Bispham, Dr Edward

Academic background

I read Literae Humaniores at Jesus College, Oxford, where I subsequently did my D.Phil. Subsequently I held a post-doctoral award at the British School at Rome (1994/5), before lecturing in the Department of Classics at Edinburgh for three years. In 1998 I returned to Oxford to become Stipendiary Lecturer in Ancient History at Brasenose and St. Anne’s Colleges, and was fortunate enough the next year to be appointed as a Tutorial Fellow in succession to Greg Woolf, and thus indirectly to David Stockton; the position entails a Stipendiary Lectureship at St. Anne’s College.

Teaching

I teach a number of Greek and Roman history papers for Classics, and for CAAH and AMH prelims.  Recently my lecturing has been on Cicero; on Rome in the Mediterranean in the republican period; and on the census and public contracts.

Research interests

My research interests fall broadly into three categories at the moment: the history, archaeology and epigraphy of Italy, especially the impact of the Roman conquest; the political and cultural history of the Roman Republic; early Roman historiography.  I am Co-Director of the Sangro Valley Project (Phase II), with Prof. Susan Kane, of Oberlin College, Ohio.

Recent Publications

‘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 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

 ‘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, 2016), 5-14

4 panelli on the hill-fort system at Montenerodomo (CH), Italy, commissioned by the Soprintendenza Archeologica per l’Abruzzo (with G.J. Bradley & O. Menozzi) The Roman Republic (London), in progress