Books by Olivia Elder
Roman letters demonstrate that language has imperium: the power to resolve problems, to negotiate... more Roman letters demonstrate that language has imperium: the power to resolve problems, to negotiate relationships and to construct identities. This book combines sociolinguistic and historical approaches to explore how that power is deployed by the bilingual elite of the Roman Republic and Empire, offering the first systematic analysis of Greek code-switches in the letters of Cicero, Pliny, Marcus Aurelius and Fronto and in the Lives of Suetonius. Greek was a subtle tool within Latin epistolary communication, and an analysis of letter writers' bilingual practices reveals their manipulation of language to manage relationships between peers and across hierarchical or political divides, uncovering the workings of politics and society. Comparative analysis of Roman and modern code-switching contributes to the debate on how bilingual strategies in letters evolve and how they relate to oral and literary language. The language of letters illuminates the Roman world and its entanglements with Greek language and culture.
Articles and Chapters by Olivia Elder
Journal of Roman Studies, 2022
In his discussion of Roman wind-names, Seneca the Younger employs a striking metaphor to describe... more In his discussion of Roman wind-names, Seneca the Younger employs a striking metaphor to describe the integration of the name of the south-east wind, Eurus, into Latin. The name Eurus, Seneca says, has been ‘granted citizenship’. This is one of six instances of the metaphor of ‘granting citizenship to words’ in surviving ancient texts. In this article, I use this metaphor as an entry-point to reconsider the importance of citizenship and language to ancient conceptions of Roman identity and status. The metaphor is revelatory of ancient thinking about what citizenship meant, what it depended on, and to whom and on whose authority it should be granted, questions that became urgent as citizenship spread across the Empire. Different versions of the metaphor offer tellingly divergent views of citizenship and of language. These reflect the tensions between origin and culture, inclusion and exclusion, cosmopolitanism and nativism, in contemporary notions of what it meant to be or belong as Roman.
Population, Migration and Language in the City of Rome
Migration, mobility and language contact in the ancient Mediterranean ed. Clackson, J., James, P., McDonald, K., Tagliapietra, L. and Zair, N. (Cambridge University Press), 2020
CRASSH–BSR Issac Newton Fund Fellowship: Romanus: a conceptual history in antiquity and beyond
Papers of the British School at Rome
Reviews by Olivia Elder
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Books by Olivia Elder
Articles and Chapters by Olivia Elder
Reviews by Olivia Elder