Boatwright, Mary T(aliaferro)

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BOATWRIGHT, Mary T(aliaferro)

PERSONAL: Female. Education: Stanford University, B.A., 1973; Universitá per Stranieri (Perugia, Italy), certificato, 1973, laurea (voto ottimo), 1974; University of Michigan, M.A., 1975, Ph.D., 1980.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Department of Classical Studies, Duke University, Box 90103, Durham, NC 27708-0103. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Duke University, Durham, NC, A. W. Mellon assistant professor, 1979-82, assistant professor, 1982-85, associate professor, 1985-95, professor of classical studies, 1995—, departmental director of undergraduate studies, 1985-86, 1987-89, and 1990, chair of department of classical studies, 1996-99; Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, A. W. Mellon professor-in-charge, 1992-93. Evaluator for American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Humanities Center; Late Ancient Studies Forum, member of steering committee, 1988—; juror for Gildersleeve Prize, 1999-2001; Ancient World Mapping Center, member of advisory board, 2001-03.

MEMBER: Association of Ancient Historians, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, American Philological Association, Archaeological Institute of America (secretary-treasurer of North Carolina chapter, 1985-86; gold medal committee member, 2000-03), American Academy in Rome (member of Society of Fellows; chair of advisory council to the School of Classical Studies, 1995-98; member, executive committee of advisory council, 2000-03), Phi Beta Kappa (vice president, 1999-2000).

AWARDS, HONORS: Regular grant, Duke University Research Council, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1987-90, 1992-95; Duke Endowment Award for Excellence in Teaching, Duke University, 1982; research grant, American Philosophical Society, 1984; stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1986; fellowship, George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, 1986-87; Gildersleeve Prize, 1992; summer stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1995, 2002; grants, Duke University Arts and Sciences Research Council, 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2002-03; "The Historians" selected as part of the "Making the Humanities Central" project, Mellon Foundation and John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, 2003.

WRITINGS:

I Volusii Saturnini: Una famiglia romana della prima età imperiale ("Archeologia: Materiali e problemi" series), De Donato (Bari, Italy), 1982.

Hadrian and the City of Rome, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1987.

(Editor, with Harry B. Evans) The Shapes of City Life in Rome and Pompeii: Essays in Honor of Lawrence Richardson, Jr. on the Occasion of His Retirement, A. D. Caratzas (New Rochelle, NY), 1998.

Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2000.

(With Daniel J. Gargola and Richard J. A. Talbert) TheRomans: From Village to Empire, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor of essays to anthologies, including Roman Art in Context, 1993, The Roman Family, 2002, and Sage and Emperor, 2003; contributor to scholarly periodicals, including American Journal of Ancient History, American Journal of Philology, and Historia.

SIDELIGHTS: Mary T. Boatwright, a professor of classical history at Duke University, is a respected scholar in the field of ancient Roman history. Her best-known works among Roman history specialists are probably the books Hadrian and the City of Rome and Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire, which discuss the urbanization that occurred throughout the Roman Empire during Hadrian's reign, from A.D. 117 to 138, and explain how the emperor's policies allowed this concentration of the population to occur.

Boatwright, with fellow scholars Daniel J. Gargola and Richard J. A. Talbert, is also the author of a book for lay readers: The Romans: From Village to Empire. This "elegantly written and beautifully crafted study," as a Publishers Weekly reviewer described it, was designed as an introductory text and, as Gilbert Taylor wrote in Booklist, it "ably lays a foundation for its readers." The Romans covers the entire history of the Roman Empire, beginning in the eighth century B.C., when Italian society consisted of small villages connected by a vibrant commercial network. Boatwright's specialty, the growth of Roman cities, is covered, as are the Roman legal code, engineering, religion, literature, and the role of women in the Roman Empire. The main focus, however, is on the political history of Rome and the lives of its famous rulers, including Julius and Augustus Caesar, Vespasian, and Constantine. Excerpts from primary sources, printed in inset boxes, are used to show how these historical "winners" used their power to dictate how history was written and thereby influenced how the "losers," including Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, were remembered. "Anyone interested in the history of Rome will return to [The Romans] over and over," concluded the Publishers Weekly reviewer.