Editing Barbara Levick

{{Short description|British historian and epigrapher (1931–2023)}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Barbara Levick
| birth_date         = 21 June 1931
| birth_place        = [[Brookline, Massachusetts|Brookline]], [[Massachusetts]], [[United States]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|2023|12|6|1931|6|21|df=y}}
| death_place        = 
| alma_mater         = [[University of Oxford]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|DPhil]])
}}
'''Barbara Mary Levick''' (21 June 1931 – 6 December 2023) was a British historian and [[epigrapher]], focusing particularly on the Late [[Roman Republic]] and Early Empire. She was recognised within her field as one of the leading Roman historians of her generation.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=MITCHELL|first=STEPHEN|title=Barbara Levick and Asia Minor|date=2007|journal=Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement|volume=50|issue=100|pages=xv–xviii|jstor=43767656|doi=10.1111/j.2041-5370.2007.tb02459.x}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Barbara Mary Levick was born in London on 21 June 1931,<ref>{{cite news
 | title = Weekend birthdays
 | newspaper = [[The Guardian]]
 | pages = 42
 | date = 21 June 2014
 }}</ref> the daughter of Frank Thomas and Mary (née Smart) Levick.<ref>Sleeman, Elizabeth (Ed), ''International Who's Who of Women, 2002'', (2001: Psychology Press, London), p 329.</ref> She was educated at [[Brighton Girls|Brighton and Hove High School]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://brightongirls.gdst.net/about/alumnae/notable-alumnae/|title=Brighton Girls: Notable Alumnae|access-date=7 December 2023}}</ref> and [[St Hugh's College, Oxford]].<ref name=":1"/> Her [[DPhil]], on the subject of Roman colonies in South Asia Minor was undertaken in the mid-1950s and supervised by [[Ronald Syme]].<ref name=":0"/> For this research she made two solo trips to [[Turkey]], placing herself in a tradition at this time of largely Scottish and male epigraphers travelling in [[Anatolia]].<ref name=":0"/> She focused, however, on [[Pisidia]], a region that lay away from the routes explored by a group of her male contemporaries, although she was the only one to publish a book as a result of research from these expeditions.<ref name=":0"/>

== Career ==
In 1959, Levick was appointed a university [[fellow]] and tutor for Roman History at [[St Hilda's College, Oxford]], and in 1967 published her first [[monograph]], drawing on material from her doctoral thesis, which forty years after its publication was described as a "resilient classic of Roman history".<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=Dr Barbara Levick|url=http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/faculty/directory/buscard.asp?IDno=304|publisher=[[University of Oxford]]|access-date=12 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723113250/http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/faculty/directory/buscard.asp?IDno=304|archive-date=23 July 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Paul's Offer of Leniency (2 Cor 10:1): Populist Ideology and Rhetoric in a Pauline Letter Fragment|year=2002|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=978-3-16-147891-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LWxHUT803ecC&pg=PA217|author=Donald Dale Walker|page=217}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Briscoe|first=John|date=March 1969|title=Six Augustan Colonies - Barbara Levick: Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor. Pp. xvi+256; 2 maps, 6 plates. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967. Cloth, 70s. net.|journal=The Classical Review|language=en|volume=19|issue=1|pages=86–88|doi=10.1017/S0009840X00328682|s2cid=162440061 |issn=1464-3561}}</ref> The importance of this work came from both its focus on the Roman impact on Asia Minor, and the drawing together of both epigraphic and [[numismatic]] evidence.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":2"/> In this work she used the discoveries she made at [[Yalvaç]] in Turkey, and considered again material that had been neglected since the 1920s.<ref name=":0"/>

Levick was an influential editor of inscriptions who shaped the format of the ''Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua'' series, directing two volumes of its publication.<ref name=":0"/> Her biographies of Roman emperors and Imperial women are widely known and receive largely positive reviews from their critics.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/12/06/life-styles-of-the-rich-and-famous/|title=Life Styles of the Rich and Famous|last=Lloyd-Jones|first=Hugh|work=The New York Review of Books|access-date=22 October 2018|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2001/2001-01-20.html|title=Review: B. Levick, Vespasian|author=John F. Donahue|website=Bryn Mawr Classical Review|date=20 January 2001|access-date=17 June 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Daly|first=Megan M.|date=July 2016|title=Review of: Claudius. Second edition (first edition 1990). Roman imperial biographies|url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2016/2016-07-37.html|journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review|issn=1055-7660}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Keegan|first=Peter|date=May 2011|title=Review of: Augustus: Image and Substance|url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2011/2011-05-30.html|journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review|issn=1055-7660}}</ref>

Her portrait was painted for St Hilda's College by [[Jane Cursham]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/barbara-levick-223249#|title=Barbara Levick {{!}} Art UK|website=artuk.org|language=en|access-date=22 October 2018}}</ref>

== Death ==
Levick died on 6 December 2023, at the age of 92.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dr Barbara Levick 1931–2023 |url=https://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/content/dr-barbara-levick-1931-2023 |website=St. Hilda's College |access-date=14 December 2023 |date=13 December 2023}}</ref>

== Selected publications ==
A fuller bibliography of her works up to 2007 can be found in the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement, No. 100, VITA VIGILIA EST: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF BARBARA LEVICK (2007).<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2007|journal=Bulletin of the [[Institute of Classical Studies]]. Supplement|issue=100|pages=xix–xxvii|jstor=43767657|title=Publications of Barbara Levick}}</ref>

=== Books ===
* ''Roman colonies in southern Asia Minor'' (Oxford: the Clarendon Press, 1967)
* ''Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)
*''Julia Domna, Syrian Empress'' (London: Routledge, 2007)
*''The Government of the Roman Empire. A Sourcebook'' (London: Routledge, 1985)
*''[[Claudius]]'' (1990); this biography was translated into French in 2002 by historian [[Isabelle Cogitore]].
*''The Year of the Four Emperors'' (2000)
*''[[Vespasian]]'' (1999)
*''Tiberius the Politician.'' London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. Reprint, London: Croom Helm, 1988. {{ISBN|0-7099-4132-3}}.
*''Augustus: Image and Substance.'' London: Longman, 2010. {{ISBN|9780582894211}}.
*''Catiline.'' London: Bloomsbury, 2015. {{ISBN|9781472534897}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/catiline-9781472534897/|title=Catiline by Barbara Levick|website=Bloomsbury Publishing|access-date=17 June 2016}}</ref>

===Articles===
*''Two Pisidian Colonial Families''. In: ''The Journal of Roman Studies'', Vol. 48, No. 1/2 (1958), pp.&nbsp;74–78
*''Acerbissima Lex Servilia''. In: ''The Classical Review'', New Series, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Dec., 1967), pp.&nbsp;256–258
*''A Cry from the Heart from Tiberius Caesar?''. In: ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Vol. 27, No. 1 (1st Qtr., 1978), pp.&nbsp;95–101
*''Poena Legis Maiestatis''. In: ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Vol. 28, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1979), pp.&nbsp;358–379
*''Claudius Speaks: Two Imperial Contretemps''. In: ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Vol. 38, No. 1 (1st Qtr., 1989), pp.&nbsp;112–116
*''Abdication and Agrippa Postumus''. In: ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Vol. 21, No. 4 (4th Qtr., 1972), pp.&nbsp;674–697
*''The Beginning of Tiberius' Career''. In: ''The Classical Quarterly'', New Series, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Nov., 1971), pp.&nbsp;478–486
*''Cicero, Brutus 43. 159 ff., and the Foundation of Narbo Martius''. In: ''The Classical Quarterly'', New Series, Vol. 21, No. 1 (May, 1971), pp.&nbsp;170–179

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levick, Barbara}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2023 deaths]]
[[Category:English biographers]]
[[Category:British historians]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of St Hilda's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British women historians]]
[[Category:British women biographers]]
[[Category:Historians of ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Writers from London]]