Sergio Yona
Associate Professor of Classical Studies
310 Swallow Hall
Faculty
Bio

Sergio Yona received a BA in Classical and Early Christian Studies from Christendom College, an MA in Classics from Queen’s University (Kingston, ON) and his PhD in Classics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  His research involves the interdisciplinary study of life in ancient Rome, especially with regard to the interaction between Greek philosophy and Latin culture.  More specifically, his research looks at the role of contemporary Epicureanism in the Satires of Horace.  He published a book in 2018, entitled Epicurean Ethics in Horace: The Psychology of Satire, which examines the influence of Philodemus of Gadara’s philosophical and ethical writings in Horatian satire.  He recently published an edited volume entitled Epicurus in Rome: Philosophical Perspectives in the Ciceronian Age with Cambridge University Press.  Currently, he is working on a second monograph currently under contract with Oxford University Press and entitled Noctes cenaeque deum: Religion and Superstition in Early Vergil and Horace.

Education
  • PhD, University of Illinois (2014)
  • MA, Queen's University at Kingston (2009)
  • BA, Christendom College (2006)
Research

Augustan Poetry, Roman Satire, Roman Epicureanism

Teaching
  • The Classical Tradition
  • Readings in Latin Poetry
  • Readings in Latin Prose
  • Comedy, Humor and Wit in Latin Literature
  • Greek Classics in Translation 
  • Classical Mythology (WI)
Select Publications

Books:

Noctes cenaeque deum: Religion and Superstition in Early Vergil and Horace (forthcoming, Oxford University Press)

Afterlives of the Garden: Receptions of Epicurean Thought in the Early Empire and Late Antiquity (forthcoming, De Gruyter Press)

Epicurus in Rome: Philosophical Perspectives in the Ciceronian Age. Cambridge

Epicurean Ethics in Horace: The Psychology of Satire. Oxford

Recent Articles:

“A Recipe for Disaster: Horace, Satires 2.4 and 2.8” (book chapter forthcoming in Bloomsbury volume)

"Unwalled City: The Herdsmen's Plight in Eclogues 1" (forthcoming in Latomus)

“An Epicurean ‘Measure of Wealth’ in Horace, Satires 1.1” Classical Antiquity 37: 351-378 

“A Manual for Flatterers, a Proof of Candor: Philodemus’ On Flattery and Horace’s Satires 2.5.” American Journal of Philology 139: 605-640 

Book Reviews:

Review of: Paul Allen Miller: Horace. Classical Review

Review of: Leedert Weeda: Horace's Sermones Book 1: Credentials for Maecenas. Gnomon

Review of: G. B. Cobbold, Lucretius: The Nature of the Universe. Bolchazy-Carducci. Classical Journal

Review of: Dino De Sanctis, Emidio Spinelli, Mauro Tulli, Francesco Verde (eds.), Questioni epicuree. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.06.05

In Progress:

Memento mori and Eclogues 9” (article under review)

"Superstition and Religion in Satires 1.8" (article under review)

PDF Documents