Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

{{Short description|British ancient historian, classical archaeologist, and academic}} {{Use British English|date=March 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = | name = Andrew Wallace-Hadrill | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|size=100%|country=GBR|OBE|FBA|FSA}} | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Andrew Frederic Wallace-Hadrill | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1951|7|29|df=y}} | birth_place = Oxford, Oxfordshire, England | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | region = | period = | occupation = | title = | boards =  | known_for = | spouse = | children = | era = | language = | discipline = Ancient history Classical archaeology | sub_discipline =  | movement =

| education = | alma_mater = Corpus Christi College, Oxford | thesis_title = Suetonius on the Emperor: Studies in the Representation of the Emperor in the Caesars | thesis_url = https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7055156f-9009-48c9-9457-934a352d30b0 | thesis_year = 1980 | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | notable_students =  | main_interests = | workplaces = University of Cambridge Magdalene College, Cambridge University of Reading British School at Rome Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influences =  | influenced =  | awards =  | website = | footnotes = }}

'''Andrew Frederic Wallace-Hadrill''', {{post-nominals|size=100%|sep=,|country=GBR|OBE|FBA|FSA}} (born in Oxford<ref>{{Cite web |title=Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill |url=https://www.sid.cam.ac.uk/people/professor-andrew-wallace-hadrill |access-date=2026-01-27 |website=www.sid.cam.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref> on 29 July 1951) is a British ancient historian, classical archaeologist, and academic. He is Professor of Roman Studies and Director of Research in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge. He was Director of the British School at Rome between 1995 and 2009, and Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from August 2009 to July 2013.

==Early life and education== Wallace-Hadrill was born on 29 July 1951 in Oxford, England, the son of mediaeval historian John Michael Wallace-Hadrill and Anne Wallace-Hadrill (née Wakefield).<ref>{{cite journal |editor1-last=Wood |editor1-first=Ian |editor1-link=Ian N. Wood |title=John Michael Wallace-Hadrill 1916–1985 |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |date=2004 |issue=124 |pages=333–355 |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1628/124p333.pdf |publisher=The British Academy}}</ref> He was educated at the private Rugby School.<ref name="Who's Who">{{citation|title=WALLACE-HADRILL, Prof. Andrew Frederic|work=Who's Who 2012|publisher=A & C Black |year=2012 |isbn=9781408142295 |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U38699 }}</ref> He studied ''Literae humaniores'' (i.e. classics) at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree: as per tradition, his BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree. He went on to attain a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at St John's College, University of Oxford.<ref name="Sidney Sussex College Bio">{{cite web|title=College Fellows and Staff: Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill|url=http://www.sid.cam.ac.uk/aboutus/people/person.html?crsid=aw479|publisher=Sidney Sussex College|accessdate=4 June 2012|date=6 July 2011}}</ref> His doctoral thesis was titled "Suetonius on the emperor: studies in the representation of the emperor in the Caesars" and was submitted in 1980.<ref name="thesis">{{cite thesis |last= Wallace-Hadrill |first= A. F. |date= 1980 |title= Suetonius on the emperor: studies in the representation of the emperor in the Caesars |degree= DPhil |publisher= University of Oxford |url= https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7055156f-9009-48c9-9457-934a352d30b0 |accessdate= 13 June 2024}}</ref>

==Academic career== Wallace-Hadrill's first academic position was Fellow of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge between 1976 and 1983. He was also the Director of Studies in Classics of the college during that time. He then lectured at the University of Leicester from 1983 till 1987. In 1987, he became Professor of Classics at the University of Reading until 2009.<ref name="Sidney Sussex College Bio" /> Wallace-Hadrill was Director of the British School at Rome between 1995 and 2009. He was elected the 25th Master of Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge, taking up office in August 2009 on the expiry by statute of Professor Dame Sandra Dawson's tenure.<ref name="Sidney elects a new Master">{{cite web|title=Sidney elects a new Master|url=http://www.sid.cam.ac.uk/life/news/newsitem.html?nid=66|publisher=Sidney Sussex College|author=Dr David Beckingham}}</ref> In June 2012, it was announced that he would be standing down from the position of Master to concentrate his efforts on the Herculaneum Conservation Project, which he directed from 2001 to 2016.<ref name="Sidney Sussex College Bio" /> He stood down in 2013, and continued at Cambridge as Director of Research of the Faculty of Classics from 1 October 2012.<ref name="FoC news">{{cite web|title=Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill |url=http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/news/pg/article==153 |publisher=University of Cambridge |accessdate=30 June 2012 |date=11 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711000805/http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/news/pg/article%3D%3D153 |archivedate=11 July 2012 }}</ref> He now has the status of emeritus Professor.

In 2004, in an interview on the Australian television programme ''60 Minutes'', Wallace-Hadrill aired his opinion about the neglect of the archaeological site of Pompeii. He was described as an "angry archaeologist" when he argued that the conservation issues that need to be acted upon urgently at Pompeii are being neglected and that the site is suffering from a "second death". Regarding the deterioration of Pompeii, he contends, "Man is wreaking a damage far greater than Vesuvius. The moment of Pompeii's destruction was also the moment of its preservation. The public needs to understand that unless constant efforts are taken to arrest the decay, the site will, within decades crumble to nothing."<ref>T. Hurley, P. Medcalf ''(et al.)'', Antiquity 3, Oxford University Press, Melbourne Victoria, 2005, p. 65</ref>

==Television== Wallace-Hadrill has made three well-reviewed documentary programmes for BBC television. ''The Other Pompeii: Life and Death in Herculaneum'', first screened in April 2013, was described by ''The Arts Desk'' as "a straightforward, lively but informative documentary of substance" on Herculaneum, a Roman city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Güner|first1=Fisun|title=The Other Pompeii: Life and Death in Herculaneum, BBC Two|url=http://www.theartsdesk.com/tv/other-pompeii-life-and-death-herculaneum-bbc-two|accessdate=26 March 2016|work=The Arts Desk|date=2 April 2013}}</ref> The two-parter, ''Building the Ancient City: Athens and Rome'', was screened in August 2015, and showed how the building of Athens and Rome paralleled the development of democracy in those two cultures. Daisy Wyatt of ''The Independent'' said of it: "An exuberant Wallace-Hadrill made the...documentary watchable thanks to his passion for the subject. It was hard to feel anything but warmth for the antithesis of the typical Oxbridge academic presenter."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wyatt|first1=Daisy|title=Building the Ancient City: Athens, BBC2, TV review|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/building-the-ancient-city-athens-bbc2-tv-review-andrew-wallace-hadrill-is-the-perfect-antithesis-to-10464468.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/building-the-ancient-city-athens-bbc2-tv-review-andrew-wallace-hadrill-is-the-perfect-antithesis-to-10464468.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|accessdate=26 March 2016|work=The Independent|date=20 August 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Honours and awards== *In 2014, Wallace-Hadrill was awarded an honorary DLitt degree by the University of Reading.<ref>[https://www.reading.ac.uk/Graduation/graduates/grad-honorarygraduates.aspx Honorary Graduates of the University of Reading] - website of the University of Reading</ref> * Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2010<ref>{{cite web|title=WALLACE-HADRILL, Professor Andrew, OBE |url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/ord.cfm?member=6540 |work=British Academy Fellows |publisher=The British Academy |accessdate=28 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531203246/http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/ord.cfm?member=6540 |archivedate=31 May 2014 }}</ref> * In the 2004 New Year Honours, Wallace-Hadrill was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire "for services to UK–Italian cultural relations".<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=57155 |date=31 December 2003 |page=24 |supp=y}}</ref> * Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) on 30 April 1998<ref>{{cite web|title=W |url=http://www.sal.org.uk/history/listoffellows/?letter=W |work=List of Fellows |publisher=The Society of Antiquaries of London |accessdate=28 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709025959/http://www.sal.org.uk/history/listoffellows/?letter=W |archivedate=9 July 2012 }}</ref> * Archaeological Institute of America's James R. Wiseman Award in 1995 for his book ''Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum'' (1994)

==Selected works== * ''Suetonius: The Scholar and His Caesars'' (Duckworth, 1983).<ref>{{cite book |title=Suetonius: The Scholar and His Caesars |publisher=Duckworth |year=1983 |oclc=1052824064}}</ref> * ''City and Country in the Ancient World'' (New York, 1991), ed. with John Rich<ref>{{cite book |title=City and Country in the Ancient World |location=New York |year=1991 |isbn=0415082234 |editor-first=John |editor-last=Rich}}</ref> * ''Augustan Rome'' (1993)<ref>{{cite book |title=Augustan Rome |year=1993 |isbn=1853991384|last1=Wallace-Hadrill |first1=Andrew |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> * ''Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum'' (Princeton, 1994).<ref>{{cite book |title=Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1994 |isbn=0691029091}}</ref> * ''Suetonius'' (Duckworth, 1995). * ''Domestic Space in the Roman World: Pompeii and Beyond'' (1997), ed. with Ray Laurence<ref>{{cite journal |title=Domestic Space in the Roman World: Pompeii and Beyond |journal=Journal of Roman Archaeology |volume=22 |year=1997 |isbn=1887829229 |editor-link=Ray Laurence}}</ref> * ''Rome's Cultural Revolution'' (Cambridge, 2008)<ref>{{cite book |title=Rome's Cultural Revolution |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0521721608}}</ref> * ''Herculaneum: Past and Future'' (Frances Lincoln, 2011).<ref>{{cite book |title=Herculaneum: Past and Future |publisher=Frances Lincoln |year=2011 |isbn=9780711233898}}</ref> * ''The Idea of the City in Late Antiquity'' (Cambridge University Press 2025)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wallace-Hadrill |first=Andrew |date=January 2025 |title=The Idea of the City in Late Antiquity: A Study in Resilience |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/idea-of-the-city-in-late-antiquity/5A98CC190C3C01592CD0645269617EB8 |access-date=2025-12-21 |website=Cambridge Core |doi=10.1017/9781009527118 |isbn=978-1-009-52711-8 |language=en}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20130620065254/http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/w/5473/Andrew%2BFrederic.aspx ''Debrett's People of Today''] * [http://www.ideasroadshow.com/issues/andrew-wallace-hadrill-2013-06-07 "Herculaneum Uncovered – A conversation with Andrew Wallace-Hadrill"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325052612/http://www.ideasroadshow.com/issues/andrew-wallace-hadrill-2013-06-07 |date=25 March 2014 }}, ''Ideas Roadshow'', 2013

{{S-start}} {{S-aca}} {{S-bef| before = Sandra Dawson}} {{S-ttl| title = Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge| years = August 2009 – July 2013}} {{S-aft| after = Richard Penty}} {{S-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew}} Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:People educated at Rugby School Category:English classical scholars Category:Historians of ancient Rome Category:Academics of the University of Reading Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Masters of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Category:Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of classics