The Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies invites you to attend a lecture by Prof. Tim Whitmarsh (Cambridge University) as part of its year-long lecture series, "Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean World: Crosscurrents and Interactions." Prof. Whitmarsh studies all areas of Greek literature and culture, with a particular emphasis on the culture of Greeks under the Roman Empire. He has also written on religion and atheism in the ancient world, including his most recent book, "Rome's Age of Revolution: Christians in a Classical World" (Penguin 2026). In this talk, Prof. Whitmarsh will discuss the poet Nonnus, the author of antiquity’s longest poem of any kind (the Dionysiaca, or 'adventures of Dionysus’), and also the author of a Paraphrase of John’s Gospel, exploring in particular this poet's idiosyncratic comparison of Christian and pagan culture. This talk is co-sponsored by the Humanities Institute, the department of Communications Arts and Sciences, and the Religious Studies program.