Ralph W. Mathisen

RALPH W. MATHISEN joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after 23 years at the University of South Carolina, where he was Louise Fry Scudder Professor of Humanities. He is a specialist in the society, culture, and religion of Late Antiquity.

Professor Mathisen recent works include Barbarian Intellectuals in Late Antiquity, a study of the late Roman comedy The Querolus, and the life and letters of Desiderius of Cahors.

He has authored or edited ten books, including People, Personal Expression, and Social Relations in Late Antiquity, 2 vols. (Univ. of Michigan, 2003); Society and Culture in Late Antique Gaul. Revisiting the Sources (Ashgate, 2001) (with D.R. Shanzer); Law, Society, and Authority in Late Antiquity (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001); and Ruricius of Limoges and Friends: A Collection of Letters from Visigothic Aquitania (Liverpool Univ. Press, 1999), and has published over 60 scholarly articles including Valentinian.

He is Director of the Biographical Database for Late Antiquity Project, and a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society. He has also served in a number of capacities for the Byzantine Studies Conference, the American Philological Ass., the Ass. for History and Computing, the Ass. of Ancient Historians, the Classical Ass. of Midwest and South, the Soc. for Ancient Numismatics, the Society for Late Antiquity, and the U.S. National Committee for Byzantine Studies.

He maintains the Geography of Roman Gaul website: http://www.sc.edu/ltantsoc/geogmain.htm

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1979.

Contact information:
RALPH MATHISEN [ruricius@msn.com]
Department of History, University of Illinois
309 Gregory Hall, 810 S Wright ST, MC-466, Urbana IL 61801 USA
Phone: 217-244-2075 FAX: 217-333-2297

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

"Andrew Wallace-Hadrill is director of the British School at Rome and Professor of Classics at Reading University. An expert on Pompeii, Professor Wallace-Hadrill was awarded the AIA James R. Wiseman Award in 1995 for his book, Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (1994). He has written several other books including, Augustan Rome (1993) and Suetonius: the Scholar and his Caesars (1985)."

He is presently director of BSR's Pompeii Project.

"The project aims to take a small slice of the city, a single block of houses or insula, excavated first half a century ago, yet never published, and to see what can be said about it now to cast light on the city, its history and its life. Its three main components are archival research into the original excavation of 1952-3, the artefacts then excavated, recording and analysis of the standing remains, and the excavation of levels below that sealed by the eruption of AD 79."

His work has also served as resource material for such interesting programs as "The Private Lives of Pompeii" produced by Channel 4 and "Roman Empire in the First Century" produced by PBS.

His enthusiasm is so natural and refreshing, its contagious! I even sent an e-mail to The Teaching Company asking them to produce some courses on Rome with Andrew as the professor. I see Andrew produced an excellent article on Pompeii for the BBC website.

Kenneth W. Harl

Kenneth W. Harl

"Kenneth W. Harl is Professor of Classical and Byzantine History at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he has been teaching since 1978. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Trinity College and went on to earn his Master's and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Dr. Harl specializes in the Mediterranean civilizations of Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Byzantium. He has published numerous articles and is the author of Civic Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East, A.D. 180-275 and Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700. He is also a veteran field researcher who has served since 1999 on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Archaeology."

"Every scholar in the field of Greco-Roman history knows Ken Harl's works on coinage. His ability to explain all manners of social, economic and historic events using coins is a terrific tool to teach students," says Jason Sanchez, a student who accompanied Dr. Harl on one of his guided trips to Turkey.

One of his favorite personnages of Roman history is Julia Domna, the empress of the Serverus Roman Empire, circa 193 C.E.

His latest course for The Teaching Company is Rome and the Barbarians. Other courses he has produced for The Teaching Company is Great Civilizations of Asia Minor and The World of Byzantium.

See also: Head and Tales