Anthony Birley

Anthony Richard Birley (8 October 1937 – 19 December 2020) was a British ancient historian, archaeologist and academic. He was one of the leaders of excavations at the Roman fortress of Vindolanda and also published several books on Roman Britain and Roman emperors of the second-century AD.

Early life and education Anthony Birley was the son of the archaeologists Eric Birley and Margaret "Peggy" Birley. Eric bought the house next to the archeological site Vindolanda where Anthony and his brother, Robin, began to excavate the site. The brothers took part in many of the excavations there. From 1950 to 1955, Anthony studied at Clifton College, a private school in Bristol, England. He studied classics at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a first-class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1960.

Career Birley remained at the University of Oxford with a Craven Fellowship from 1960 to 1962, and was then a research fellow at the University of Birmingham. He was an Honorary Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham.

He was elected as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) in 1969, and was a corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute (1981) and a member of Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften from 1994 to 2002. and gained three step-children

Selected publications Hadrian's Wall: an illustrated guide. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) (1963). Imperial Rome with drawings by the artist. Alan Sorrell London: Lutterworth Press (1970) Life in Roman Britain (1972) Lives of the Later Caesars (1976) The Fasti of Roman Britain, Clarendon Press (1981) Septimius Severus: The African Emperor (1972, revised edition 1988) Roman Papers, vol. 6, by Ronald Syme, edited by A. R. Birley (Clarendon Press 1991) The People of Roman Britain (1992) Marcus Aurelius: a Biography, London: Routledge, (1993) Anatolica - Studies in Strabo, by Ronald Syme, edited by A. R. Birley (Oxford: OUP 1995) Vindolanda Research Reports (new series) 6 vols. (1996) Hadrian: the Restless Emperor, London: Routledge, (1997) Eques Romanus - Reiter und Ritter (in German) by Michel Stemmler, edited by A. R. Birley (Peter Lang GmbH, 1997) Onomasticon to the Younger Pliny, Clarendon Press (2000) Garrison Life at Vindolanda: a Band of Brothers, Stroud: Tempus, (2002) The Roman Government of Britain (2005) Agricola and Germany (2009)