Ben Pullan

Department: Classics
Discipline: Classics and Ancient History
Research Centre/Unit: College of Humanities

Project Summary

Having completed my BA and MA in Classics at the University of Exeter, I decided to progress onto a PhD. My thesis, a literary commentary on the first half of the pseudo-Virgilian Aetna with accompanying thematic essays (supervised by Dr. Katharine Earnshaw), derives itself out of my long-standing interest in the poems of the Appendix Vergiliana; I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the Culex and my Masters one on the Ciris. I believe that the Aetna, an anonymously authored hexametric didactic poem on the workings of Mt. Etna, is a text of much — if under-appreciated — literary interest, and hence is in particular need of a literary-critical commentary.

My work is very generously funded by a full studentship, courtesy of the College of Humanities.

Supervisory Team

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Katharine Earnshaw.

Secondary Supervisor: Dr. Sharon Marshall.

Wider Research Interests

My work on the Appendix Vergiliana derives itself out of a long-standing interest in the canonical works of Virgil and Latin poetry more broadly. I enjoy reading all genres, from Catullan invective to Manilian astro-didactic!