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Profile
I discovered the study of Greek and Roman antiquity as a student in Sydney and have pursued this love in Cambridge since 1975, first at Pembroke and since 2001 at Trinity. My early research was devoted to ancient comedy, but I soon found myself drawn to relatively unfashionable areas such as Hellenistic poetry and the ancient novel where there seemed very much basic work still to do. Much of my more recent work has been devoted to ancient literary and cultural criticism and the reception and reworking of classical literature in later periods of antiquity. I have been very lucky to be able to pursue my interests in Cambridge, probably the very best place in the world to study Greek and Roman antiquity.
Teaching
I teach Trinity undergraduates across the full range of Greek and Latin literature.
Research
My research seeks to understand what ancient works are trying to tell us and why this should still matter. Fundamental to my research is the sense that, because our evidence is in many areas so limited, it is important to be as broad and inclusive as possible; how classical texts were understood centuries after their composition can shed fundamental light on what they meant to the cultures that read them. For these reasons I have always tried to range as widely as I can from Homer to the literature of late antiquity.
Selected Publications
(with Rebecca Laemmle), Homer, Odyssey XI (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics) Cambridge 2026
Greek Epitaphic Poetry. A Selection (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics) Cambridge 2022
The Layers of the Text. Collected Papers on Classical Literature 2008-2021, Berlin 2021
The Measure of Homer (Cambridge 2018)
Hesiodic Voices. Studies in the ancient reception of the Works and Days (Cambridge 2014)
Plato and the Traditions of Ancient Literature: the silent stream, (Cambridge 2012)
Critical Moments in Classical Literature. Studies in the ancient view of literature and its uses (Cambridge 2009)
Theocritus and the Archaeology of Greek Poetry (Cambridge 1996).
On Coming After. Studies in Post-Classical Greek Literature and its Reception (Berlin 2008)
(with Marco Fantuzzi), Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry (Cambridge 2004).