Maria Nousias Zamanakos, Alexandria Zamanakos and Alice Fleury Zamanakos Endowed Lectureship in Hellenic Studies

The Zamanakos Endowed Lectureship in Hellenic Studies is an annual lecture to be held on behalf of the Hellenic Studies Program of UMass Lowell.

The Hellenic Studies Program is dedicated to forging partnerships between the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the Hellenic-American community of the Greater Merrimack Valley. This annual lecture shall provide a forum for those interested in the historical and cultural contributions made by Greece and the Hellenes around the world. The program is committed to bringing the best in intellectual and cultural events to Lowell to further that goal.

Seeking Sponsors in Hellenistic Greece: Why and How Greek Communities Embraced Attalid Patronage

Portrait of Gregory Callaghan, man wearing glasses and a suit

Gregory Callaghan, Assistant Professor, Department of Classics, Union College

When: Thursday, March 20, 2025
Lecture: 6-7 p.m.
Reception: 7-8 p.m.
Where: Coburn Hall 255
Free and open to the public.

At the end of the 3rd century BCE, the Aetolian League named King Attalus I of Pergamon as its Supreme Commander, and Athens renamed a tribe in his honor. Pergamon was a kingdom on the rise, but new and small compared to its mightier neighbors. Why would Greek communities seek this kingdom — by most metrics one of the weakest — as a patron and protector?

This talk will explore how the Attalid dynasty utilized the more malleable metric of “status” to achieve an authority within the Greek world that far-exceeded its military and territorial power.

For more information, contact Prof. Jane Sancinito, Department of History, UMass Lowell.

Sponsored by the UMass Lowell History Department and the FAHSS Dean’s Office, with support from the Hellenic Cultural and Heritage Society of Lowell.