Antonius Jacobus Leonardus (Anton) van Hooff (born 1943) is a Dutch historian of
antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
, author and a former
docent.
From 2009 until 2015, he chaired the
freethinkers association
De Vrije Gedachte
Vrijdenkersvereniging De Vrije Gedachte (DVG) (English: ''Freethinkers association The Free Thought''), is a Dutch atheist– humanist association of freethinkers. It was founded in 1856 and known by the name De Dageraad ("The Dawn") before assu ...
.
In 1971, Van Hooff graduated with the
dissertation ''Pax romana: een studie van het Romeinse imperialisme'' ("Pax Romana: a Study of Roman Imperialism"). Until 2008, Van Hooff was
docent in
ancient history at the
Radboud University Nijmegen.
He specialises in
classical antiquity, and regularly publishes in various newspapers and magazines. He wrote several books, including ''Nero & Seneca'',
''Athene'' ("Athens") and ''Marcus Aurelius''.
Van Hooff is an
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
,
a
republican and a member of the
Republican Society. On 3 December 2014, Van Hooff held the first ever Hans van den Bergh Lecture of the
New Republican Society in
De Balie.
Books
* ''Zelfdoding in de antieke wereld (1990)/From Autothanasia to Suicide. Self-killing in Classical Antiquity'' (1990)
* ''De vonk van Spartacus: het voortleven van een antieke rebel'' (1993)
* ''Nero & Seneca. De despoot en de denker'' (2010)
* ''Athene. Het leven van de eerste democratie'' (2011)
* ''Marcus Aurelius. De keizer-filosoof'' (2012)
* ''Klassiek. Geschiedenis van de Grieks-Romeinse wereld'' (2013)
* ''Keizers van het Colosseum. Vespasianus, Titus en Domitianus (2014)''
* ''Sterven in stijl. Leven met de dood in de klassieke oudheid (2015)''
*
References
External links
Columns in ''De Gelderlander''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooff, Anton van
Living people
1943 births
Dutch atheists
20th-century Dutch historians
Dutch republicans
Dutch skeptics
Academic staff of Radboud University Nijmegen
Writers from The Hague
21st-century Dutch historians