Sarolta Takács

Professor of History

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

B.A., University of California, Irvine

BACKGROUND

I received my B.A. in Classics from the University of California, Irvine, my M.A. and Ph.D. in History from UCLA (I also attended the University of Heidelberg and the Free University in Berlin). Before I came to Rutgers, I taught at the University of Oregon, at UCLA, and at Harvard where I also held the position of academic dean. My newest book, Vestal Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons: Women in Roman Religion (University of Texas Press), looks at Roman women and the role they played maintaining Rome's socio-political structure as well as the understanding of the Roman self by means of religious rituals. A forthcoming book (University of Cambridge Press) investigates the power of rhetoric through the traditional virtues of the ancient Romans (the mos maiorum).

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

• 510:205, Byzantium: The Imperial Age
• 510:306, Roman Empire
• 510:307, The Roman World in Late Antiquity

PUBLICATIONS

Books

• The Construction of Authority in Ancient Rome and Byzantium. The Power of Rhetoric (Cambridge University Press: London and New York, Fall 2008)
• Vestal Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons: Roman Women in Religion (University of Texas Press: Austin, 2008)
• Isis and Sarapis in the Roman World (Brill: Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, vol. 124, Leiden, 1995)

Selected Articles

• "Divine and Human Feet: Records of Pilgrims Honouring Isis," in: J. Elsner and I. Rutherford, Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity. Seeing the Gods (Oxford, 2005), 353-369
• "Cult, Dedicators and Dedications of Isis and Sarapis in Lydia and Mysia," Byzas 1 (Deutsches Archologisches Institut: Istanbul, 2005), 155-168
• "Confusion en la tierra, paz en los cielos: Galieno y los cristianos," in: Del Coliseo al Vaticano. Claves del Cristianismo primitivo, eds. Elena Muniz Grijalvo and Rafael Urias Martinez (Fundacion Jos Maria Lara: Seville, 2005), 153-173
• "Forging a Past: The Sibylline Books and the Making of Rome," in: Cultures of Forgery. Making Nations, Making Selves, eds. J. Ryan and A. Thomas (Routledge: New York and London, 2003), 15-27
• "Hypatia's Murder - The Sacrifice of a Virgin and Its Implications," reprint in ed. G. Nagy, Greek Literature vol. 8 (Routledge: New York and London, 2002), 397-412
• "Amicus ad Aram: A Friend unto Death  Tiberian Versions," American Journal of Ancient History, New Series 1.2 (2002) [2003], 109-123
• "Politics and Religion in the Bacchanalian Affair," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100 (2000), 301-310

AWARDS

• Loeb Classical Library Foundation Grant, 2003-4
• Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University, Washington, D.C., 2000-1
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, 1996-7
• Cook College Student Leadership Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Advising, 2004
• Petra T. Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award, Harvard Extension School, 2000

THE MOST EXCITING THING I DID RECENTLY ...

Become the founding dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. Check out the Honors Program website at: www.sashonors.rutgers.edu