The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (The Roman Society) was founded in 1910 [1] as the sister society to the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.
The Society is the leading organisation in the United Kingdom for those interested in the study of Rome and the Roman Empire. Its scope covers Roman history, archaeology, literature and art.
The society was founded at a public meeting in 1910, chaired by Frederic Kenyon, Director of the British Museum, and sponsored by Percy Gardner, George Macmillan, John Penoyre, Francis Haverfield, J. S. Reid, A. H. Smith, G. F. Hill, and G. H. Hallam. [2] The Society's Memorandum and Articles of Association described its major aims as "...to promote Roman studies by creating a library, publishing a journal, and supporting the British School at Rome." [2] The first issue of the Journal of Roman Studies was published in 1911. Early contributors included Francis Haverfield, Eugénie Strong, Albert Van Buren, Elizabeth Van Buren and G. L. Cheesman. [2] Margerie Taylor oversaw the Society from Oxford as secretary from 1923 until 1954, subsequently serving as Honorary Secretary and Editor of JRS. [2] The society celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1960, marked in part by the major exhibition on Art in Roman Britain at Goldsmiths' Hall, London, accompanied by a catalogue by Jocelyn Toynbee. [3] In 1966 a sub-committee was established to consider starting a second journal. The first issue of Britannia was published in 1970, edited by Sheppard Frere. [2]
| Discipline | Roman studies |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Peter Thonemann |
| Publication details | |
| History | 1911–present |
| Publisher | |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | J. Rom. Stud. |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 0075-4358 (print) 1753-528X (web) |
| LCCN | 26002981 |
| JSTOR | 00754358 |
| OCLC no. | 997453470 |
| Links | |
The society produces two annual publications, the Journal of Roman Studies, which contains articles and book reviews dealing with the Roman world in general, and Britannia, which has articles and reviews specifically on Roman Britain. The society also publishes the Britannia Monograph Series, from 1981, and the JRS Monograph Series, from 1982. [2]
A library is maintained jointly with the Hellenic Society and in conjunction with the University of London's Institute of Classical Studies with over 110,000 volumes and 600 current periodicals. The Joint Library was built in-part through review copies from JRS and Britannia . [2]
Grants of the society include: grants for summer schools, archaeology grants (through excavation grants and a biennial conference) and grants for schools for teaching about the Roman world.
There is a programme of public lectures in London, and others outside London arranged with local branches of the Classical Association.
The following persons are or have been president of the society: [4]
Arnold Joseph Toynbee was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's College London. From 1918 to 1950, Toynbee was considered a leading specialist on international affairs; from 1929 to 1956 he was the Director of Studies at Chatham House, in which position he also produced 34 volumes of the Survey of International Affairs, a "bible" for international specialists in Britain.
Allectus was a Roman-Britannic usurper-emperor in Britain and northern Gaul from 293 to 296.
Calleva Atrebatum was an Iron Age oppidum, the capital of the Atrebates tribe. It then became a walled town in the Roman province of Britannia, at a major crossroads of the roads of southern Britain.
The Selgovae were a Celtic tribe of the late 2nd century AD who lived in what is now Kirkcudbrightshire and Dumfriesshire, on the southern coast of Scotland. They are mentioned briefly in Ptolemy's Geography, and there is no other historical record of them. Their cultural and ethnic affinity is commonly assumed to have been Brittonic.
Britannia Superior was a province of Roman Britain created after the civil war between Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. Although Herodian credits Severus with dividing Roman Britain into the Northern territory of Britannia Inferior and the Southern territory of Britannia Superior, modern scholarship argues that it is more likely that Caracalla was the person who made the split sometime in the early 3rd century CE. The previous British capital Londinium remained the centre of Britannia Superior while Eboracum, or modern York was the capital of Britannia Inferior. Epigraphical evidence shows that Upper Britain encompassed approximately what is now Wales, southern England and East Anglia. However, the official boundary between Britannia Superior and Inferior is still unclear.
Britannia Inferior was a new province carved out of Roman Britain probably around AD 197 during the reforms of Septimius Severus although the division may have occurred later, between 211 and 220, under Caracalla. The removal of the governors in Londinium from control over the legions guarding Hadrian's Wall was aimed at reducing their power, given Clodius Albinus's recent bid to become emperor. The province was probably formalised around 214 by Severus's son Caracalla.
David George Hogarth, also known as D. G. Hogarth, was a British orientalist archaeologist and scholar associated with T. E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans. He was Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford from 1909 to 1927.
The Novantae were people of the Iron age, as recorded in Ptolemy's Geography. The Novantae are thought to have lived in what is now Galloway and Carrick, in southwesternmost Scotland.
Francis John Haverfield, was an English ancient historian, archaeologist, and academic. From 1907 to 1919 he held the Camden Professorship of Ancient History at the University of Oxford.
Sheppard Sunderland Frere, CBE, FSA, FBA was a British historian and archaeologist who studied the Roman Empire. He was a fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
Michael Gordon Fulford, is a British archaeologist and academic, specialising in the British Iron Age, Roman Britain and landscape archaeology. He has been Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading since 1993.
Frank William Walbank, was a scholar of ancient history, particularly the history of Polybius. He was born in Bingley, Yorkshire, and died in Cambridge.
The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, known as the Hellenic Society, was founded in 1879 to advance the study of Greek language, literature, history, art and archaeology in the Ancient, Byzantine and Modern periods. The first President was J. B. Lightfoot, the biblical scholar and Bishop of Durham. Ioannis Gennadius helped found it.
Jocelyn Mary Catherine Toynbee, was an English archaeologist and art historian. "In the mid-twentieth century she was the leading British scholar in Roman artistic studies and one of the recognized authorities in this field in the world." Having taught at St Hugh's College, Oxford, the University of Reading, and Newnham College, Cambridge, she became Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1951 to 1962, the first and so far only female to hold this position.
The Classical Association (CA) is an educational organisation which aims to promote and widen access to the study of classical subjects in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1903, the CA supports and advances classical learning in schools, colleges, universities and local areas, and it has a wide membership. The CA is a member of the Council for Subject Associations and is a registered charity.
Mildred Katherine Pope was an English scholar of Anglo-Norman England. She became the first woman to hold a readership at Oxford University, where she taught at Somerville College.
John Joseph Wilkes, is a British archaeologist and academic. He is Emeritus Yates Professor of Greek and Roman Archaeology at University College London.
Sir George Macdonald was a British archaeologist and numismatist who studied the Antonine Wall.
Margerie Venables Taylor, was an archaeologist and editor of the Journal of Roman Studies, and held posts including Secretary for the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. She was particularly instrumental in recording excavations in Roman Britain.
Britannia is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. It was established in 1970 and the first editor-in-chief was Sheppard Frere. The journal covers research on the province of Roman Britain, Iron Age and post-Roman Britain, and western provincial archaeology, as well as excavation reports. It was established because of the large increase in archaeological excavations, increased publication costs, and in order to establish coherence to the field of Roman Britain.
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