On De Virtutibus

On Tuesday, the last day of the SBL Annual Meeting, I attended the second Philo session, and for me, it was the most rewarding one. And do you know what: two out of three used handouts!! (cf. my former posting below..)


Here you see the participants: Walter Wilson is presenting his paper, while Davit T. Runia (who presided at the session), then David Konstan, Gregory E. Sterling, and James R. Royse.

The theme was Interpreting Philo’s De Virtutibus.

First out was Walter Wilson, Emory University, who is writing the commentary on De Virtutibus in Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series (PACS). His paper was an interesting discussion of some aspects relating to work, and he in particular dealt with issues raised by Katell Bertholot, Philanthropia Judaica: le debat autour de la "misanthropie" des lois juives dans l'antiquite (JSJ 76; Leiden: E.J. Brill 2003, sorry for the missing accents in my printing of the title here..TS)), and then with Emilio Gabba, 'Studi su Dionigi da Alicarnasso: La costituzione di Romolo,' Athenaeum 38 (1960) 175-225,
Gregory E. Sterling, University of Notre Dame, was respondent to this paper

James R. Royse, (San Francisco State University) gave his paper on The Text of Philo’s De Virtutibus. He even handed out his whole manuscript. Great! This paper was also illuminating to me as I do not know very much about issues related to the text and various manuscripts of Philo's work.

Last presenter was David Konstan (Brown University), whos paper was on Philo’s De Virtutibus in the Perspective of Greco-Roman Philosophical Literature. I would have liked very much to have had some handouts of this too, as I found it very interesting; but here I'll probably have to wait for its publication.

After the session I was having lunch at Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant, with Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer, Ellen Birnbaum and David M. Hay. A very very pleasant closing of this years SBL Annual Meeting.