Prof. Alan Bowman

My main area of research are Greek and Latin documents from the ancient Mediterranean, including papyri and inscriptions from Egypt in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods and the Vindolanda writing-tablets, and the social and economic history of the Roman Empire.  Current research projects include an up-to-date Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions from ancient Egypt, new writing-tablets from Vindolanda, and the Latinization of the North-Western provinces of the Roman empire.

I am an historian of the Roman empire, Camden Professor Emeritus (2002-2010) and former Principal of Brasenose College (2010-2015).  In 1995 I founded the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents in the Faculty of Classics, which has played a leading role in developing digital imaging technologies for damaged documents. I  served as its Director for twenty three years from 1995-2018. I have also served as President of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (2001-5) and Vice-President (Humanities) of the British Academy (2014-2018).  My publications include works on the ancient agricultural economy, taxation, demography and literacy, as well as editions of unpublished Greek and Latin documentary texts on papyrus, wood and stone.