Staff Profiles

Introduction

MA (Oxon), D. Phil.
Degree Programme Director for the following BA Hons Programmes: 
V110  Ancient History; Q800 BA Hons Classics; Q810 Classical Studies; QQ83 Classical Studies and English 

Rowland Smith read Classics, Ancient History and Philosophy as an undergraduate and took his D.Phil in Ancient History. He was a Research Fellow in Ancient History and Religion at Oriel College Oxford and held a College Lectureship in Greek and Roman History at Oxford before moving to Newcastle University.

Main teaching: Roman Imperial history [Roman Empire and Late Empire] and the reception of Roman antiquity.

Main research interests: social and cultural history in the High and Late Roman Empire; the fourth century Roman imperial court; Julian the Apostate, late paganism and Neoplatonism; pagan-Christian relations in antiquity.

Main research interests: social and cultural history in the High and Late Roman Empire; the fourth century Roman imperial court; Julian the Apostate, late paganism and Neoplatonism; pagan-Christian relations in antiquity.

• Email: rowland.smith@ncl.ac.uk
• Telephone: 44 (0) 191 208 5057
• Address: School of History, Classics and Archaeology
• University of Newcastle upon Tyne
• Newcastle upon Tyne
• NE1 7RU
• United Kingdom
• 
  
• Office: Armstrong Building 1.40C
• Student Consultation/feedback Office hours (Semester 1 2023/4):
• Semester 1: Mon 1200-1400hrs, Thurs 1200-1300hrs
• Semester 2: Tues 1200-1300 hrs, Thurs 1100-1300hrs

UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING

As Module Leader of sole-taught modules:

*CAH2007[=CAH2207] Caesar's Gift: Rome under the Emperors

*CAH3009 Emperor and Empire

*CAH2011 Celluloid History I : the Representation of the past in Cinema

CAH3025 Celluloid History: the Representation of the Past in Cinema

 [* indicates that the module is not being taught in 2023/24]

As contributor to team-taught modules:

CAH1015 From Romulus to Trajan

*CAH2208 Issues in Ancient History

*CAH2009 Ancient History Portfolio I: Commentaries 

CAH3000 Ancient History Portfolio II (Dissertation: 40 credit module occurring over Semester 1 and 2)

*CAH3024 Dissertation: Ancient History [for VV14 Joint Hons BA in Ancient History and Archaeology only]

[* indicates that RBE Smith is not contributing to teaching of the module in 2023/24]

POSTGRADUATE TEACHING

As Contributor to team-taught modules:

*CAH8019 Approaches to Ancient History Research I

*CAH8020 Approaches to Ancient History Research II

*CAC8000 Research Skills and Dissertation Training

*CAH8090 MA Ancient History Dissertation 

 [* indicates that the module is not being taught in 2023/24] 

• Articles

  • Smith RBES. The Apostate in Albion: Evocations of the Emperor Julian in English Disputation and Satire, ca.1600 to ca.1750. History of Classical Scholarship 2020, 2, 223-285.
  • Smith R. The Casting of Julian the Apostate 'in the Likeness' of Alexander the Great: a Topos in Antique Historiography and its Modern Echoes. Histos 2011, 5, 44-106.
  • Smith R. Measures of Difference: The Fourth-Century Transformation of the Roman Imperial Court. American Journal of Philology 2011, 132(1), 125-151.
  • Smith RBE. A lost historian of Alexander 'Descended from Alexander' and read by Julian?: Praxagoras of Athens Reviewed in the Light of Attic Epigraphy. Historia 2007, 56(3), 356-380.
  • Smith R. Telling the time Augustan-style: the ups and downs of an obelisk. JACT Review 2001.

• Authored Book

  • Rowland Smith. Julian's Gods:Religion and Society in the Thought and Action of Julian the Apostate. Routledge, 1995.

• Book Chapters

  • Smith R. The Caesars of Julian the Apostate in Translation and Reception, 1580-ca.1800. In: Baker-Brian, N. and Tougher, S, ed. Emperor and Author: the Writings of Julian the Apostate. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2012, pp.281-321.
  • Smith R. The imperial court of the Late Roman Empire, c. AD 300--c. AD 450. In: Spawforth, AJS, ed. The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp.157-232.
  • Smith R. The Construction of the Past in the Roman Empire. In: Potter, D.S, ed. A Companion to the Roman Empire: 44 BC-AD 337. Malden, Massachusetts, USA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006, pp.411-438.
  • Smith R. `Restored utility, eternal city': patronal imagery at Rome in the fourth century AD. In: Thomas, K., Cornell, T, ed. Bread and Circuses: Euergetism and Municipal Patronage in Roman Italy. London, UK: Routledge, 2003, pp.142-166.
  • Smith RBE. Telling tales: Ammianus' narrative of the Persian expedition of Julian. In: Drijvers, JW, Hunt, D, ed. The Late Roman World and its Historian: Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus. London: Routledge, 1999, pp.89-104.