Dr Ed Bispham
MA, DPhil Oxon
Tutorial Fellow
I am the Tutorial Fellow in Ancient History (my post is held in conjunction with St Anne’s, where I hold a Stipendiary Lectureship), in succession to Greg Woolf, and thus indirectly to David Stockton. Apart from a post-doctoral scholarship at the British School at Rome (1994-95) and a three-year lectureship at the University of Edinburgh (1995-98), I have been at Oxford throughout, as undergraduate, post-graduate and faculty.
I teach most Greek and Roman history papers, and sometimes Roman archaeology papers. Teaching undergraduates is still the most rewarding part of the job: although in one sense the shape of the past hasn’t changed much in two millennia, the subject is constantly refreshed by new research, by new preoccupations, and annually by the questions and insights of my students. Going over the old texts in new company always brings something unsuspected to the surface; and the excitement of sharing new discoveries adds to the excitement. My teaching philosophy? Nothing worthy of the name – enjoy the contact hours and you’ll enjoy learning. I certainly enjoy it!
My research is principally focussed on Italy, and especially its history before, during an after the Roman conquest. In the Early Iron Age Italy was a patchwork of diverse ethnic and cultural groups, distinct but inter-relating; by the age of Augustus the peninsula was a largely uniform territory populated by Roman citizens. The military, social, political, demographic, religious, diplomatic and economic phenomena which manifested and conditioned that long transition, and the landscapes in which they operated, have kept me occupied for more than a quarter of a century, and provide endless fascination and intellectual challenges, which show no sign of abating.
The evidence is a patchy kaleidoscope of literary, epigraphic and archaeological material, constantly manipulated by new methodologies and subject to new debates, and sometimes enriched or muddled by new discoveries. Much of my earlier work was on inscribed evidence for local political institutions in the late Republic, and its relation to wider political and ideological changes. Inscriptions continue to retain a special place in my affections, but I have become increasingly concerned with Italian material cultures, and the landscapes within which they developed. I have been lucky enough to be involved in fieldwork in the region of Abruzzo, especially around Monte Pallano, and the village of Tornareccio (sempre di cuore). More recently I have been thinking and writing about people in Hellenistic Italy: where they settled, how mobile they were, and how they were counted, classified, and thus absorbed into the Roman imperial project. My interests have also extended to ‘mainstream’ Roman Republican politics; to the fragmentary remains of Livy’s historical predecessors; and to the city of Rome, where I was very fortunate to teach the British School at Rome’s undergraduate topography Summer School for many years, alongside Robert Coates-Stephens.
Selected Publications:
Monographs:
From Asculum to Actium: The Municipalization of Italy Between the Social War and
Actium (Oxford, 2007)
Edited Volumes:
Violence, Justice and Law in Classical Antiquity. Collected Papers of Andrew Lintott.
Impact of Empire 46, ed. with J. Alison Rosenblitt (Brill: Leiden / Boston, 2024)
Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Italy, ed. with D. Miano (Abingdon & New York:
Routledge, 2020)
T.J. Cornell (ed.), The Fragments of the Roman Historians (3 vols, Oxford, 2013):
member of editorial board and contributor: ‘Q. Fabius Pictor’ & ‘L. Cincius Alimentus’ (with T.J. Cornell); ‘C. Acilius’ (with S.J. Northwood)
Roman Europe. Short Oxford History of Europe (Oxford, 2008): ‘Introduction’
(1-7), ‘Warfare and the Army’ (135-69) & ‘Religions’ (203-33)
Vita Vigilia Est. Essays in Honour of Barbara Levick (ed. with G. Rowe & E.
Matthews), BICS Supplement 100 (London, 2007): ‘Pliny the Elder’s Italy’ (41-67)
The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. with T. E. Harrison &
B.A. Sparkes (Edinburgh, 2006): ‘Roman Historiography’ (384-90),
‘Politics’ (447-64), ‘The Calendar’ (485-88)
Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy: Evidence and Experience
(Edinburgh, 2000), (ed. with C.J. Smith): ‘Introduction’ (1-18)
Book Chapters & Journal Articles:
‘The Social War: Causes and Excuses’, in L. Cappelletti & S. Pittia (eds), L’Italie entre
déchirements et réconciliations: la guerre sociale (91-88 avant notre ère) et ses lendemains (Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté, 2024), 25-44
‘The Politics of Impermanence: Latin migration in the Second Century B.C.’, in L.
Maganzani & M. Miglietta (eds), Migrare a Roma. Latini ed altri popoli. ‘Cattedra Giorgio Luraschi’. Centro di ricercar per lo studio e la diffusione del Diritto pubblico romano. Quaderno II. Edizione di Milano – Università Cattolica del “S. Cuore”, 16 settembre 2019 (Bari: Cacucci Editore, 2022), 13-127
‘The Regiones of Italy: between Republic and Principate’, in M. Aberson, M.C.
Biella, M. di Fazio & M. Wullschleger (eds), Nos sumus Romani qui fuimus ante … Memory of Ancient Italy. EGeA 6 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2020), 23-51
‘Boundaries in Strabo’s Italy: Space, Time and Difference’, in F. Luciani & E.
Migliario (eds), Boundaries of Territories and Peoples in Roman Italy and Beyond. Documenti e Studi 71 (Bari: Edipuglia, 2020), 9-31
‘Sulla and the populi Italici’, in M.T Schettino & G. Zecchini (eds), L’età di Silla.
Atti del Convegno, Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica, Roma 23-24 marzo 2017. Centro Ricerche e Documentazione sull’Antichità Classica, Monografie 44 (Rome: <<L’Erma>> di Bretschneider, 2018), 1-43
‘Una, nessuna or centomila romanizzazioni?’ in M. Aberson, M.C. Biella, M. di
Fazio, P. Sanchéz & M. Wullschleger (eds), L’Italia centrale e la creazione di una koiné culturale? I percorsi della ‘romanizzaznione’. EGeA 3 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2016), 5-14
‘The Middle Sangro Valley under the Empire: A Productive Landscape?’ (with S.E.
Kane), in A.M. Small (ed.), Beyond Vagnari. New Themes in the Study of
Roman South Italy. Munera 38 (Bari, 2014), 227-36
‘The Lucanians: Historical Perspective’, in M. Aberson, M.C. Biella, M. di Fazio &
- Wullschleger (eds), Entre Archéologie et histoire: dialogues sur divers peoples de l’Italie préromaine. EGeA 2 (Bern, 2014), 311-330
‘The Hellenistics of Death in Adriatic Central Italy’, in J.W.R. Prag & J. Quinn (eds),
The Hellenistic West (Cambridge 2013), 44-78
‘Rome and Antium: Pirates, Polities and Identity in the Middle Republic’, in S.
Roselaar (ed)., Processes of Integration and Identity Formation in the Roman Republic (Leiden, 2012), 227-245
‘Time for Italy in Velleius Paterculus’, in E. Cowan (ed.), Velleius Paterculus:
Making History (Swansea, 2011), 17-57
‘The Samnites’, in G.J. Bradley, E. Isayev & C. Riva (eds), Ancient Italy. Regions
Without Boundaries (Exeter, 2007), 179-22
‘Coloniam deducere: how Roman was Roman Colonization during the Middle
Republic’, in Greek and Roman Colonization. Origins, Ideologies and Interactions, eds G. Bradley and J.-P. Wilson (Swansea, 2006), 74-160
‘Mimic. A Case Study in Early Roman Colonization’, in State Identities in the First
Millenium B.C. (London, 2000), eds E. Herring and K. Lomas, 157-186
‘Carved in Stone: the Municpal Magistracies of Numerius Cluvius’, in The
Epigraphic Landscape of Roman Italy (London, 2000), 39-75
‘The End of the Tabula Heracleensis: a Poor Man’s Sanctio?’, Epigraphica 59 (1997)
125-56
‘Small Towns, Big Futures: between Italy and Iberia’, in J. Andreu Pintado (ed.), Parva Oppida. Imagen, patrones e ideología del despegue monumental de las ciudades en la Tarraconense hispana (siglos I a.C. – I d.C.). Serie Monografías “Los Banales” (Uncastillo: Fundación Uncastillo, 2020), 25-37
Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Italy, ed. with D. Miano (Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2020), including ‘Preface’ (with D. Miano), xi-xiv
‘The Regiones of Italy: between Republic and Principate’, in M. Aberson, M.C. Biella, M. di Fazio & M. Wullschleger (eds), Nos sumus Romani qui fuimus ante … Memory of Ancient Italy. EGeA 6 (Geneva: Peter Lang, 2020), 23-51
‘Boundaries in Strabo’s Italy: Space, Time and Difference’, in F. Luciani & E. Migliario (eds), Boundaries of Territories and Peoples in Roman Italy and Beyond. Documenti e Studi 71 (Bari: Edipuglia, 2020), 9-31
‘Sulla and the populi Italici’, in M.T Schettino & G. Zecchini (eds), L’età di Silla. Atti del Convegno, Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica, Roma 23-24 marzo 2017. Centro Ricerche e Documentazione sull’Antichità Classica, Monografie 44 (Rome: <<l’erma>> di Bretschneider, 2018), 1-43
‘Una, nessuna or centomila romanizzazioni?’ in M. Aberson, M.C. Biella, M. di Fazio, P. Sanchéz & M. Wullschleger (eds), L’Italia centrale e la creazione di una koiné culturale? I percorsi della ‘romanizzaznione’. EGeA 3 (Geneva: Peter Lang, 2016), 5-14
‘The Social War’ & ‘The Civil Wars and the Triumvirate’, in A.E. Cooley (ed.), A Companion to Roman Italy. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (Malden MA / Oxford 2016), 76-89, 90-102
‘The Middle Sangro Valley under the Empire: A Productive Landscape?’ (with S.E. Kane), in A.M. Small (ed.), Beyond Vagnari. New Themes in the Study of Roman South Italy. Munera 38 (Bari, 2014), 227-36
‘Roma iudex: Interstate Arbitration and Rome’s Mediterranean Hegemony’, in J. Dubouloz, S. Pittia & G. Sabatini (eds), L’imperium Romanum en perspective. Les savoirs d’empire dans la République romaine et leur heritage dans l’Europe médiévale et modern (Besançon, 2014), 231-42
T.J. Cornell (ed.), The Fragments of the Roman Historians (3 vols, Oxford, 2013): member of editorial board and contributor: ‘Q. Fabius Pictor’ & ‘L. Cincius Alimentus’ (with T.J. Cornell); ‘C. Acilius’ (with S.J. Northwood)
‘The Lucanians: Historical Perspective’, in M. Aberson, M.C. Biella, M. di Fazio & M. Wullschleger (eds), Entre Archéologie et histoire: dialogues sur divers peoples de l’Italie préromaine. EGeA 2 (Geneva, 2014), 311-330
‘The Hellenistics of Death in Adriatic Central Italy’, in J.W.R. Prag & J. Quinn (eds), The Hellenistic West (Cambridge 2013), 44-78
‘Rome and Antium: Pirates, Polities and Identity in the Middle Republic’, in S. Roselaar (ed)., Processes of Integration and Identity Formation in the Roman Republic (Leiden, 2012), 227-245
‘Time for Italy in Velleius Paterculus’, in E. Cowan (ed.), Velleius Paterculus: Making History (Swansea, 2011), 17-57
‘Excavations at Acquachiara (Atessa), 2002-2009 (with M. MacKinnon, N. McFerrin, C. Shelton, K. Swift, N. Wolff), Quaderni di Archeologia d’Abruzzo 3 (2011), 31-6
Roman Europe (ed), Short Oxford History of Europe (Oxford, 2008): ‘Introduction’ (1-7), ‘Warfare and the Army’ (135-69) & ‘Religions’ (203-33)
Vita Vigilia Est. Essays in Honour of Barbara Levick (ed. with G. Rowe & E. Matthews), BICS Supplement 100 (London, 2007): ‘Pliny the Elder’s Italy’ (41-67)
‘The Samnites’, in G.J. Bradley, E. Isayev & C. Riva (eds), Ancient Italy. Regions Without Boundaries (Exeter, 2007), 179-22
From Asculum to Actium: The Municipalization of Italy Between the Social War and Actium (Oxford, 2007)
The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. with T. E. Harrison & B.A. Sparkes (Edinburgh, 2006): ‘Roman Historiography’ (384-90), ‘Politics’ (447-64), ‘The Calendar’ (485-88)
‘Literary Sources’, in R. Morstein-Marx & N. Rosenstein, The Blackwell Companion to the Roman Republic (Oxford, 2006), 29-50
‘Coloniam deducere: how Roman was Roman Colonization during the Middle Republic’, in Greek and Roman Colonization. Origins, Ideologies and Interactions, eds G. Bradley and J.-P. Wilson (Swansea, 2006), 74-160
Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy: Evidence and Experience (Edinburgh, 2000), (editor, with C.J. Smith): ‘Introduction’ (1-18)
‘Mimic. A Case Study in Early Roman Colonization’, in State Identities in the First Millenium B.C. (London, 2000), eds E. Herring and K. Lomas, 157-186
‘Carved in Stone: the Municpal Magistracies of Numerius Cluvius’, in The Epigraphic Landscape of Roman Italy (London, 2000), 39-75
‘The End of the Tabula Heracleensis: a Poor Man’s Sanctio?’, Epigraphica 59 (1997) 125-56