Published: Feb. 17, 2016 By

Jackie Elliott, associate professor of classics at the 精品SM在线影片, has won a听from the Society for Classical Studies, the nation鈥檚 top research recognition in classical languages and literature.

Elliott was recognized for her 鈥済roundbreaking鈥 2013 book,听.

Jackie Elliot

Jackie Elliot

Three Goodwin Awards are granted annually for an outstanding contribution to classical scholarship published by a member of the Society for Classical Studies during the three years before the current calendar year. The National Research Council classifies this award as 鈥渉ighly prestigious.鈥

Elliott鈥檚 book is about the archaic Latin poet Ennius, who wrote a lengthy epic poem called the听础苍苍补濒别蝉,听that narrated Rome鈥檚 past from its origins to the city鈥檚 present day (early c. 2 BCE).

Although Ennius鈥 work survives only in fragments, it was hugely influential on the subsequent course of Roman literary history, including on its major surviving representatives, who include Vergil, Lucretius, Ovid, Livy and many more.

Our understanding of it is thus crucial to our concept of a large moment of the Roman literary past, prose and poetry.

Ennius and the Architecture of the Annales book cover

Ennius and the Architecture of the Annales book cover

Ennius鈥 work survives only in fragments, however, and those exist only in works by other ancient authors who quote Ennius.

Elspeth Dusinberre, professor and chair of the Department of Classics, said Elliott鈥檚 book is an 鈥渆xtraordinary detective work.鈥 To do this research, Elliott combined a thoroughgoing, critical survey of the ancient sources for the epic with fresh interpretation of the poem鈥檚 surviving record.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an extraordinary book, and it lays out a whole methodology for thinking about using quotes and fragments that can be transferred across all aspects of classical and other literature,鈥 Dusinberre said.

In a glowing award citation, the Society for Classical Studies concurred.

罢别谤尘颈苍驳听Ennius and the Architecture of the听Annales听a 鈥渞emarkable book that combines painstaking scholarship with brilliant intuition,鈥 the society praised Elliott for dissecting 鈥渢he intricate layers of learned opinion that have surrounded not only Ennius and Virgil but also their receptions.鈥

Further, the society stated: 鈥淭he result is a work both meticulous in its acuity and daring in its willingness to take on the question of how little we really know, but how much we may with caution be able to infer, about the content, organization, sophistication and ideology of the听Annales.鈥

For more on the 2016 Goodwin Award, click听. For more on the CU Department of Classics, click听.