Arther Ferrill (born 1938),"Arther Ferrill." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2017-07-09. now a professor emeritus of history at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle ...

at Seattle,McLemmee, Scott (September 27, 2002).
Rehabilitating Livia: By focusing on the biases of ancient historians, a scholar provides an antidote to old views of Roman rulers
(preview only; subscription required). ''

The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...

''. is a respected expert on Ancient Rome and

military history Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians no ...

. He has written four books and is a regular contributor to MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History () and other periodicals, as an author and in review of other authors.

Life and work

Born in Enid, Oklahoma, Ferrill earned a B.A. at the University of Wichita (now Wichita State University) in 1960. He went on to graduate study at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universi ...

, where he received a masters in 1961 and a Ph.D. in 1964. In ''The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation'' (1998 ), Ferrill supports the claims of

Vegetius Publius (or Flavius) Vegetius Renatus, known as Vegetius (), was a writer of the Later Roman Empire (late 4th century). Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what is contained in his two surviving works: ''Epitoma rei militaris'' (also r ...

, about increased " barbarisation" and "

germanisation Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...

" helping to cause the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD. He asserts that allowing barbarians to settle within Rome's borders, to act as a buffer zone against other barbarians, created friction and led to a decrease in the size of the Roman Empire's Borders. He also states that the Germans were recruited in such large numbers by the Western empire that they in fact changed it from a Roman to a German culture. For example, field army units would not use their helmets, the pilum was replaced, and the standard of drill declined, leading to a lack of military skill within the Empire. Among his other works are: *''Caligula: Emperor of Rome''. Thames & Hudson, 1991. *''The Origins of War: From the Stone Age to Alexander the Great''. Thames & Hudson, 1985. Revised edition, Westview Press, 1997. *''Roman Imperial Grand Strategy''. University Press of America, 1991.

References

External links

Faculty profile University of Washington, SeattleUniversity of Washington List of Works by Arther FerillBritannica Online review of "The Origins of War" by Arther FerrillBritannica Online another review of "The Origins of War" by Arther Ferrill
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070110072736/http://www.utah.edu/pat/conference2001/abstracts2001/Loveland.html University of Utah (online) “Some Observations Regarding the Possible Psychology of the Greek Hoplite, or the Face of Classical Greek Infantry Battle” by John Loveland]
US Naval Institute (online) "Legion Lessons for Today's Marines", by Major William J. Bowers, U.S. Marine Corps, November 2001 (see bibliography)
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060902123145/https://www.lib.washington.edu/support/fol_newsletter.htm "such renowned scholars as Thomas Pressly, Jon Bridgman and Arthur Ferrill."(April 2006, UCLA) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrill, Arther American military historians American male non-fiction writers Historians of ancient Rome Living people 1938 births Writers from Enid, Oklahoma University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Wichita State University alumni University of Washington faculty