Dr. Thomas Strunk
Associate Professor of Classics
Director, Classics and Philosophy Honors Program
(He, Him, His)
Degrees
Ph.D. and M.A. Loyola University Chicago - Classics
M.A. Wilkes University - Creative Writing
B.A. Pennsylvania State University - Classics and History
Interests
Roman history and historiography, Roman political thought, the music and poetry of Bob Dylan, the classical tradition, poetry, creative nonfiction
Recent Publications
Books
- Transfigurations, Poems. Charlotte: Main Street Rag, 2023.
- On the Fall of the Roman Republic: Lessons for the American People. New York: Anthem Press, 2022.
- History after Liberty: Tacitus on Tyrants, Sycophants, and Republicans. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017.
Articles
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“Conspicuous by Their Absence: Brutus, Cassius, and Cato the Younger in the Writings of Tacitus.” Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman PoliticalThought 39.2 (2022): 346-367.
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“History by Analogy: Cato the Younger and Caesar in Livy’s Account of the Second Punic War.” Ancient History Bulletin 35.1-2 (2021): 74-91.
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“Deconstructing the Monuments: Tacitus on the Mausoleum and Res Gestae of Augustus.” In Sources et modèles des historiens anciens. Ed. Olivier Devillers and Breno Battistin Sebastiani, 219-231. Scripta Antiqua 109. Bordeaux: Ausonius Éditions, 2018.
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"Socrates and St. Ignatius: The Mad Man, the Monk and the Philology of Liberation." Jesuit Higher Education 4.1 (2015).
Works in Progress
- The Lives of Cato the Younger from Ancient Rome to Modern America. Forthcoming University of Michigan Press, 2026.
Recent and Upcoming Talks
- “The Confederacy, Cato the Younger, and Lost Causes,” Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting, January 6, 2022.
- “I Will Tear Down My Barns: Ancient Catholic Social Teaching.” Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education, June 2-6, 2021.
- “Conspicuous by Their Absence: Cassius and Brutus in the Works of Tacitus.” Classical Association of the Middle West and South, 117th Annual Meeting, April 7, 2021.
- “Cato among the Feminists: 18th Century Female Writers on Cato the Younger.” Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting, January 6, 2021.
Recent Classes
- Classics/History 310: History of Ancient Rome - Fall of the Roman Republic
- Classics 205: Literature and the Moral Imagination
- Latin 311: History of Ancient Rome - Sallust
- Latin 371: Medieval Latin
- Latin 231: Horace - Odes and Epodes
- Greek 322: Homer - Odyssey
Rettig-Murray Lecture Series
2024 Rettig-Murray Lecture: Dr. Timothy Joseph - Doomscrolling with Lucan: The Ancient Roman Poet on Ecopolitical Catastrophe, Then and Now
First Year at Xavier
2008