Susan M. Treggiari

Susan M. Treggiari

Fellow: Awarded 1995
Field of Study: Classics

Competition: US & Canada

Stanford University

Susan Treggiari, thanks to self-sacrificing parents, was educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College (the title distinguishes it from the older Cheltenham College, a boys’ school), where there was, around its centenary year in the 1950s, a strong Victorian feminist and classical tradition. She could therefore study Latin from eleven and Greek from twelve. Fascinated by Roman history and wanting to read ‘Greats,’ she went up to Lady Margaret Hall in 1958 and enjoyed the privilege of being one of a tight-knit and high-minded women’s community, which still, in that post-Second World War epoch, maintained memories of its Victorian years of struggle and a resemblance to Dorothy L. Sayers’ Somerville. After a First in Literae Humaniores in 1962, she was able to stay on for two years and write a thesis, under P.A. Brunt, on Roman freedmen during the late Republic (published by the Clarendon Press, 1969). She held a Derby Scholarship for travel in Italy 1962-63 and was awarded an M.A. in 1965 and a B.Litt. in 1967.

After teaching at various institutions in London, including Goldsmiths’College (part-time) and the North-Western Polytechnic, and a visiting professorship at Sweet Briar College, Virginia, she was appointed to an Assistant Professorship at the University of Ottawa, where she taught for twelve years in a stimulating intellectual environment. During this time, she had the privilege of teaching some excellent M.A. and Ph.D. candidates, of sharing courses with other ancient historians and archaeologists, entering the friendly world of the Classical Association of Canada, and benefiting from grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She became Associate Professor in 1971 and Professor in 1979 and served as chairman of the Department of Classical Studies/Département des études anciennes in 1981-82. During these years, she was working on further development of topics related to her thesis, exploring particularly epigraphic sources on slaves/freedmen, and moving into women’s studies. But she soon found that Roman women could not be studied in isolation and resolved to look at all available sources and social history more broadly. A SSHRCC sabbatical fellowship in 1976-77 gave her the chance to work on the Digest of Justinian: out of this emerged Roman Marriage. Iusti coniuges from the time of Cicero to the time of Ulpian (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) and a number of articles. In 1982, she moved to Stanford University and ended up as Anne T. & Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences (1992-2001). She was Chairman of the Classics Department 1987-1990, 1992/1993. She has held an ACLS (1990/1), been Visiting Professor at Yale University (1993/1994), held Visiting Fellowships at Brasenose College and All Souls College, Oxford (1976-7, 1995-6), won the Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit of the American Philological Association (1993), and is a D.Litt. of Oxford (1993) and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993- ). She has served as Joint Editor 1974-81 of Classical News and Views/Echos du monde classique (1974-81), Member of the Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Scholarships Committee (1977-81), Secretary-Treasurer (1974-79) and President (1981-84) of the Association of Ancient Historians, Director (1975-78) and President (1997) of the American Philological Association, Co-editor of the Ancient History Bulletin (1996-2003) and is now a General Editor of the Clarendon Ancient History Series (1994- ).

She retired in 2001 and is now a member of the Sub-Faculty of Ancient History and Archaeology in the University of Oxford. Her articles are mainly on Roman social history, using literary sources, juristic writings and inscriptions. Her recent books are Roman social history (London: Routledge, Classical Foundations, 2002), and Terentia, Tullia and Publilia. The women of Cicero’s family (London: Routledge, Women of Antiquity, 2007).

 

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