Institute For Advanced Study Historian Named Knight Of Legion Of Honor

Glen W. Bowersock, professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been named a Chevalier, or Knight, of the Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor).

The Legion of Honor is an order of merit given by the French government. Instituted by Emperor Napoleon I in 1802, it is one of France's most prestigious awards, and the country's highest civilian honor. It is conferred upon men and women, who may be French citizens or foreigners, for outstanding achievements in military or civil life. The citation notes Bowersock's "important contribution to French-American cultural cooperation."

Bowersock was also recently named an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar from 1957-59.

Bowersock, whose field is Ancient History, has written or edited over a dozen books and published nearly 300 articles on Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern history and culture, as well as the classical tradition in modern literature. Among his works are Augustus and the Greek World (1965), Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (1969), Julian the Apostate (1978), Roman Arabia (1983), Hellenism in Late Antiquity (1990), Studies on the Eastern Roman Empire (1994), and Selected Papers on Late Antiquity (2000). He co-edited, with Peter Brown and Oleg Grabar, Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (1999).

A graduate of Harvard University, Bowersock received the M.A. and D.Phil. degrees from Oxford University. He taught ancient history at Balliol, Magdalen, and New College, Oxford, from 1960-62, when he joined the faculty of Harvard University. At Harvard, he was Professor of Classics and History, as well as Chairman of the Department of Classics from 1972-77 and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1977-80.

He has been at the Institute for Advanced Study since 1980.