Alice Oswald’s recitation of her 2011 poem Memorial is an intensely modest, self-effacing performance. Yet it is also one which invites us to consider key questions about the ancient practice, and modern re-performance, of epic poetry. Oswald explicitly cites the antiphonal lament of Homeric funerary ritual as an influence upon her r…[Read more]

Ted Hughes’ version of Euripides’ Alcestis (1999) is a play which diverges significantly from its ancient source-text, most notably in an interpolated sequence during which the drunken Heracles re-enacts his own labours, before experiencing traumatic visions. This article identifies this un-Euripidean interlude as a characteristic instance of int…[Read more]

This review-essay discusses George Brant’s play Grounded (2013) in the context of its production at the Gate Theatre (London). It begins with a critical examination of my own “mis-seeing” of the play’s protagonist as a version of the tragic Heracles. The analysis which follows compares key aspects of The Pilot’s narrative with Euripides’ Heracles…[Read more]

A study of grappling (both athletic and martial) from ancient Egypt to Victorian England. It was written as a Classics & Ancient History PhD thesis, so half the verbiage focuses on the ancient world.

This monograph is the first in-depth examination of articulated Roman plate armour since H. Russell Robinson published his ground-breaking reconstructions of lorica segmentata in The Armour of Imperial Rome. With detailed discussion of all the significant evidence (including previously unpublished material), the book looks at each of the principal…[Read more]

Abstract: In Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe, springs are a central motif of the Prologue
and the novel as a whole. This motif counters male domination, since it
is associated with Chloe, while the flowers watered by springs in this novel
are identified with Daphnis. This study will examine how the motif of springs reflects
the resistance of D…[Read more]

English original of the entry for ‘Érudition (Grecque)’ in C. Urlacher & D. Meyer (eds.) Dictionnaire analytique de l’épigramme littéraire dans l’antiquité Grecque et Romaine, Turnhout, forthcoming.

English original of the entry for ‘Clôture, fermeture’ in C. Urlacher & D. Meyer (eds.) Dictionnaire analytique de l’épigramme littéraire dans l’antiquité Grecque et Romaine, Turnhout, forthcoming.

An Honours course taught by me at Edinburgh in 2011

An Honours course taught by me at Edinburgh in 2009 and 2012

Part of a much larger study in the intellectual history of Sophocles (and Greek tragedy in general) in the 18th century, this chapter brings to light, for the first time, Jean Terrasson’s incisive and highly influential attempt to dismantle Christianising and Neo-Classicist interpretations of both Greek tragedy and Aristotle’s Poetics and to…[Read more]

Review of Edward J. Watts, Hypatia. The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher

This essay examines what the paradigm of ‘globalization’ can tell us about the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BCE).

This essay examines what the paradigm of ‘globalization’ can tell us about the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BCE).

On July 29th, 2016 the Women’s Classical Committee UK, with the support of the Council of University Classics Departments, hosted a workshop at the University of Birmingham titled ‘Classics and Feminist Pedagogy: Practical Tips for Teaching’ workshop. This is one of two reports that came out of that workshop and presents some practical tips for t…[Read more]

On July 29th, 2016 the Women’s Classical Committee UK, with the support of the Council of University Classics Departments, hosted a workshop at the University of Birmingham titled ‘Classics and Feminist Pedagogy: Practical Tips for Teaching’ workshop. This is one of two reports that came out of that workshop and presents some practical tips for t…[Read more]

The late medieval wall of Rimini is an important monumental presence in the present-day fabric of the city, bounding its historic center. However, even though a good knowledge exists through written sources about it, the subject has not been checked enough from the archaeological point of view. This article intends to take stock of the situation…[Read more]

The late medieval wall of Rimini is an important monumental presence in the present-day fabric of the city, bounding its historic center. However, even though a good knowledge exists through written sources about it, the subject has not been checked enough from the archaeological point of view. This article intends to take stock of the situation…[Read more]

Identification & analysis of an imitation of Virgil’s Georgics in Claudian, De Raptu Proserpinae.