Christopher Rowe (classicist)

Rowe was born in Cambridgeshire, England on 17 March 1944, the son of Daniel Francis and Edith Mary (Ashford). From Trinity College, Cambridge he obtained a BA, then an MA and, in 1969, his PhD.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinworld190000unse |title=Who's Who in the World. 1997 |date=1997 |publisher=Marquis Who's Who Inc. |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8379-1117-5 |page=1246 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}} His doctoral thesis, written under the direction of John Easterling, was published as The Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics: a study in the development of Aristotle’s thought. (1971).{{Cite web |title=Christopher Rowe - Aristoteles Pezographos |url=https://aristotlepezographos.org/christopher-rowe.html |access-date=2025-02-15 |website=aristotlepezographos.org}}

Rowe began his career at the University of Bristol, England in 1968 as an assistant lecturer, 1968, rising to become professor of ancient philosophy and Greek (1989–1991) then Henry Overton Wills Professor of Greek (1991–1995).{{Cite web |title=Rowe, C(hristopher) J(ames) |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/rowe-christopher-james |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=Writers Directory 2005 |via=Encyclopedia.com}} He joined the University of Durham in 1996 as Professor of Greek and served as Head of Department 2004–2008. He retired as emeritus in 2009.

Rowe translated into English and gave an innovative interpretation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Plato's dialogues Theaetetus and Sophist.{{cite web | first1=Christopher|last1=Rowe|url=http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2016/05/getting-to-know-plato/|title=Getting to know Plato|date=May 26, 2016|access-date=January 7, 2020}}

Rowe's work includes consideration of the political ideals of Plato's Republic in relation to the details of political practice described in the Statesman and the Laws.{{cite journal|first=Emanuele |last1=Maffi|url=https://journals.openedition.org/etudesplatoniciennes/224|title=Christopher Rowe, Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing|language=Italian|journal=Bulletin Platonicien. Commentaires Aux Dialogues de Platon|issue=10|year=2013|issn=2275-1785|publisher=Revues.org|doi=10.4000/etudesplatoniciennes.224|oclc=7685568088|access-date=January 7, 2021|doi-access=free}} (critical recension) In the volume Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing, Rowe argued that "Plato remains throughout essentially a Socratic".{{cite book|first=Christopher|last=Rowe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pGuvUtXywdgC&pg=PA18|page=18|title=Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2007|isbn=9781139467797}}

He delivered the Stephen MacKenna lecture at Dublin University in 2009.{{Cite journal |last=Rowe |first=Christopher |date=2009 |title=Reading Socrates in Plato's Dialogues (Stephen MacKenna Lecture, Dublin, January 2009) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23041698 |journal=Hermathena |issue=186 |pages=25–41 |issn=0018-0750 |url-access=registration |jstor=23041698}} In years prior he had also been invited to talk about mythology in primary schools.{{Cite news |last=Tyler |first=Christian |date=31 January 1998 |title=The logic of learning Latin |url=https://archive.org/details/FinancialTimes1998UKEnglish/Jan%2031%201998%2C%20Financial%20Times%2C%20%2331%2C%20UK%20%28en%29/page/n27/mode/1up?q=%22Christopher+Rowe%22 |work=The Financial Times |page=iv |pages= |via=Internet Archive |quote=Christopher Rowe, professor of Greek at Durham University, is invited to talk to primary schools about mythology. 'I find it exhilarating. ! don’t mind at what level l teach people, so long as I have people to teach.'}}

• with George Boys-Stones The Circle of Socrates: Readings in the First-Generation Socratics (edited and translated) Hackett Publishing, 2013, {{ISBN|9781603849364}}
• Plato, Republic (new translation, with introduction and notes) Penguin, 2012, {{ISBN|9780141442433}}
• The Last Days of Socrates (translated with introduction and notes) Penguin, 2010, {{ISBN|9780140455496}}
• Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing Cambridge University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|9780521859325}}
• Written with Terry Penner Plato's Lysis Cambridge University Press, 2005 {{ISBN|9780521791304}}

A complete listing of works (as of 2014) can be found via Rowe's faculty pages.{{Cite web |date=2014-05-02 |title=Prof. CJ Rowe, OBE - all publications |url=https://www.dur.ac.uk/classics/staff/?id=100&publications=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502055533/https://www.dur.ac.uk/classics/staff/?id=100&publications=1 |archive-date=2 May 2014 |access-date=2025-02-15 |website=Durham University}}

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Category:Living people

Category:British classical scholars

Category:Classical scholars of the University of Durham

Category:British scholars of ancient Greek philosophy

Category:Plato scholars

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Greek–English translators

Category:Presidents of the Classical Association

Category:1944 births

Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge