This lecture will explore the relationship between unruly weather and ancient kingship, proposing: first, a widely acknowledged mode of meteorological legitimacy; second, that in certain configurations the atmospheric sky became an available object for management and manipulation; and third, that, in consequence, it became a landscape for thinking through the limits of sovereignty.

Paul J. Kosmin (Philip J. King Professor of Ancient History at Harvard University) works on the political, cultural, and intellectual history of the ancient Greek world, broadly understood. The core of his work to date has focused on the Hellenistic east – the political landscape that extended from the Greek mainland to India and Central Asia in the last three centuries BCE – and on three broad historical themes: the relationship between empires and systems of knowledge; the interaction between the Greek world and its Near Eastern neighbors; and ancient societies’ engagement with the “planetary”.

This event presented by the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible in part by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.