David Magie

David Magie (January 20, 1877 – April 22, 1960) was an American classical scholar, historian, and philologist at Princeton University, best known for his scholarship on Roman provincial rule and translation of the Historia Augusta. His major work, Roman Rule in Asia Minor, won him the first-ever Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit in 1951.

Biography Magie was born in New York City on January 20, 1877. His grandfather was James McCosh, the eleventh president of Princeton University.

After a year teaching at the Lawrenceville School, he returned to Princeton as a graduate student and instructor in Latin in 1899. His memory is also honored by the annual Magie Lectureship in the Princeton University Program in the Ancient World.

Scholarship

Magie's scholarship focused on Roman provincial administration, Roman law, and late Roman historiography. His work is noted for its breadth and exhaustive source analysis.

His most influential publication was the two-volume, 1,660-page Roman Rule in Asia Minor to the End of the Third Century after Christ (1950), the culmination of nearly twenty-five years of research. Magie described the project as “planned in my youth, begun in middle life and finally completed in my old age.” The American Philological Association praised it as “the outstanding work out of the many outstanding works” on Roman expansion in Asia Minor, awarding him the inaugural Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit at the age of 74.

Magie is also known for his three-volume edition, translation, and commentary on the Scriptores Historiae Augustae for the Loeb Classical Library, published between 1921 and 1932. The edition was known for its thorough erudition and deft handling of the controversy over the work's date and authorship. Magie collaborated on its composition with his student, Ainsworth O'Brien-Moore.

Selected Publications Magie, David. De Romanorum iuris publici sacrique vocabulis sollemnibus in Graecum sermonem conversis. Ph.D. diss., University of Halle, 1904. Magie, David. Scriptores Historiae Augustae. 3 vols. Loeb Classical Library, 1922–1932. Magie, David. Roman Rule in Asia Minor to the End of the Third Century after Christ. 2 vols. Princeton University Press, 1950.