Glen Bowersock

Glen Warren Bowersock (born January 12, 1936, in Providence, Rhode Island) is a historian of ancient Greece, Rome and the Near East, and former Chairman of Harvard’s classics department.

Bowersock was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and attended The Rivers School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

He earned his A.B. summa cum laude from Harvard University (1957), another B.A. with First Class Honors in Literae humaniores from Oxford University (1959); and his M.A., D.Phil.

Bowersock has served as lecturer in ancient history at Balliol, Magdalen, and New College, Oxford (1960–62), Professor of Classics and History, Harvard University (1962–80) (full Professor from 1969).

(1962, for thesis titled Augustus and the Greek world) also at Oxford.

His mentor was the renowned Roman historian Ronald Syme.

During his career at Harvard (1962 to 1980), he served as Professor of Classics and History; Chairman of the Classics Department; and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Bowersock was Professor of Ancient History at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1980 until his retirement in 2006.

He is the author of over a dozen books and has published over 400 articles on Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern history and culture as well as the classical tradition.

Bowersock formerly served as Professor of Classics and History at Harvard University.

In 1989, he was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States, dating to 1743.

Bowersock has received numerous honorary degrees, including: University of Strasbourg (Sciences Humaines), Docteur honoris causa (1990), Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris), Docteur honoris causa (1999), University of Athens, Doctor honoris causa (2005).

He is also an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford (2004) at which he was once a Rhodes Scholar.

Bowersock was awarded the James Henry Breasted Prize of the American Historical Association for his book Hellenism in Late Antiquity.

A symposium in his honor was held at Princeton University on April 7, 2006, under the title East and West: A Conference in Honor of Glen W. Bowersock, the proceedings of which were published by the Harvard University Press in 2008.

He is a Foreign Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Italy, Associé étranger de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.