Congratulations to HCMH’s post-doc and research fellow, Dr. Dylan James, on his new article entitled “Translatio fortunae: Curtius Rufus’ Alexander, Livy’s Hannibal, and Intertextuality“, published in Classical Philology!

The influence of Livy on Curtius Rufus is long established, but this relationship has mostly escaped recent critical reevaluation of intertextuality. This article explores two allusions to Livy’s Book 21 in Curtius’ Book 7. I argue that these intertexts contribute to the characterization of Alexander in terms of his clementia and fortuna by alluding to Hannibal’s somewhat different trajectories with respect to those virtues. Regarding Curtius’ engagement with Livy’s conception of fortuna in the Third Decade, I suggest that Curtius is responding to ancient notions about the transference of fortune between empires, still current in his own day.