Anne Duncan, associate professor of classics and religious studies, will present the next Archaeological Institute of America Omaha-Lincoln Society Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 in Richards Hall, Room 15.

Her lecture, “Dying Well and Dying Badly in Ancient Rome,” is free and open to the public.

Ancient Rome gave its heroes lavish public funerals and impressive tombs, while it gave its villains elaborate public executions. By looking at funeral monuments, arenas and artistic depictions of blood sports, Duncan’s talk will examine some of the ways that late Republican and early Imperial Rome turned death into a public spectacle for its most valued statesmen and its most vilified criminals.

Duncan received her doctorate in classical studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of “Performance and Identity in the Classical World” (Cambridge 2006) and numerous articles on Greek and Roman dramatic performance. She is currently at work on two projects: a monograph called “Command Performance: Tyranny and Theater in the Ancient World,” and a textbook on Roman spectacle, under contract to Cambridge University Press.