Galla Placidia: the Empress and the Fall of Rome

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Forthcoming Arts Society Chiswick lecture by Dr Stephen Kershaw

The next lecture in the series will be held on Thursday, 8 February at 8pm in the Polish Centre, King Street. The title is' Galla Placidia; the Empress and the Fall of Rome'.

This sumptuously illustrated lecture traces the fall of the Roman Empire in the West through both its art and one of its most intriguing heroines. At the centre of a perfect storm of Goths, Vandals, Huns and contesting Romans, stood an orphan girl of ‘nobility, beauty and chaste purity’ called Galla Placidia, half-sister of Roman Emperors, the hostage wife of a Gothic King, who became one of the world’s most powerful women.

Not only did she leave her mark on the history of Rome, but she was also the driving force behind some of its most impressive art and architecture.

Stephen Kershaw is a Classics Tutor for Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, Professor of History of Art for the European Studies Program of Rhodes College and The University of the South.

He has spent much of the last 30 years travelling extensively in the world of the Greeks and Romans, both physically and intellectually. He has published A Brief Guide to the Greek Myths (Robinson, 2007) and A Brief Guide to Classical Civilization (Robinson, 2010) and is currently working on A Brief Guide to the Roman Empire.

The lectures start at 8pm. Bar from 7.30pm. Guests £10 on the door, subject to availability.

February 1, 2018