Other names F. G. B. Millar | Name Fergus Millar | |
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Books The Roman Near East, Rome - the Greek World - an, The Crowd in Rome in the Late, A Greek Roman Empire, The Roman Empire a Similar People Emil Schurer, Geza Vermes, Martin Goodman, Erich Segal |
Sir Fergus Graham Burtholme Millar FBA (; born 5 July 1935) is a British historian and Camden Professor of Ancient History Emeritus, Oxford University. Millar numbers among the most influential ancient historians of the 20th century.
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Early life
Millar was educated at Trinity College (B.A.) and All Souls College, Oxford. At Oxford he studied Philosophy and Ancient History, and received his D. Phil. degree there in 1962.
Academic career
He has held positions in University College, London and Oxford University, where, from 1984 until his retirement in 2002, he was Camden Professor of Ancient History.
Millar has served as editor of the Journal of Roman Studies (1975–1979) and as President of the British Classical Association (1992–1993), and holding various offices in the British Academy, to which he was elected a Fellow in 1976. He was Chairman of the Council for Academic Autonomy (see also Anthony D. Smith), a group of academic activists who sought to promote academic freedom and the separation of universities and research institutions from state control.
He is an authority in the field of ancient Roman and Greek history. His accolades include honorary doctorates from the University of Helsinki, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and elected memberships in foreign academies. His first book, A Study of Cassius Dio (1964), set the tone for his prolific scholarly production. He has continued to produce important works, including The Roman Near East (31 BC – 337 AD) (1993), a path-breaking, non-Romano-centric treatment of this area. His further work includes The Crowd in the Late Republic (1998) and The Roman Republic in Political Thought (2002).
Honours
Millar received the Kenyon Medal for Classics from the British Academy in 2005. He was knighted in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours.