Prof. Dr. Gavin Kelly

Fields of Interest

Latin literature and textual scholarship
Late Roman History

Gavin studied Classics at Cambridge and Oxford, was a research fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge and at the University of Manchester, before arriving at the University of Edinburgh as Lecturer in Latin Literature in 2005. Since 2016 he has held a personal Chair in Latin Literature and Roman History at Edinburgh. He served as Head of the Department of Classics in 2016-2019.

His research focuses on the literature and history of the Roman empire from the first to the sixth centuries, with a principal focus on the fourth and fifth centuries. He is particularly interested in genres of literature that are of historical interest – such as historiography, letters, panegyric, occasional poetry – and in the history that can be written from textual evidence. His current major project is a new translation and critical edition of Ammianus Marcellinus. He is in Bamberg as a Senior Fellow advising the AntCoCo project for the academic year 2023-2024.

Education and Career

1996: BA in Classics, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
1998: MPhil in Greek and/or Roman History, Magdalen College, Oxford
2002: DPhil in Classics, Magdalen College, Oxford
2000-2004: Research Fellow, Peterhouse, Cambridge
2004-2005: Research Fellow, University of Manchester
2005-2016: Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader in Latin Literature, University of Edinburgh
2016-: Professor of Latin Literature and Roman History, University of Edinburgh

Scholarships and Awards

1996 Chancellor’s Medal for Proficiency in Classical Learning, Hallam Prize, Schuldham Plate, Cambridge
1996-2000 HRB/AHRB Scholarships to cover Master’s and Doctoral Study
2010-2011 Fellowship, National Humanities Center
2013-2014 British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship
2014 Visiting Fellowship, All Souls College, Oxford
2014-2015 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
2014-2016 PI BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant ‘Prolegomena to Sidonius Apollinaris’
2014-2017 PI Leverhulme International Network ‘Sidonius Apollinaris for the 21st Century’
2015-2016 Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
2020-2021 DFG Fellowship, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.
2021 Visiting Professor, Università degli studi di Pisa

Publications

a) Books

Ammianus Marcellinus: The Allusive Historian (Cambridge, 2008).
The Edinburgh Companion to Sidonius Apollinaris, jointly edited with Joop van Waarden (Edinburgh, 2020)
New Approaches to Sidonius Apollinaris, jointly edited with Joop van Waarden (Peeters, 2013)
Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity, jointly edited with Lucy Grig (Oxford UP: New York, 2012)

b) Journal articles, book chapters, etc.

‘Philological and historical notes on Ammianus Marcellinus’, in N.E. Lenski, R.D. Rees, and O. van Nijf (eds) From East to West in Late Antiquity: Essays in honour of Jan Willem Drijvers (Bari, in press 2024) [6000 words].
‘Editorial note’, in Alan Cameron, Historical Studies in Late Roman Art and Archaeology (Leuven, in press 2023), xiii-xv. [I also prepared this volume for the press]
‘Ammianus Marcellinus, Speeches, and Rhetoric’, in L. Van Hoof and M. Conterno (eds), Rhetoric and Historiography: Exploring, Transgressing and Policing Generic Boundaries in Late Antiquity (Leuven, in press 2023), 181-202.
‘Accursius’ Ammianus Marcellinus (1533): the editio princeps of books 27-31’, in S. Rocchi and S. Andronio (eds) Mariangelo Accursio tra l’Italia e l’Europa (Rome, in press 2023), 67-88.
‘Periodisations’, in R.K. Gibson and C.L. Whitton (eds), The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature (Cambridge, in press 2023), 79-157.
‘Why We Need a New Edition of Ammianus Marcellinus’, in M. Hanaghan and D. Woods (eds), Ammianus Marcellinus: From Soldier to Author (Leiden, 2023 [2022]), 19-58.
‘Titles and Paratexts in the Collection of Sidonius’ Poems’, in A. Bruzzone and A. Fo (eds) Metamorfosi del classico in età romanobarbarica (Florence, 2021 [2022]), 77-97.
‘Rutilius Namatianus, Melania the Younger, and the Monks of Capraria’, in W.V. Harris and A. Hunnell Chen (eds), Late Antique Studies in Memory of Alan Cameron (Leiden, 2021), 66-84.
‘Sidonius as a Reader of Rutilius Namatianus, Invigilata Lucernis 42 (2020 [2021]), 151-161 [= R. Valenti and C. Longobardi (eds) Dissona nexio: Rotte del sapere tra storia e futuro per Marisa Squillante].
‘Introduction’, jointly with J.A. van Waarden, in G. Kelly and J. van Waarden, Edinburgh Companion to Sidonius Apollinaris (Edinburgh, 2020), 1-9.
‘Dating the Works of Sidonius’, ibidem, 166-195.
‘Sidonius’ Prose Rhythm’, jointly with J.A. van Waarden, ibidem, 462-475.
‘Epilogue: Future Approaches to Sidonius’, jointly with J.A. van Waarden, ibidem, 730-736.
‘The Astrologer, the Eunuch, and the Emperor’, Revue des Études Tardo-antiques suppl. 5 (2018), 241-251 [= E. Amato, P. De Cicco and T. Moreau (eds), Canistrum ficis plenum. Hommages à Bertrand Lançon].
‘Ammianus, Valens, and Antioch’, in S.-P. Bergjan and S. Elm (eds), Antioch II: The Many Faces of Antioch: Intellectual Exchange and Religious Diversity (CE 350-450) (Tübingen, 2018), 147-172.
‘Edward Gibbon and Late Antique Literature’, in S. McGill and E. Watts (eds) Blackwell Companion to Late Antique Literature (Oxford, 2018), 611-626.
‘From Martial to Juvenal: Epigrams 12.18’, in A. König and C.L. Whitton (eds), Roman Literature under Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian: Literary Interactions AD 96-138 (Cambridge, 2018), 160-179.
‘The Hersfeldensis and the Fuldensis of Ammianus Marcellinus: A Reconsideration’, jointly with J.A. Stover, Cambridge Classical Journal 62 (2016), 108-129.
‘Claudian’s Last Panegyric and Imperial Visits to Rome’, Classical Quarterly 66 (2016), 336-357.
‘The First Book of Symmachus’ Letters as an Independent Collection’, in P.F. Moretti, R. Ricci, and C. Torre (eds) Culture and Literature in Latin Late Antiquity. Continuities and Discontinuities (Brepols: Turnhout, 2015 [2016]), 197-220.
‘Ammianus’ Greek Accent’, Talanta 45 (2013 [in fact 2015]), 67-79 [special issue edited by M.-P. García Ruiz and A. Quiroga Puertas (eds), Linguistic and Cultural Alterity in the Roman Empire].
‘The Political Crisis of AD 375/376’, Chiron 43 (2013), 357-409.
‘Pliny and Symmachus’, Arethusa 46.2 (2013), 261-287 [special issue edited by B. Gibson and R. Rees, Pliny the Younger in Late Antiquity].
‘Sidonius and Claudian’, in J. van Waarden and G. Kelly, New Approaches to Sidonius Apollinaris (Leuven, 2013), 171-191.
‘Introduction: from Rome to Constantinople’, jointly with L. Grig, in L. Grig and G. Kelly, Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity (New York, 2012), 3-30.
‘Claudian and Constantinople’, ibidem, 241-65.
‘Ammianus Marcellinus’, Oxford Bibliographies Online: Classical Studies (Oxford University Press: New York, 2011, revised and updated 2015, new revision to be completed 2023) [Online Bibliography, 11,500 words].
‘The Roman World of Festus’ Breviarium’, in C. Kelly, R. Flower, and M.S. Williams (eds), Unclassical Traditions: Alternatives to the Classical Past in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 2010), 72-89.
‘Ammianus Marcellinus: Tacitus’ Heir and Gibbon’s Guide’, in A. Feldherr (ed.), Cambridge Companion to the Roman Historians (Cambridge UP, 2009), 348-361.
‘Adrien de Valois and the Chapter Headings in Ammianus Marcellinus’, Classical Philology 104 (2009), 233-242.
‘The Sphragis and Closure of the Res Gestae’, in J. den Boeft, J.W. Drijvers, D. den Hengst and H.C. Teitler (eds), Ammianus after Julian: The Reign of Valentinian and Valens in Books 26-31 of the Res Gestae (Leiden, 2007), 219-241.
‘To Forge Their Tongues to Grander Styles: Ammianus’ Epilogue’, in J. Marincola (ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (Oxford, 2007), 474-480 [A much shorter, earlier version of the above].
‘Constantius II, Julian, and the Example of Marcus Aurelius: Ammianus Marcellinus XXI, 16, 11-12’, Latomus 64 (2005), 409-416.
‘Ammianus and the Great Tsunami’, Journal of Roman Studies 94 (2004), 141-167.
‘The New Rome and the Old: Ammianus Marcellinus’ Silences on Constantinople’, Classical Quarterly 53 (2003), 588-607.