Christopher Smith (ancient historian)

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Christopher Smith: Early Rome and Latium: Economy and Society c. 1000 to 500 BC. (1996)

Christopher John Smith (born  July 2, 1965 in Aylesbury , England ) is a British academic and classical scholar who specializes in early ancient Rome. He is now Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews in Scotland .

life and work

Smith first visited the Aylesbury Grammar School and studied from 1984 at Keble College of Oxford University classical archeology (Classics) . In 1988 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts . He finished his postgraduate studies in 1992 with a doctorate (Ph.D.). In the same year he moved as a lecturer at the University of St Andrews, received a professorship and became Director (Provost) of St. Leonard's College. From 2009 to 2017 he was director of the British School at Rome , an institute for the study of classical antiquity , and from 2012 to 2017 President of the Unione internazionale degli istituti di archeologia, storia e storia dell'arte in Rome, an umbrella organization for more than 30 foreign and Italian research institutes. He returned to St Andrews in 2017 and received a Major Research Grant funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The results of the research project are to be summarized in a book publication entitled The Roman Kings: A Study in Archeology, History and Power .

Smith is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (FSA Scot), the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) and the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). In addition, Smith is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute , a member of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici and a member of the Accademia Etrusca di Cortona . He was also elected to the Academia Europaea and received the Cultori di Roma award from the Mayor of Rome in 2017 . In 2013, Smith brought out, together with Tim Cornell, Edward Bispham and John Rich, a collection of text fragments from otherwise unsubstantiated works by ancient Roman historians. The collection is entitled The Fragments of the Roman Historians (FRHist) . Together with Reinhard Feldmeier , Karen L. King, Rubina Raja, Annette Yoshiko Reed, Christoph Riedweg , Jörg Rüpke , Seth Schwartz and Markus Vinzent, Smith is editor of the journal Religion in the Roman Empire (RRE) .

His main research interests are in the social and economic development of early Rome and Lazio during the Roman Empire and the Roman Republic . In this context, Smith also looks at general aspects of urbanization and state building . To this end, Smith examines the development and legal and symbolic significance of republican political institutions, particularly the gens , and how these were shaped by contemporary sources and interpreted in modern historiography . In addition, he also devotes himself to the writing of ancient history with a specific interest in fragmentary Roman historians. In addition to Greek historiography, the focus here is on writers such as Plutarch , Pliny the Elder , Aulus Gellius and Cicero , authoritative sources for fragmentary literature and the epoch of the late republic.

Publications (selection)

  • Early Rome and Latium: Economy and Society c. 1000 to 500 BC. Oxford University Press, New York 1996, ISBN 9780198150312 .
  • with Helen Parkins: Trade, Traders, and the Ancient City. Routledge, New York 1998, ISBN 9780415518925 .
  • with John Serrati: Sicily from Aeneas to Augustus: New Approaches in Archeology and History. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2000, ISBN 9780748613663 .
  • with Edward Bispham: Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy: Evidence and Experience. Fitzroy Dearborn, Chicago 2000, ISBN 9781579583255 .
  • The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology. Cambridge University Press, New York 2006, ISBN 9780521856928 .
  • with Anton Powell, Tim Cornell: The lost memoirs of Augustus and the development of Roman autobiography. Classical Press of Wales, Swansea 2009, ISBN 9781905125258 .
  • with Ralph Covino: Praise and Blame in Roman Republican Oratory. Classical Press of Wales, Swansea 2011, ISBN 9781905125463 .
  • with Peter Derow, Liv Mariah Yarrow: Imperialism, Cultural Politics, and Polybius. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012. ISBN 9780199600755 .
  • The Etruscans: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. Oxford 2014, ISBN 9780199547913 .
  • The Etruscans. Reclam, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 9783150204030 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/smith-christopher-1965-cj-smith-christopher-john-smith (14.01.2018)
  2. ↑ http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/about/news/appointment-to-british-school-at-rome (January 14, 2018)
  3. ↑ a b https://standrewsclassics.wordpress.com/2017/09/20/christopher-smith-returns-to-st-andrews/ (01/14/2018)
  4. ↑ a b https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/staff/cjs6/ (01/14/2018)
  5. ↑ https://standrewsclassics.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/leverhulme-major-research-fellowship-for-christopher-smith/ (14.01.2018)
  6. ↑ https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/christopher-john-smith(19eda452-fdde-42c2-af97-47acbc9c32d6)/prizes.html (14.01.2018)
  7. ↑ https://standrewsclassics.wordpress.com/2017/05/10/premio-cultori-di-roma-for-christopher-smith/ (01/14/2018)
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Christopher
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Christopher John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British ancient historian
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Aylesbury , England