Jeremy Swist

Education

2014–2018 Ph.D., University of Iowa

Classics; Dissertation: A Principio Reges: The Reception of the Seven Kings of Rome in Imperial Historiography from Tiberius to Theodosius; Advisor: Sarah Bond; Committee: Paul Dilley, Craig Gibson, Robert Ketterer, Rosemary Moore

2012–2014 M.A., University of Iowa

Major: Classics

2007–2011 B.A., summa cum laude, highest honors, University of Maine

Majors: Latin, European History; Minor: Classics

Courses Taught at Miami 

• CLS 101 - Greek Civilization in its Mediterranean Context
• CLS 121 - Classical Mythology
• CLS 211 - Greek & Roman Epic
• LAT 102 - Beginning Latin II

Selected Publications

Monographs

Julian Augustus: Platonism, Myth, and the Refounding of Rome (In progress)

Journal Articles

• 2022 “‘Wolves of the Krypteia’: Lycanthropy and Right-Wing Extremism in Metal’s Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome.” Metal Music Studies 8.3: 309-325.
• 2020 “Sexual Intercourse in Celsus’ De Medicina.” Syllecta Classica 31: 65-93.
• 2019 “Satan’s Empire: Ancient Rome’s Anti-Christian Appeal in Extreme Metal.” Metal Music Studies 5.1: 35-51.
• 2018 “Medicine in the Thought and Action of the Emperor Julian.” International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 12.1: 13-38. 
• 2017 “Prosecuting Epicurus in the Emperor Julian’s Court: A Reading of Himerius’ Oration 3.” Journal of Late Antiquity 10.1: 221-249. 
• 2017 “Sophistry and Sorcery in Libanius’ Declamations.” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 57.2 431-453.
• 2016 “Pagan Altars and Monarchic Discourse in Libanius, Declamation 22,” Phoenix 70.1-2: 170-189. 

Book Chapters

• 2025 “Alexander vs. Gilgamesh in Fuyuki City: Necromancing Ancient Heroes & Heroines in the Fate Anime Series.” In C. Sulprizio & C. W. Marshall (eds.), Animation and the Ancient World. Co-authored with Nicole Becklinger. (Forthcoming)
• 2024 “Hail, Unholy Queen: Persephone’s Shifting Archetypes in Metal Music.” In E. Mackin Roberts & A. Hinds Scott (eds.), Persephone in Love: Persephone and Hades in Popular Culture. Co-authored with Emma Pauly. (Forthcoming)
• 2023 “Sparta and the Reception of Ancient History in Metal Music.” In J. Herbst (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music. Cambridge University Press. (Forthcoming)
• 2021 “Headbanging to Byzantium: The Reception of the Byzantine Empire in Heavy Metal Music.” In E. Alışık (ed.), İstanbul’da Bu Ne Bizantinizm! / What Byzantinism is this in Istanbul! (Istanbul: İstanbul Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Yayınları: 200-229.
• 2021 “From Romulus Conditor to Hadrianus Augustus: Livy’s Seven Kings of Rome in Florus.” In O. Devillers & B. B. Sebastiani (eds.), Sources et modèles des historiens anciens II. Scripta Antiqua 145. Bordeaux: Ausonius Éditions: 341-355.

Book Reviews

• Drijvers, Jan Willem, The Forgotten Reign of the Emperor Jovian (363-364): History and Fiction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022) in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis. (Forthcoming).
• Broughall, Quentin J., Gore Vidal and Antiquity: Sex, Politics and Religion (New York: Rouledge, 2022) in Bryn Mawr Classical Review. (Forthcoming).
• 2022 Watts, Edward J., The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021) in The Classical Journal. 01 August.
• 2022 Greenwood, David N., Julian and Christianity: Revisiting the Constantinian Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021) in Rhea Classical Reviews. 24 March. 
• 2021 Chazal, Benoît, La Rhétorique du blâme dans l'Histoire Auguste (POLEN: Pouvoirs, lettres, normes, 20. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2021) in The Bryn Mawr Classical Review 11.34. 
• 2019 Burden-Stevens, C. & Lindholmer, M. (eds.), Cassius Dio’s Forgotten History of Early Rome: The Roman History, Books 1-21 (Leiden: Brill, 2018) in The Bryn Mawr Classical Review 07.40. 

Encyclopedia Articles

• “Rome, myth and history of,” in V. E. Pagán (ed.), The Tacitus Encyclopedia. Wiley-Blackwell. (Forthcoming).

Invited Lectures

• 2023 “Metalizing the Emperor Julian.” Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, March, Providence, RI.
• 2023 “Princeps Romanus sum: Julian and Roman Identity.” University of Liverpool Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, March, Liverpool, UK. 
• 2023 “Metalizing the History and Literature Classroom.” University of Victoria Department of English, February, Victoria, BC.
• 2022 “‘Homer’s’ Odyssey: The Instability of Authorship, Translation, & Heroism.” University of Maine Honors College, October, Orono, ME. 
• 2021 “Ancient Studies & Metal Music Studies: Discographies, Bibliographies, and Outreach.” Save Ancient Studies Alliance, December, online. 
• 2021 “Fascist Receptions of Antiquity in Metal Music.” Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, October, Cambridge, MA. 
• 2021 “An Unholy Trinity: Antiquity, Heavy Metal, and White Supremacism.” Eta Sigma Phi, University of Iowa Chapter, February, Iowa City, IA. 
• 2019 “By Spartan Law, We Rock: Laconophilia in Heavy Metal Music.” Miami University Department of Classics, November, Oxford, OH. 
• 2012 “Apuleius’ Metamorphoses,” University of Maine Honors College, February, Orono, ME.
• 2012 “Vergil and the Imperial Epic,” University of Maine Honors College, January, Orono, ME.

Conference Papers

• 2023 “More than a Metaphor? Julian and Himerius on the Cult of Paideia” (International Medieval Congress, July, Leeds, UK).
• 2023 ”Theurgic Cosmogenesis as Roman Refoundation in Julian’s Mythic Allegoresis” (International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, June, Catania, Sicily).
• 2023 “Taught Somewhere in Time: How Metal Can Help Students Think Critically About History” (International Society for Metal Music Studies, June 2023, Montréal, QC).
• 2022 “Medusa at Stormbringer Metal Festival” (Monsters Conference, September, online). Co-authored with Christina Hotalen. 2022 “Hellenic Polytheism & Heavy Metal: From Classical Reception to Contemporary Ritual” (Metal & Religion, September, Brno, Czech Republic). Co-authored with Aneirin Pendragon. 
• 2022 “Subverting the Kaisergeschichte: The Kings of Early Rome in the Historia Augusta” (“The Lost Latin Historiography of Late Antiquity” [organized by National Science Centre Poland], International Medieval Congress, July, Leeds, UK).
• 2022 “Like a Father More Than a Tyrant: Romulus as Paradigm in Appian’s Roman History.” (CAMWS, March, Winston-Salem, NC).
• 2022 “The Return of the Pompilian Era: Romulus, Numa, and their Estrangement from Emperors in Ammianus Marcellinus” (Society for Classical Studies, January, San Francisco, CA).
• 2021 ‘“Romanticised, and to a great extent, utterly wrong images’: The Impact of Cinematic Antiquity on Heavy Metal Music.” (“What Has Antiquity Ever Done for Us?” The Vitality of Ancient Reception Studies, presented by Antiquity in Media Studies, December, online). 
• 2021 “Morbid Tales: Heavy Metal Music & the Global Reception of Egyptian Queens” (Annual Meeting for Postgraduates in the Reception of the Ancient World, November, New York, NY). Co-authored with Leire Olabarria.
• 2021 “There Can Be Only One: The Death of Remus After Livy” (CAAS, October, New Brunswick, NJ).
• 2021 “Ideology and Allegory in the Emperor Julian’s Mythography” (Ambiguity and Ambivalence in Late Antiquity [organized by the Postgraduate & Early Career Late Antiquity Network], September, online). 
• 2020 “Julian and Rome’s Eternal Re-foundation” (Society for Classical Studies, January 2020, Washington, DC). 2019 “As Rome Burns: Metal, Barbarians, and Empire” (Somewhere in Time: A Conference on Metal and History, August, Victoria, BC).
• 2019 “The Women of Regal Rome in Imperial Abbreviated Histories: 30-400 CE” (Celtic Conference in Classics, June, Coimbra, Portugal).
• 2019 “Servius Tullius’ Imperial Nachleben” (CAMWS, April 2019, Lincoln, NE).
• 2019 “Regal Women in the Breviarists of Late Antiquity” (Temple University Consortium on Women, Marriage and the Household from Antiquity to the Present, February, Philadelphia, PA).
• 2019 “The Kings as Imperial Models in Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and the Epitome de Caesaribus” (“Limits on Imperial Authority in Late Antiquity” [organized by the Society for Late Antiquity], Society for Classical Studies, January, San Diego, CA).
• 2018 “Julian’s Providential Roman History” (International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, June, Los Angeles, CA).
• 2018 “Romulus and the Sabine Kings in Tacitus’ Annales” (CAMWS, April, Albuquerque, NM).
• 2017 “King Numa and Emperor Julian” (Numa Numa: The Life and Afterlife of the Second King of Rome, October, Ann Arbor, MI).
• 2016 “Medicine in Julian’s Religious and Philosophical Thought” (International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, June, Seattle, WA).
• 2016 “Intellectual Caricature in Libanius’ Declamations” (CAMWS, March, Williamsburg, VA). 2015 “Greek Declamation and the Altar of Victory in the Fourth Century” (50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, May, Kalamazoo, MI).
• 2015 “Greek Declamation and Scholastic Rivalries: The Case of Himerius’ Oration 3” (CAMWS, March, Boulder, CO).
• 2013 “Networking Paganism: The Ecclesiastical Framework of Julian’s Theocracy” (Heartland Graduate Conference in Ancient Studies, September, Madison, WI).
• 2012 “Homeric and Platonic Contrasts in Julian’s Propaganda” (Exegi Monumentum Aere Perennius: Self-Promotion in the Ancient World, October, Buffalo, NY).
• 2011 “And They’re Off! Translating the Chariot Race of Iliad XXIII” (Translations 2011 Conference, October, Lewiston, ME).

Conferences, Seminars, Panels, Workshops, and Discussions Organized

• 2025 Modern and Popular Receptions of Late Antiquity (Society for Classical Studies [sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity], January, Philadelphia, PA).
• 2023 Julian the Imperial Theurgist (International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, June, Catania, Sicily). Organizer and panelist.
• 2023 Premodernity as Anti-Modernity in Metal (International Society for Metal Music Studies, June, Montréal, QC). Co-organizer with Charlotte Naylor Davis & Shamma Boyarin.
• 2022 Ancient World, Modern Music: Receptions of Antiquity Across Popular Music Genres (CAMWS, March, Winston-Salem, NC). Organizer.
• 2022 Heavy Metal & Global Premodernity. Online conference hosted by Brandeis University, February 24-26. Co-organizer with Charlotte Naylor Davis.

Grants, Fellowships, and Awards

• 2017 Graduate College Summer Fellowship, University of Iowa, $4000
• 2017 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award University of Iowa, Council on Teaching
• 2017 Mary White Prize for Best Article in Phoenix
• 2016 Classical Association of Canada 2016 Peter Green Essay Prize University of Iowa
• 2014 Peter Green Essay Prize University of Iowa

Membership in Professional Organizations

• Society for Classical Studies
• International Society for Neoplatonic Studies
• International Society for Metal Music Studies
• Society for Late Antiquity

Languages

• Latin - Advanced level reading
• Ancient Greek - Advanced level reading 
• French - Advanced level reading
• German - Advanced level reading, Beginner level speaking
• Italian - Advanced level reading, Beginner level speaking
• Spanish - Advanced level reading
• French - Intermediate level speaking