Nicholas Purcell (classicist)

From 1974 to 1977, Purcell was an undergraduate at Worcester College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.{{cite web |title=Purcell, Prof. Nicholas, Camden Professor of Ancient History, University of Oxford, since 2011; Fellow, Brasenose College, Oxford, since 2011 |url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U255810 |website=Who's Who 2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=8 December 2022 |language=en |date=1 December 2019}} During his time at Worcester College he was a student of Peter Brunt.{{cite web |url=https://www.bnc.ox.ac.uk/about-brasenose/news/941-brasenose-welcomes-professor-nicholas-purcell |title=Brasenose welcomes Professor Nicholas Purcell |publisher=Brasenose College, Oxford |access-date=2018-02-18 }} He was subsequently a prize-fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, until 1979. He does not have a doctorate.

From 1979 until October 2011, he was a tutorial fellow at St John's College, Oxford, succeeding Nicholas Sherwin-White. He was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2007. Upon becoming Camden Professor of Ancient History in October 2011, he was elected a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford.

In 1998 Purcell gave the Jerome lectures at the University of Michigan and in 2008 the Rostovtzeff lectures at Yale University.{{cite web |url=https://classics.yale.edu/events/rostovtzeff-lecture/past-rostovtzeff-lectures |title=Past Rostovtzeff Lectures |publisher=Yale University |access-date=2018-02-18 }} In 2010 he gave the Gray Lectures at the University of Cambridge. In 2012 Purcell became the 98th Sather Professor of Classical Literature at the University of California, Berkeley lecturing on 'Venal Histories: The Character, Limits, and Historical Importance of Buying and Selling in the Ancient World'.{{cite web |url=http://www.classics.berkeley.edu/people/sather/nicholas-purcell |title=Nicholas Purcell: Visiting Sather Professor of Classical Literature, Spring 2012 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2018-02-18 }} In 2012 he also gave the Charles Alexander Robinson, Jr. Memorial Lecture at Brown University entitled 'Roman Diasporas & Texture of Empire.'{{cite web |url=https://www.brown.edu/academics/classics/charles-alexander-robinson-jr-memorial-lecture-series |title= Charles Alexander Robinson Jr. Memorial Lecture Series |publisher=Brown University |access-date=2018-02-18 }} Purcell has also held the Chaire d'excellence Pierre de Fermat at the University of Toulouse II - Le Mirail.{{cite web |url=http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/nicholaspurcell.html |title=Prof. Nicholas Purcell MA Oxf, FBA |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=2018-02-18 }}

Purcell has research interests in the social, economic and cultural history of Rome and the City of Rome as well as the Mediterranean Sea and its history.

Purcell is known especially for his 'ecological view' of ancient history as well as his expertise in ancient Mediterranean history. The publication of his book The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History (co-written with Peregrine Horden) was hailed as a 'notable intellectual event'.The English Historical Review Vol. 116, No. 468 (Sep. 2001), p. 900 The book's main thesis is that the Mediterranean is a region made up of micro-regions. The book argues that the Mediterranean ought to be seen in terms of the ecological lines of force linking countless small regions and micro-economies together rather than in terms of a few famous metropoleis. Purcell stresses the longue durée and insists that the different themes of history, i.e. politics, culture, economy, ideas and institutions must be studied in close association. Purcell is currently concerned with expanding this work and with situating the Mediterranean in even larger contexts so as to show how ancient history can be used to answer global historical questions.

• {{citation

|last1=Horden

|first1=Peregrine

|last2=Purcell

|first2=Nicholas

|year=2000

|publisher=Blackwell

|title=The Corrupting Sea: a Study of Mediterranean History

|title-link=The Corrupting Sea

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Purcell

|first=Nicholas

|year=2003

|journal=American Journal of Philology

|volume=124 |issue=3

|pages=329–358

|title= The way we used to eat: diet, community and history at Rome

|doi=10.1353/ajp.2003.0051

|pmid=21966721

|s2cid=28712116

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Purcell

|first=Nicholas

|editor1=David Braund

|editor2=Christopher Gill

|year=2003

|publisher=University of Exeter Press

|chapter=Becoming historical: the Roman case

|title= Myth, History and Culture in Republican Rome: Studies in Honour of T.P. Wiseman

}}

• {{citation

|last=Purcell

|first=Nicholas

|editor1=K. Galinsky

|chapter=Romans in the Roman world

|year=2005

|publisher=Cambridge University Press

|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus

}}

• {{cite journal

|last1=Purcell

|first1=Nicholas

|last2=Horden

|first2=Peregrine

|year=2006

|journal=The American Historical Review

|title=The Mediterranean and "the New Thalassology"

}}

• {{citation

|last=Purcell

|first=Nicholas

|year=2007

|chapter=The horti of Rome and the landscape of property

|title=Res bene gestae: ricerche di storia urbana su Roma antica in onore di Eva Margareta Steinby

}}

• {{citation

|last=Purcell

|first=Nicholas

|year=2012

|publisher= Blackwell

|chapter='Romans, Play On!' Rome, city of the Games

|title=The Blackwell Companion to the City of Rome

}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/faculty/directory/buscard.asp?IDno=128 Mr Nicholas Purcell MA FBA] Faculty homepage
• [https://www.bnc.ox.ac.uk/about-brasenose/academic-staff/477-professor-nicholas-purcell Professor Nicholas Purcell] College homepage
• [http://www.all-souls.ox.ac.uk/people.php?personid=228 Nicholas Purcell – Quondam Fellow – All Souls College]

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Category:Living people

Category:British classical scholars

Category:Historians of ancient Rome

Category:Fellows of St John's College, Oxford

Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford

Category:Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford

Category:Fellows of the British Academy

Category:Camden Professors of Ancient History

Category:Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)