"Late Antiquity" was not created out of thin air by a singular genius. Ahem.
Nevertheless, I think we can identify a relatively small circle of foundational figures who built the field into the behemoth that it has become.
On *any* reckoning, Averil Cameron belongs in that small circle.
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My academic hero Averil Cameron has died...We first started corresponding back in the early 2000s, mainly about Procopius...later we frequently conversed on Twitter about a myriad of things Late Antique and more. She could be tough on young scholars, but a compliment then meant even more...RIP
A fascinating paper on the discovery in Scandinavia in 2025 of what may the earliest surviving solidus from the reign of Leo I:
www.researchgate.net/profile/Svan...
New issue of the Journal of Late Antiquity:
Paperback of my book on the Polis
Did King Harold Really Sail to the Battle of Hastings? I'm not convinced...
www.marcmorris.org.uk/2026/03/did-...
I rarely give papers these days, but I made an exception for the conference in Krakow in May focussing on Belisarius & honouring Dariusz Brodka. My paper is “Family Strategy and Succession in the House of Belisarius”. It's based on a chapter from a book I'm working on that will appear in 2028.
A similar shift has occurred in an era in which postgraduates, rather than becoming independent professors, must instead join larger projects headed by senior scholars. To survive, they mute the more radical voices in their heads and toe the party line, often stifling creativity.
This gatekeeping can be conscious or unconscious, so when esteemed scholars proclaim their preferences for more traditional methodological approach to an ancient author like Procopius, they likely don't mean to gatekeep, but they subtly push prospective PHD scholars to more conservative approaches.
In a world with fewer academic jobs for younger scholars, the power of the old guard to gatekeep has grown significantly. Younger scholars, both in private conversations and in print, are warned not to ruffle feathers or apply “radical” methodologies to their topics, lest they risk academic exile.
Publishing isn't the finish line - it's the starting point for new conversations. Your work's real impact happens when others build on your ideas.
Journal Logo
After Constantine Studies in Early and Byzantine Christianity No. 6 (2026) afterconstantine.org/archive #openaccess
Final proofs and index submitted....
Typing page numbers into my index...who needs sleeping pills.
PACIFIC RIM ROMAN LITERATURE SEMINAR 34 - TRAGEDY MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 20–22 JULY, 2026 To mark the revival of the Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar after its hiatus following the pandemic, the thirty-fourth meeting of the Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar will be held in Melbourne, Australia from 20-22 July 2026. The convenor invites proposals for papers addressing the theme of TRAGEDY, in any manifestation in ancient Roman literature. Topics might include the genre of tragedy itself (such as the plays of Seneca), or tragedy as a theme in any genre of Roman literature. Approaches might include literary analysis, textual criticism and paleography, historiography, ancient philosophy, medieval & Renaissance and neo-Latin studies, classical reception studies, performance studies, and more. Papers on other topics will also be considered. Papers should be 30 minutes in length, with fifteen minutes of discussion time. The Pacific Rim Seminar does not run parallel sessions, so that participants may attend any or all papers. Submissions are welcome from postgraduate students and early-career researchers as well as established academics. Abstract proposals of 200-300 words should be emailed to K.O. Chong-Gossard (pacrimlatin2026@gmail.com). Please submit abstracts by 1 April 2026. Earlier submissions are of course welcome. The seminar will be held in a venue in the city of Melbourne, and it is expected that a seminar registration fee for participants will be required to cover the costs. We might be able to offer a reduced registration fee for postgraduate students. If there is a large number of papers, the seminar might be extended for an extra day (23 July). A seminar website will be built in due course. Feel free to send enquiries to the Convenor, K.O. Chong-Gossard, Associate Professor in Classics (Ancient Greek & Latin), The University of Melbourne pacrimlatin2026@gmail.com
#CFP #PACRIM34 34th Meeting of the Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar. Theme: #TRAGEDY - Melbourne, July 20-22, 2026 - due by April 1 to pacrimlatin2026@gmail.com (Convenor: A/Prof. K.O. Chong-Gossard, Melbourne)
Two recent publications not to be missed!
Volumes 11 and 12 of the Brill’s Companions to Classical Studies series focus on ancient warfare, exploring the many faces of women’s involvement in military campaigns, and the conceptualization of courage and cowardice in the ancient Mediterranean world.
This has been a slog but I’m pleased to day that I’m currently checking the proofs, which means this book will soon be out in the wild!
Happy to have at last my own copy of my favourite journal issue I have every contributed to, with articles by Brian Croke, the late Dariusz Brodka, and Michael Whitby...brings up some sad feelings too, since it was Dariusz who invited me to contribute: journals.akademicka.pl/cc/issue/vie...
I’ve taken on a small side project: writing another review essay for Histos on this interesting book. It will give me the opportunity to reflect on what I see as a growing divide among scholars regarding the most productive methodological pathways forward for Procopian studies.
I know my recent and forthcoming books are a bit pricey, but my first book is available open access: kismet.press/portfolio/th...
It is unlikely that Euphemia wanted to bring attention to her own "disreputable" past, which despite being wiped away, would have been remembered. P, in SH, thus takes agency from Justin & obscures Euphemia's "true" reasons 4 objecting, which was based more on doctrinal issues than Theodora's past
For reasons I will elucidate further, I will suggest that if there was an issue with the union, it was Theodora's non-Chalcedonian views more than her earlier career as an actress that made Euphemia balk at the union. Moreover, as a staunch Chalcedonian, Justin, at 1st would have been against it.
Daube is also one of the few modern scholars skeptical about Procopius' portrait of Euphemia, though, ignoring the obvious satirical aspect of P's account of the former barbarian/slave, Euphemia, he follows consensus that she was the primary barrier to marriage, which went ahead only after she died.
It is likely that Anastasius granted Lupicina/Euphemia freeborn status as a way to reward Justin for his years of loyal service. This decree meant that the Augustan marriage restrictions did not apply to her and thus her union with Justin was therefore permitted and unassailable.
He demonstrates that Theodora's obtaining of the rank of Patrician prior to her marriage would not have been enough to overcome the Augustan ban on actresses marrying senators. Moreover, it answered my questions on why Justin was allowed to marry the former slave Lupicina/Euphemia
Daube's paper on Theodora & Justinian's marriage published in 1967, is a rare example of an article that has aged very well despite great advances in the past 60 years in our knowledge about the age of Justinian and Procopius the historian and rhetorician: scholarship.law.edu/lawreview/vo...
The Byzantinist John Melville-Jones has died. I’ll always remember, as a freshly minted PhD, John’s kind words to me after I gave a paper for AAABS in Brisbane on Narses. Those encouraging words gave me a real boost of confidence early in my career, when I need it. RIP John
Great thing is that it is free and openaccess!
Happy to announce that my latest paper "Masters of the Sea: Rhetoric and Reality in Procopius’ Depictions of Naval Power in Gothic Wars" will be the next article published in the new issue of Byzantina Symmeikta 36: ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/bz...