MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury College professor Jane Chaplin will discuss how historical writing rose from the influence of two individuals in a talk at Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. Her talk, “The Invention of History,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public.
We take history for granted, but it owes its inception and survival to two extraordinary individuals. Chaplin will look at the contributions of Herodotus (ca. 484-424) and Thucydides (ca. 455-400) to the development of historiography.
Originally from suburban Boston, Jane Chaplin received her bachelors from Brown, a Master of Studies from Oxford, and a master’s and doctorate from Princeton. She moved to Vermont in 1992 to take up a position in the Classics Department at Middlebury College. 
She shares the teaching of Greek and Latin with her departmental colleagues and has responsibility for the ancient history curriculum, offering courses on the Greek and Roman worlds in alternate years. Her area of specialization is classical historiography, especially the Roman historian Livy, on whom she has produced three books.
The Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May in nine communities statewide, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. Talks in Middlebury are held at Ilsley Public Library unless otherwise noted. All First Wednesdays talks are free and open to the public. The First Wednesdays 2016-17 series in Middlebury is underwritten by The Residence at Otter Creek.
For more information, contact the Ilsley Public Library at 802-388-4095 or contact the Vermont Humanities Council at 802-262-2626 or [email protected], or visit www.vermonthumanities.org.