Oliver Lyne

Richard Oliver Allen Marcus Lyne (21 December 1944 – 17 March 2005), also known as R. O. A. M. Lyne, was a British academic and classicist specialising in Latin poetry. He was a tutor in classics at Balliol College and Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford. His 1987 book Further Voices in Virgil's "Aeneid" was an important text in the Harvard School of analysis of the Aeneid, which saw the poem as containing implicit messages casting doubt upon the imperialistic ideology of the Roman emperor Augustus.

Early life Lyne was born on 21 December 1944 in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England, to Richard and Rosalind Lyne. He was educated at Highgate School, then an all-boys private school in London, where his father was a teacher of Latin. He studied classics at St John's College, Cambridge. In 1999, he was appointed Professor of Classical Languages and Literature. Lyne's 1987 Further Voices in Virgil's "Aeneid" developed the argument made in 1963 by Adam Parry, a founding member of the Harvard School, that the poem contained a "private voice" undercutting its surface messages of propaganda. Lyne argues that these operate through Virgil's inclusion of provocative material, his juxtaposition of material within the poem, and his use of imagery, ambiguity and intertextual allusion.

Death On 17 March 2005,

An edited volume, R. O. A. M. Lyne: Collected Papers on Latin Poetry, was published in 2007 as a memorial to him; the introduction was written by Stephen Harrison.

Personal life Lyne married Linda in 1969. He had met her when they were both students. Together they had two children; Raphael, born 1971, and Rosy, born 1973.

His older brother is Adrian Lyne, a film director.

Select works