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Public Engagement and Outreach to Schools

I am very happy to visit schools, U3A associations, branches of the Classical Association, and other public groups in order to present lectures on topics of interest. I have three main areas to offer - Augustus and the early Principate; Pompeii and Herculaneum; Latin inscriptions and Roman social history. The list below shows the range of lectures given recently. Not all of my publications are aimed at a professional scholarly audience: I have published several articles in Omnibus, the JACT magazine for school students, as well as an article in the German popular archaeological magazine, Antike Welt, and the BBC History Magazine, and have been a contributor to LACTOR sourcebooks on The Age of Augustus and Tiberius to Nero. The sourcebook (jointly written with MGL Cooley) published in 2004, Pompeii, has been successfully integrated into school and college curricula in the UK, USA, Australia, and New Zealand, and this has been superseded by a second edition that now includes source material from Herculaneum as well. In addition, my AHRC project, Facilitating Access to Latin Inscriptions (ASHLI), introduced new audiences to Latin inscriptions via the collection in the Ashmolean Museum.

Publications for schools and general public

  • (2024) 'Augustus' endless empire', Omnibus 87: 13-15
  • (2018) Book review, G. De la Bédoyère, Praetorian. The Rise and Fall of Rome’s
    Imperial Bodyguard (2017) BBC History Magazine October 2018: 91
  • (2016) 'How the Great Fire revealed London's Roman past' BBC History Extra Online
  • (2016) 'Hadrian, emperor of the world' BBC History Magazine April 2016: 26-31
  • (2014) 'Die letzten Tage des Augustus', Antike Welt 4: 10-15
  • (2014) Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Sourcebook (2nd edn, with M.G.L. Cooley) (Routledge: London)
  • (2013) ‘Social climbers at Herculaneum’, Omnibus 65: 19-21
  • (2011) Translation and brief commentaries on documentary sources in Tiberius to Nero, ed. M.G.L. Cooley (LACTOR 19)
  • (2011) ‘Peace at Rome? Placing Augustus’ Ara Pacis in context(s)’, Omnibus 61: 4-6
  • (2006) ‘Inscriptions’ (with G.J. Oliver) in The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome, (eds) E. Bispham, T. Harrison, B. Sparkes (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh) 262-74
  • (2005) ‘Introduction’ to Tacitus Annals and Histories, trans. A.F. Church and W.J. Brodribb
    (Barnes and Noble, New York) vii-xiv
  • 2004 Pompeii: A Sourcebook (with M.G.L. Cooley) (Routledge: London)
  • (2003) ‘Ostia, Rome, and the world’, Omnibus 45: 20-21

  • (2003) Translation and brief commentaries on inscriptions in The Age of Augustus, ed. M.G.L. Cooley (LACTOR 17)

  • (2002) ‘Up Pompeii (4): The House of the Faun’ Omnibus 44: 26-28

  • (2000) ‘Up Pompeii (3): fans riot at Pompeii!’, Omnibus 40: 5-7
  • (1999) ‘Up Pompeii (2): the Forum’, Omnibus 37: 7-9
  • (1998) ‘Up Pompeii!’, Omnibus 35: 13-15

Public Lectures

(2024) Classical Association Conference 'Integrating ‘blockbusters’ in teaching Roman history: Res Gestae divi Augusti'

(2022) Dean Close School, Cheltenham: 'Legacy of Augustus'

(2020) Malvern High School: 'Studying Classics at University'