Greg Fisher

Biography

Greg Fisher completed his BA and MA at McGill, before studying for a D. Phil. under the supervision of Averil Cameron at Keble College, Oxford. His thesis work focused on the relationship between the two main Arab clients (Jafnids and Nasrids) of the Roman and Iranian empires in Late Antiquity (c. 400-700), with particular emphasis on the religious, cultural, and political consequences of imperial alliance for these two groups. His area of academic expertise is the history of the Roman Empire, and, in particular, the political and cultural history of the Empire in the Late Antique period. His current research interests include the relationships between large empires and smaller groups in Late Antiquity, and the formation of political identities on the fringes of the Roman Empire. He has worked on a number of archaeological projects, including expeditions to Cyprus and Jordan, is a keen traveller around Roman sites in the modern Middle East, and has written about Roman ruins in Syria for Lonely Planet.

Research Interests

• Roman history (political and cultural)
• Near Eastern archaeology
• Iran in Late Antiquity
• Comparative history

2011-12 Courses

• CLCV/HIST2901: History of Ancient Rome (Full Year)
• LATN2200: Intermediate Latin I
• CLCV4800: The Third-Century Crisis
• CLCV4801: Ancient Historical Fiction
• CLCV3202/HIST3101: Rome and the Arabs

Future Courses, 2012-2013 (Tentative, subject to change)

• CLCV/HIST 2904: History of the Roman Republic, 753 BC – AD 14
• CLCV/HIST2905: History of the Roman Empire to AD 14 – AD 636
• Course numbers TBD:
• Alexander the “Great” – Tyrant or Hero?
• The Romans Versus Hannibal
• The Pax Romana from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius

Publications

The Iranian Conspiracy. A Novel (Campbell, CA: 2011)

Between Empires. Arabs, Romans and Sasanians in Late Antiquity.  (Oxford University Press, 2011)

(ed.) The Arabs Between Rome, Himyar, and Iran: Sources, Analysis, and Commentary (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

‘Emperors, politics, and the plague’, in C. Robin and D. Genequand (eds), Regards croisés de l’histoire et de l’archéologie sur la dynastie Jafnide, forthcoming.

‘Arabs (including Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Saraceni)’, in G. Greatrex (ed.), Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Roman Army, forthcoming.

‘The political development of the Ghassan between Rome and Iran’, Journal of Late Antiquity, 1/2 (2008), 313-36.

‘Crisis, Provincial Historiography and Identity in sub-Roman Britain,’ in E. Digeser & R. M. Frakes, eds., Religious Identity in Late Antiquity. Toronto, 2006: 166-215.

‘A New Perspective on Rome’s Desert Frontier.’ Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 336 (2004): 49-60.