Professor Han Baltussen
Nominated Fellow, August - September 2024
Home Institution: University of Adelaide
Han Baltussen is the Walter W. Hughes Professor of Classics at the University of Adelaide specialising in ancient philosophy. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and has held international fellowships, including at the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington DC, the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton and the Institute of Classical Studies in London (Dorothy Tarrant Fellow 2023). His research focuses on ancient intellectual traditions, pathways of transmission, and emotions in history. Among his books are monographs on Theophrastus, the school of Aristotle, the Neoplatonist Simplicius and various edited volumes on ancient commentaries, consolation, pain, and love. He is currently finalising a monograph on ancient self-consolation and a commentary on Theophrastus’ doxographical fragments. His latest book offers a new introduction, Greek text, and translation of the fourth century historian Eunapius of Sardes, Lives of Philosophers and Sophists (Loeb Classical Library, HUP 2023).
Project title: Self-Consolation in Greco-Roman Writings
The project aims, firstly, to highlight a neglected aspect of the consolation tradition, that is, the emergence of self-consolation, and secondly, to make the results available to a modern audience. The project builds on my previous work (2009–2018), especially an edited volume (Baltussen 2013), public lectures, online publications and a long-term survey of the shift in modern attitudes to death and mourning. While I initially studied consolation writings broadly, I have now settled on a more narrow scope of self-consolation. The notion of consoling oneself is implicitly present in several ancient texts (e.g., Homer, tragedy), but emerges as a self-conscious strategy in Roman times (Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, Galen, Marcus Aurelius). It has not been the focus of a singular study. By emphasizing self-consolation and examining the evidence in light of modern bereavement studies, this project will offer new insights into the phenomenon, its nature, and potential guidelines for renewed application. The project requires historicising ancient emotions, selecting and analysing a large data set, and exploring which could be used for a publicly available platform and other publication formats.