Frank W. Walbank

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Frank Walbank.jpg

Frank William Walbank (born December 10, 1909 in Bingley , West Yorkshire , † October 23, 2008 in Cambridge ) was a British classical philologist and ancient historian . He is considered one of the most important Hellenism researchers of the 20th century.

Life

Walbank attended from 1928 to 1931 the Peterhouse College in Cambridge , where he studied Classical Studies and History .

In 1932 he first worked as a teacher in Manchester before he was appointed as a lecturer at Liverpool University in 1934 . There he first held lectures and seminars and finally received a professorship for Latin philology in 1946 . In 1951 he accepted a call to the chair for ancient history and classical archeology at the same faculty, which he held until his retirement in 1977. He also worked as a visiting professor in Pittsburgh (1964), Oxford (1964–1965) and Berkeley (1971). He was a member of the British Academy and an honorary doctorate from Exeter University .

Frank W. Walbank was married to Mary Fox († 1987) since 1935 and had three children with her.

research

A special focus of Walbank's studies was the work of the Greek historian Polybios , to whom Walbank devoted several studies. In 1957 he published the first of three volumes of a meticulously compiled, historical commentary on Polybios, with which he made a name for himself as one of the leading Polybios experts worldwide. When the second volume appeared in 1973, the Times called the opus one of the greatest scientific achievements of a generation of British scholars.

His other important writings include studies on the fall of the Roman Empire ( The Awful Revolution ), Aratos of Sikyon , King Philip V of Macedon and the world of Hellenism . In 1984, Walbank was also the chief editor of two volumes of the renowned fourteen-volume Cambridge Ancient History ( The Hellenistic World / The Rise of Rome to 220 BC and Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 BC ).

Even in his tenth decade, Walbank, who also had numerous academic students, published scientific articles. While his works are highly regarded in the professional world because of their content and profound knowledge of sources, his style and linguistic ductus is sometimes criticized, which already requires considerable knowledge in the respective subject area and is therefore not accessible to interested laypeople, something that is common in English-language research is rather unusual.

In 2002, Walbank was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Fonts

Monographs
  • Aratos of Sicyon . Cambridge University Press 1933.
  • Philip V of Macedon . Cambridge University Press 1939.
  • The Decline of the Roman Empire in the West . Cobbett Press 1946.
  • A Historical Commentary on Polybius , 3 vols. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1957–1979.
  • The Awful Revolution: The Decline of the Roman Empire in the West . University Press, Liverpool 1968.
  • The Hellenistic World . Harvester Press, Brighton 1981. Dt. Edition under the title The Hellenistic World . dtv, Munich 1983.
  • A History of Macedonia . 3 vols. Oxford 1988.
  • Polybius, Rome and the Hellenistic world . Cambridge 2002.
Editorships

literature

  • John Davies: Frank William Walbank, 1909-2008 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 172 , 2011, p. 325-351 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Times Literary Supplement , July 13, 1973, p. 812: Walbank's monumental edition of Polybius's surviving text is now two-thirds published and is one of the greatest achievements of British scholarship in this generation.
personal data
SURNAME Walbank, Frank W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walbank, Frank William; Walbank, FW
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British classical philologist, ancient historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Bingley
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 2008
Place of death Cambridge