Miriam Griffin
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Miriam Tamara Griffin (née Dressler; 6 June 1935 – 16 May 2018) was an American classical scholar and tutor of
ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
at
Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...
at 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 ...
from 1967 to 2002. She was a scholar of
Roman history The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced ma ...
and ancient thought, and wrote books on the
Emperor Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...
and his tutor,
Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...
, encouraging an appreciation of the philosophical writings of the ancient Romans within their historical context.


Early life and education

Griffin was born and brought up in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. She was the only child of Jewish parents, Fanny Dressler (née Natelson) and Leo Dressler. Fanny Dressler was a stenographer and Leo Dressler was a school teacher. Griffin attended
Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Ac ...
in New York. Griffin's alma mater was
Barnard College, Columbia University Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbi ...
in New York City, from which she graduated with a BA degree in 1956. She had an AM degree from
Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
of
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, Massachusetts. She attended the University of Oxford as a
Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
in 1957. Her alma mater at 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 ...
was St Anne's College, where she matriculated in 1957. She graduated with a first in " Greats" in 1960. Griffin completed her
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 ...
at the University of Oxford in 1968. Her thesis was supervised by
Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...
, and entitled ''Seneca: The Statesman and the Writer''.


Career

Griffin held a Junior Research Fellowship at St Anne's College, University of Oxford, before being appointed Tutor in Ancient History at Somerville College in 1967. Her research interests included Roman history, the late Republic and early Empire, and intellectual history. She was described as "a generous, kind and warm colleague and a mentor to generations of students". Griffin was a scholar of the
Julio-Claudian , native_name_lang=Latin, coat of arms=Great_Cameo_of_France-removebg.png, image_size=260px, caption= The Great Cameo of France depicting emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero, type=Ancient Roman dynasty, country= Roman Empire, estates=* ...
imperial dynasty and
ancient philosophy This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, namely philosophical thought extending as far as early post-classical history (). Overview Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures ...
. Her book ''Seneca: a Philosopher in Politics'' (1976) examined the tensions between philosophy and politics in the life and career of Seneca. The volume was described by reviewers as "a work of consequence" and an "authoritative book". Griffin's book ''Nero: The End of a Dynasty'' was first published in 1984, and republished in 2000 and 2013. It was translated into French by Alexis D'Hautcourt and published as ''Néron, ou, La fin d'une dynastie'' in 2002. Griffin places Nero as a person, including "his desire for popularity and his fear and insecurity", in the context of the social and legislative structures of his time, and examines the ways in which this contributed to his downfall. She said in an interview with ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' that "Nero was a man of taste, rather than intellect, and by the time of his death, I think, he was losing his mental balance". The incipient rebellion against his rule threw him into a state of panic, she added, exacerbated by his
persecutory delusion A persecutory delusion is a common type of delusional condition in which the affected person believes that harm is going to occur to oneself by a persecutor, despite a clear lack of evidence. The person may believe that they are being targeted by a ...
s. Her work was reviewed as a "splendid book", a "perceptive study", and "close to giving us the definitive account of the last and worst of the Julio-Claudians". Griffin edited the journal ''The Classical Quarterly'' (2002–2007). She was a long-standing editor of the Clarendon Ancient History Series for Oxford University Press. In 2011, Griffin gave the Nineteenth
Todd Memorial Lecture Todd or Todds may refer to: Places ;Australia: * Todd River, an ephemeral river ;United States: * Todd Valley, California, also known as Todd, an unincorporated community * Todd, Missouri, a ghost town * Todd, North Carolina, an unincorporat ...
at the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
on the topic of 'Symptoms and Sympathy in Latin Letters'. Griffin was one of five women to deliver the lecture in its history. In 2013, Griffin was on the Steering Committee of the Oxford Classics Conclave, which hosted a dinner to which all women engaged in classics teaching or research at Oxford were invited. Sixty-two women were invited to celebrate their increased presence on the faculty. Griffin arranged to hold the first ''Women in Classics'' dinner at her current institution, Somerville College, where thirty-one women attended on 5 October 2013. The steering committee also included
Josephine Crawley Quinn Josephine Crawley Quinn is a historian and archaeologist, working across Greek, Roman and Phoenician history. Quinn is a Professor of Ancient History in the Faculty of Classics and Martin Frederiksen Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Worce ...
,
Susan Treggiari Susan Treggiari is an English scholar of Ancient Rome,John Simon Guggenheim Memoria ...
, and
Gail Trimble Gail Christina Trimble (born 13 August 1982) is a fellow and tutor in Classics at Trinity College, Oxford. Early life and education Trimble was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, to Mary and Michael Trimble. Her father worked as a manager for B ...
. Griffin taught Gillian Clark and Tessa Rajak as undergraduates. Her doctoral students include
Hannah Cotton Hannah M. Cotton-Paltiel ( he, חנה מ. כותן־פלטיאל) is the ''Shalom Horowitz Professor of Classics'' in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was head of its classics department until 2005. She is a classical texts researcher, and ...
, Professor in Classics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Kathleen Coleman Kathleen M. Coleman is an academic and writer who is the James Loeb Professor of the Classics at Harvard University. Her research interests include Latin literature, history and culture in the early Roman Empire, and arena spectacles. Her e ...
, James Loeb Professor of the Classics at Harvard University and David Wardle, Professor of Classics and Acting Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town. A volume of Griffin's collected papers, edited by Catalina Balmaceda, is due to be published in June 2018 by Oxford University Press. The volume is entitled ''Politics and Philosophy at Rome: Collected Papers'', and includes previously unpublished lectures.


Personal life

Griffin had a lifelong passion for music, and was an accomplished
pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
. She was married to
Jasper Griffin Jasper Griffin (29 May 1937 – 22 November 2019) was a British classicist and academic. He was Public Orator and Professor of Classical Literature in the University of Oxford from 1992 until 2004. Early life Griffin was born on 29 May 1937. H ...
of
Balliol College 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 ...
. They met as students at Oxford and married in New York after their examinations in the summer of 1960. The couple had three daughters—Julia Griffin, Miranda Williams, and Tamara Sykorova—and a granddaughter.


Honours

In 2002, Griffin was the dedicatee of a
Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
in honour of her career titled ''Philosophy and Power in the Graeco-Roman World: Essays in Honour of Miriam Griffin'' (2002). On 20 August 2018, she was awarded the
British Academy Medal The British Academy Medal is awarded annually by the British Academy to up to three individuals or groups. It is awarded for "outstanding achievement that has transformed understanding of a particular subject or field of study in ... any branch of ...
in recognition of "lifetime achievement".


Selected bibliography

Griffin published articles in academic journals in both fields, as well as contributing to 61 reference entries in the ''
Oxford Classical Dictionary The ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (''OCD'') is generally considered "the best one-volume dictionary on antiquity," an encyclopædic work in English consisting of articles relating to classical antiquity and its civilizations. It was first pub ...
'', 3rd rev. ed. (2005). She wrote reviews and articles in the ''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...
'' and ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
''.


Books

* ''Seneca: a philosopher in politics.'' Clarendon Press, 1976. . * ''Nero: the end of a dynasty.'' Batsford, 1984. . This details the events of Nero's reign and then analyses the reasons for his downfall. * ''Seneca on society.'' Oxford University Press, 2013. .


Edited collections

* ''Philosophia Togata I. Essays on Philosophy and Roman Society.'' Edited by Miriam Griffin and Jonathan Barnes. Oxford University Press, 1997. . * ''Philosophia Togata II. Plato and Aristotle at Rome.'' Edited by Jonathan Barnes and Miriam Griffin. Oxford University Press, 2000. . * ''A Companion to Julius Caesar.'' Edited by Miriam Griffin. Wiley, 2009. . * ''Health and Sickness in Ancient Rome; Greek and Roman Poetry and Historiography.'' Edited by Francis Cairns and Miriam Griffin. Francis Cairns, 2010. . * ''Studies in Stoicism. P. A. Brunt.'' Edited by Miriam Griffin, Alison Samuels, and with the assistance of Michael Crawford. Oxford University Press, 2013. .


Translations

*''On Benefits. Lucius Annaeus Seneca.'' Translated by Miriam Griffin and Brad Inwood. University of Chicago Press, 2011. .


Edited texts

*''Cicero: On Duties.'' Edited by M. T. Griffin and E. M. Atkins. Cambridge University Press, 1991. . *"Cicero on Life and Death." Translated by John Davie. Edited with an introduction and Notes by Miriam T. Griffin. World's Classics. Oxford University Press, 2017. .


Articles

* 'De Brevitate Vitae', ''The Journal of Roman Studies'', Vol. 52, Parts 1 and 2 (1962), pp. 104–113 * 'Seneca on Cato's Politics: Epistle 14. 12-13', ''The Classical Quarterly'', New Series, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Nov., 1968), pp. 373–375 * 'The 'Leges Iudiciariae' of the Pre-Sullan Era', ''The Classical Quarterly'' , Vol. 23, No. 1 (May, 1973), pp. 108–126


References


Sources

* *


External links


Institutional homepage (Somerville College, Oxford)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffin, Miriam T. 1935 births 2018 deaths American classical scholars Women classical scholars American women historians American people of Jewish descent Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Radcliffe College alumni Barnard College alumni Academics of the University of Oxford Writers from New York City 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Historians from New York (state)