DE VITA MARIA CARMEN

Maria Carmen De Vita is Senior Researcher at the University of Siena (Dipartimento di Filologia e Critica delle Letterature Antiche e Moderne). She has a Ph. D. both in Late Antique Philosophy (2008) and in Classical Philology (2005) and obtained, in 2022, Italian Habilitations both as Professore di Prima Fascia (SSC 11/C-5: Storia della filosofia) and Professore di Seconda Fascia (SSC 10/D-2: Lingua e Letteratura Greca). In 2020 she was Visiting Researcher at the Historische Institut of the University of Bern; in 2016-2017 and in 2005-2006 she was research fellow at the Istituto Italiano per gli studi filosofici di Napoli.

Her scientific interests focus primarily on the writings of Julian the Emperor and, more generally, on the metaphysical and political aspects of post-plotinian Neoplatonism; she also investigates the evolution of pagan-christian debates and the intersections between rhetoric and philosophy in III^nd-IV^th century authors.

She has published a monography on Julian’s Neoplatonism (Giuliano Imperatore filosofo neoplatonico, Vita e Pensiero, Milano 2011) and a new Italian translation with commentary of Julian’s Orations and Letters (Giuliano Imperatore, Lettere e Discorsi, Bompiani, Milano 2022). Other publications concern Julian’s Contra Galilaeos (Callidior ceteris persecutor (Rufin. hist. X 33). Giuliano e la questione ariana, in Julian, Contra Galilaeos – Kyril, Contra Julianum, Interreligiöse Konflikte im 4. Und 5. Jh, heraugegeben von G. Huber-Rebenich, S. Rebenich, De Gruyter, Berlin-Boston 2020, pp. 39-63); the neoplatonic theory of myth (Mythenhermeneutik und Mythenkritik in der Philosophie des 4. Jh.s. n. Chr. Julian in Kontext, in Von falschen “Hunden” und wahren Mythen. Kaiser Julian, An die Adresse des Kynikers Herakleios, herausgegeben von H.-G. Nesselrath, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2021, pp. 185-233); the post-plotinian doctrine of ascent to God and the II^nd-IV^th century philosophical and theurgical theories on prayer [“Un altro modo di vedere” (Enn. VI 9, 11, 23): estasi e ascesa a Dio negli ultimi platonici in Esperienze e tecniche dell’estasi tra Oriente e Occidente, a cura di L. Canetti, A. Piras, «Quaderni di Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni» 21, Morcelliana, Brescia 2018, pp. 15-30; Between Rhetoric, Philosophy and Theurgy (?): The Philosopher-Emperor at Prayer, in «Koinonia. Rivista dell’Associazione di Studi Tardoantichi» 45 (2021), pp.245–278]. She also devoted other essays to Synesius and Themistius (Cosmologia e retorica negli Inni di Sinesio. L’immagine della choreia astrale, in Sinesio di Cirene nella cultura tardoantica. Atti del Convegno Internazionale. Napoli 19-20 giugno 2014, a cura di U. Criscuolo e di G. Lozza, «Consonanze» 6, Ledizioni, Milano 2016, pp. 203-235; Political Philosopher or Saviour of Souls? Socrates in Themistius and Julian the Emperor, in Socrates and the Socratic Dialogue, edited by C. Moore and A. Stavru, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2018, pp. 816-835).