Ronald Syme was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman Empire since Edward Gibbon.
11 Facts About Ronald Syme
2.
Ronald Syme moved to New Plymouth Boys' High School at the age of 15, and was head of his class for both of his two years.
3.
Ronald Syme continued to the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington, where he studied French language and literature while working on his degree in Classics.
4.
Ronald Syme then attended Oriel College, Oxford, between 1925 and 1927, gaining First Class honours in Literae Humaniores.
5.
Ronald Syme was appointed fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, from 1970 until the late 1980s, where an annual lecture was established in his memory.
6.
Ronald Syme was elected to the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences the same year.
7.
Ronald Syme continued his prolific writing and editing until his death at the age of 86.
8.
The work for which Ronald Syme is chiefly remembered, The Roman Revolution, is widely considered a masterly and controversial analysis of Roman political life in the period following the 44 BCE assassination of Julius Caesar.
9.
Rome, Spain and the Americas, which presents the three lectures that Ronald Syme offered at McMaster University in January 1958 as part of the Whidden Lectures.
10.
Ronald Syme compares the three empires that have endured for the longest periods of time in Western History: Rome, Spain, and Britain.
11.
Ronald Syme considers that the duration of an Empire links directly to the character of the men who are in charge of the imperial administration, in particular that of the colonies.