About

Simon Swain combines his position as Vice-President (Engagement) at Warwick with the role of Vice-President (Research and Higher Education Policy) at the British Academy, the UK's national body for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

He took his first degree at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1980-84. His doctorate on ‘Plutarch and Rome’ was awarded 1987 at Wolfson College, Oxford. He had a postdoctoral fellowship at All Souls College and came to Warwick in 1995.

Research interests

Simon works on the reception and development of Greek thought in the Islamic Middle Ages, and the social and cultural history of the Greek East in the Roman period and after. He has had extensive external funding from AHRC, Leverhulme, Wellcome, and the EU for projects on the reception and development in late antiquity and the Islamic period of ancient Greek science and pseudo-science (medicine, physiognomy), economic, and political thought. He currently holds a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Investigator Award. For further details see Research tab.

Teaching and supervision

Simon currently holds a senior administrative position in the University and is available only for postgraduate supervision. He is very happy to consider supervising at MA and PhD level in the areas of the Greek world in the Roman period, late antiquity, and Greco-Arabic.

Administrative roles

Simon was Head of Department in Classics from 2000-2007 and 2010-2011, Chair of the Arts Faculty 2011-2014, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) 2014-2019.

Selected publications

• A Literary History of Medicine. The ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah (ed. with Emilie Savage-Smith and Geert Jan van Gelder) 5 Vols. (Brill 2020).
• Economy, family, and society from Rome to Islam : a critical edition, English translation, and study of Bryson's "Management of the Estate" (CUP 2013a).
• Themistius, Julian, and Greek Political Theory under Rome. Texts, Translations, and Studies of Four Key Works (CUP 2013b).
• Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul. Polemon's Physiognomy from Classical Antiquity to Medieval Islam (ed.) (OUP 2007a).
• Severan Culture (ed. with J. Elsner and S. J. Harrison) (CUP 2007b).
• Approaching Late Antiquity. The Transformation from Early to Late Empire (ed. with M. J. Edwards) (OUP 2004).
• Bilingualism in Ancient Society. Language Contact and the Written Word (ed. with J. N. Adams and M. Janse) (OUP 2002).
• Dio Chrysostom, Politics, Letters, and Philosophy (ed.) (OUP 2000).
• Oxford Readings in the Greek Novel (ed.) (OUP 1999).
• Portraits. Biographical Representation in the Greek and Latin Literature of the Roman Empire (ed. with M. J. Edwards) (OUP 1997).
• Hellenism and Empire. Language, Classicism and Power in the Greek World, AD 50-250 (OUP 1996).

Professional associations

• Roman Society

Qualifications

• MA, D.Phil. (Oxon)