Glen W. Bowersock

Glen W. Bowersock
Ancient History
Professor Emeritus
School of Historical Studies

Glen Bowersock is an authority on Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern history and culture as well as the classical tradition in modern literature. He uses his exceptional knowledge of classical texts in many languages, together with inscriptions, coins, mosaics, and archaeological remains, to illuminate the mingling of different cultures and to draw unexpected and revelatory conclusions. His research interests include the Greek East in the Roman Empire and late antiquity as well as pre-Islamic Arabia. He is the author of numerous important articles and volumes, including Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (1969), Julian the Apostate (1978), Roman Arabia (1983), Hellenism in Late Antiquity (1990), Fiction as History: Nero to Julian (1994), Martyrdom and Rome (1995), Mosaics as History: The Near East from Late Antiquity to Islam (2006), From Gibbon to Auden. Essays on the Classical Tradition (2009), and The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam (2013).

University of Oxford, D.Phil. 1962; Harvard University, Professor 1962–80, Chairman of the Department of the Classics 1972–77, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1977–80; Institute for Advanced Study, Professor 1980–2006, Professor Emeritus 2006–; Balliol College, University of Oxford, Rhodes Scholar 1957–60, Honorary Fellow; Académie Royale de Belgique, Foreign Member; Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Socio Straniero; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow; American Philosophical Society, Member; Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Korrespondierendes Mitglied; Institut de France, Member; Russian Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member; University of California, Berkeley, Sather Professor 1991–92; American Historical Association, James H. Breasted Prize 1992; Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur 2004; Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres 2007

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