Paul Cartledge

Paul Anthony Cartledge (born 24 March 1947) is a British ancient historian and academic.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, later promoted to MA (Oxon) by seniority, in 1969.

He remained at the University of Oxford to undertake postgraduate studies, completing a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) under the supervision of Professor Sir John Boardman.

His thesis focused on Spartan archaeology.

Cartledge lectured at the New University of Ulster in 1972–73, at Trinity College, Dublin, from 1973 to 1978, and at the University of Warwick in 1978–79.

In October 1979 he moved to Cambridge University where he is a fellow of Clare College.

From 2008 to 2014 he was the A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge.

He had previously held a personal chair in Greek History at Cambridge.

Cartledge was educated at St Paul's School and New College, Oxford, where, with his contemporaries Robin Lane Fox and Terence Irwin, he was a student of G. E. M. de Ste. Croix.

In 2008, Cartledge was elected to the newly established A. G. Leventis Professorship of Greek Culture at Cambridge University, a position from which he retired at the end of September 2014.

Cartledge holds a visiting Global Distinguished Professorship at New York University, funded by the Greek Parliament, and sits on the European Advisory Board of Princeton University Press.

Cartledge is also a holder of the Gold Cross of the Order of Honour of Greece and an Honorary Citizen of (modern) Sparta.

He is the Vice-Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

Cartledge's field of study is Athens and Sparta in the Classical Age; he has been described as a Laconophile.

He was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series The Greeks and the Channel 4 series The Spartans, presented by Bettany Hughes.

Cartledge has appeared several times over his career on the BBC radio program In Our Time on episodes that discuss the ancient world.

Cartledge is married to Judith Portrait, a solicitor who acts as trustee of part of the Sainsbury family shareholding in Sainsbury's in blind trust.

In August 2014, Cartledge was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.