the world are both liberating.
Jesuit education is founded upon the traditions of both Ignatian spirituality and Humanism, which can be
traced back to classical antiquity. The lives of St. Ignatius and Socrates are thus fundamental to learning at Jesuit institutions, because they represent two pedagogical models by which we can come to know ourselves and our place in the world: self-reflection through the application of the senses and philosophic inquiry in dialogue with others. When these methods are applied to works of philosophy, literature, and art, they
provide a reflective space for self-transformation and produce a philology that is liberating.
