François Jacques

François Jacques (5 February 1946 – 3 May 1992) was a French historian and a specialist on Ancient Rome. His work focused on municipal life of the Roman Empire and profoundly contributed to a renewal of the historical perspectives on this issue.

Career After he obtained the agrégation of history, he taught at the University of Reims as lecturer and then he was appointed professor at the University of Nantes in 1981 and Lille in 1985.

His State doctoral thesis was defended in 1980 under the direction of André Chastagnol. François Jacques was also a student of Hans-Georg Pflaum. His analyzes on municipal life, especially the book based on his State doctorate, Le privilège de liberté (1984), helped establish the idea of the vitality of the municipal civilization under the Roman Empire. He did this by stressing maintaining the autonomy of the cities and by challenging a historiography which emphasized primarily the interference of the central government.