Timothy David Barnes, (born 13 March 1942) is a British

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

Biography

Barnes was born in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

on 13 March 1942. He was educated at

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) is an independent, public school for boys in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The school was founded by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1591 at the request of leading citizens in Wakefield (headed ...

, until 1960, going up to

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he read Literae Humaniores, taking his BA in 1964 and MA in 1967. He was

Harmsworth Senior Scholar Harmsworth may refer to: ;People * Harmsworth (surname) *Titles of the Harmsworth family of newspaper proprietors: **Viscount Northcliffe **Viscount Rothermere **Baron Harmsworth ;Other *Harmsworth Cup, a trophy for motorboat racing * Vere Harmsw ...

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

, 1964–66 and

Junior Research Fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a ...

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its pred ...

1966–70. He was awarded his

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1970. In 1974 the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

conferred upon him the

Conington prize The Conington Prize is awarded annually by the University of Oxford. The cash prize is offered for a dissertation on a subject chosen by the writer and approved by the Board of the Faculty of Classics. The subject offered cycles through these fie ...

. On receiving his doctorate he was immediately appointed assistant professor of Classics at

University College, University of Toronto University College, popularly referred to as UC, is a constituent college of the University of Toronto, created in 1853 specifically as an institution of higher learning free of religious affiliation. It was the founding member of the university ...

, and in 1972 he was appointed

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

. In 1976 he became

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

of Classics, a post he held for thirty-one years until his retirement in 2007. He was three times associate chairman of Classics (1979–83, 1986–89, 1995–96). In the year 1976/7 he was a visiting member of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

. 1983/4 he was Visiting Fellow of

Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research and ...

and 1984/5 he was Connaught Senior Fellow in the Humanities. In 1989 he was elected a Fellow of the University of Trinity College. He delivered the Townsend Lectures at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1994. In 1982 he was awarded both the Philip Schaff Prize by the American Society of Church History for ''Constantine and Eusebius'' and the Charles Goodwin Award of Merit by the

American Philological Association The Society for Classical Studies (SCS), formerly known as the American Philological Association (APA) is a non-profit North American scholarly organization devoted to all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization founded in 1869. It is the preemine ...

. In 1985 he was elected

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Canada judges to have "made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life ...

and in 2009 Foreign Member of the

Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters is a Finnish academy for natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. It is known in Latin as Societas Scientiarum Fennica, in Swedish as Finska Vetenskaps-Societeten, and in Finnish as Suomen Tiede ...

. In December 2007, he officially retired from the University of Toronto, and returned to the United Kingdom. He is currently an honorary fellow at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

School of Divinity A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

, working with the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins.Academic Staff Principally Involved with the CSCO
. University of Edinburgh, 2009. Accessed 27 September 2009. Most of Barnes's work has concerned the position of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in the Later Roman Empire, both before state recognition of the

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

and the working in practice of the latter. Many of his articles have challenged traditionally held chronologies and explored the implications of fresh dating.

Selected works

* * * * * * * *

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Timothy David 1942 births Living people Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada University of Toronto faculty Fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Alumni of Merton College, Oxford People educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield Academics of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the British Academy