Brent Donald Shaw (born May 27, 1947) is a Canadian historian and
Andrew Fleming West Professor (Emeritus) of
Classics
Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
. His principal contributions center on the regional history of the Roman world with special emphasis on the African provinces of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
, the
demographic
Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration.
Demographic analy ...
and social history of the Roman family, and problems of violence and social order.
Education and career
Shaw received his
B.A.
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...
and
M.A. from the
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...
in 1968 and 1971 respectively. He later acquired his
Ph.D. from
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
in 1978, completing his dissertation research on pastoral nomadism and state regulation under the supervision of
Joyce Reynolds.
After an initial post at the
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
, Shaw taught at the
University of Lethbridge
The University of Lethbridge (also known as uLethbridge, uLeth, and U of L) is a public comprehensive and research university located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with a second campus in Calgary, Alberta.
Founded in the liberal arts traditio ...
in western
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
from 1977–1996, spending a fellowship year at the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
in 1994, and two years as a visiting professor at Princeton University in 1989 and 1995. Shaw then took up a professorship at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
in 1996, which he held until taking up the Andrew Fleming West professorship of Classics at Princeton University in 2004. In 2012, Shaw was elected a resident member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
. Shaw entered emeritus status (retired) in 2017.
Work
Shaw has written extensively on problems of violence in establishing conditions of peace and order throughout the Roman world, in particular on bandits and brigands, and on sectarian violence. In a series of articles published through the 1980s and 1990s, Shaw provided a novel interpretation of the phenomenon of banditry and of the relationship of autonomy and violence to sustaining state power and force, drawing on
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
, and engaging critically with the work of
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
Eric Hobsbawm
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...
. Shaw later shifted his focus to understanding how early
Christians
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...
produced sectarian or religious violence by the popularization of images of ideological enemies, and through the mobilization of sentiment using both the idea and the practice of
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...
dom. His book on the subject, ''Sacred Violence'', was awarded the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize of the
Canadian Historical Association
The Canadian Historical Association (CHA; , SHC) is a Canadian organization founded in 1922 for the purposes of promoting historical research and scholarship. It is a bilingual, not-for-profit, charitable organization, the largest of its kind in ...
for best book in history for 2011, and the
PROSE Award for best book in Classics and Ancient History of 2011.
Shaw has also made significant contributions to the understanding of the economic and political integration of North Africa into the Roman Empire, exploring the problem of urbanization, and the economic role of pastoral nomads, as part of this process of integration. More broadly, Shaw has used historical contexts to explore how economic actions relate to ways in which human populations develop modes of thinking. In ''Bringing in the Sheaves'', Shaw explores the relationship between the reaping of cereal crops in the Roman Empire and the ways in which people began thinking about
death
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...
and
vengeance
Vengeance may refer to:
*Vengeance (concept) or revenge, a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance
Film
* ''Vengeance'' (1930 film), action adventure film directed by Archie Mayo
* ''Vengeance'' (1937 film) or ''W ...
in their social relations.
Shaw has also brought his historical knowledge to a wider audience through publications in ''
History Today
''History Today'' is a history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and publishes articles of tradit ...
'', ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...
'', the ''
New Left Review
The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective.
History Background
As part of the emergin ...
'', and ''
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
''.
The Neronian persecution
Shaw created controversy in 2015, when an article he published on the ''
Journal of Roman Studies
The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (The Roman Society) was founded in 1910 as the sister society to the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.
The Society is the leading organisation in the United Kingdom for those interest ...
'' argued that Emperor
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...
had not, as it is generally believed, persecuted Christians following the
Great Fire of Rome
The Great Fire of Rome () began on 19 July 64 AD. The fire started in the merchant shops around Rome's chariot stadium, Circus Maximus. After six days, the fire was brought under control, but before the damage could be assessed, the fire reignit ...
. While Shaw accepted the authenticity of the passage of
Tacitus about Christians in the ''
Annals
Annals (, from , "year") are a concise history, historical record in which events are arranged chronology, chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record.
Scope
The nature of the distinction betw ...
'', he argued that Tacitus was using legendary and apocalyptic Christian sources to write his work; he also argued that the term "Christians" was not in use during Nero's reign and that Christians in Rome weren't so numerous to be persecuted.
Shaw's views have received strong criticism and have generally not been accepted by the scholarly consensus: writing on ''
New Testament Studies'', Christopher P. Jones (
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
) answered to Shaw and challenged his arguments, noting that Tacitus's anti-Christian stance makes it unlikely that he was using Christian sources; he also noted that the
Epistle to the Romans
The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that Salvation (Christianity), salvation is offered ...
of
Paul the Apostle
Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...
clearly points to the fact that there was indeed a clear and distinct Christian community in Rome in the 50s and that the persecution is also mentioned by
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...
in ''
The Twelve Caesars
''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'' or ''The Lives of the Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 Roman Emperor, emperors of the Roma ...
''. Shaw responded to Jones in a article in the same journal.
Larry Hurtado
Larry Weir Hurtado (December 29, 1943 – November 25, 2019), was an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, and Emeritus Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology at the University of Edinburgh ( ...
(
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
) was also critical of Shaw's argument, dismissing it as "vague and hazy".
Writing on ''Eirene: Studia Graeca et Latina'', Brigit van der Lans and
Jan N. Bremmer (
University of Groningen
The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...
) also dismissed Shaw's argument, noting that the Neronian persecution is recorded in many 1st-century Christian writings, such as the
Epistle to the Hebrews
The Epistle to the Hebrews () is one of the books of the New Testament.
The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle; most of the Ancient Greek manuscripts, the Old Syriac Peshitto and ...
, the
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...
, the apocryphal
Ascension of Isaiah
The ''Ascension of Isaiah'' is a pseudepigraphical Judeo-Christian text. Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. Scholarly estimates regarding the date of the Ascension of Isaiah range from 70 AD to 175 AD.Hurt ...
, the
First Epistle of Peter
The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. The author presents himself as Peter the Apostle. The ending of the letter includes a statement that implies that it was written from "Babylon", which may be a reference to Rome. The ...
, the
Gospel of John
The Gospel of John () is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "Book of Signs, signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the ...
and the
First Epistle of Clement
The First Epistle of Clement () is a letter addressed to the Christians in the city of Corinth. The work is attributed to Clement I, the fourth bishop of Rome and was almost certainly written by him. Based on internal evidence some scholars say ...
, although these texts, while referring to fires or punishments, do not explicitly relate these events to the Neronian fire. Van der Lans and Bremmer also argued that ''Chrestianus, Christianus'', and ''Χριστιανός'' were probably terms invented by the Romans in the 50s and then adopted by Christians themselves.
In an article for ''
Vigiliae Christianae
''Vigiliae Christianae: A Review of Early Christian Life and Languages'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Brill Publishers in the field of early Christian studies.
According to the publisher:
The initiators of this journal were ...
'', John Granger Cook (
LaGrange College) also rebuked Shaw's thesis, arguing that ''Chrestianus, Christianus'', and ''Χριστιανός'' are not creations of the second century and that Roman officials were probably aware of the ''Chrestiani'' in the 60s.
In his book ''Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Costantine'',
Barry S. Strauss (
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
) rejects Shaw's argument.
Selected publications
Books
*''Spartacus and the Slave Wars: A Brief History with Documents'' (2001). Bedford/St. Martin's.
*''Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine'' (2011). Cambridge University Press.
*''Bringing in the Sheaves: Economy and Metaphor in the Roman World'' (2013). University of Toronto Press.
Edited and co-authored
*Finley, Moses I. (1983). ''Economy and Society in Ancient Greece'' (Saller, Richard P. and Shaw, Brent D. eds.). Penguin (Pelican).
*Finley, Moses I. (1998). ''Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology'' (Shaw, Brent D., ed. Reprinting of 1980 edition). Markus Wiener Publishers.
*Shaw, Brent D., et. al. (2008). ''Worlds Together, Worlds Apart'' 2nd edition. W. W. Norton.
Collected papers
*''Environment and Society in Roman North Africa'' (1995). Variorum.
*''Rulers, Nomads, and Christians in Roman North Africa'' (1995). Variorum.
Articles
*
*
::Revised with addendum on recent research in:
*
*
*
::Revised with addendum on recent research in:
*
*
*
References
External links
Faculty Page at PrincetonShaw's bibliography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Brent
Living people
University of Alberta alumni
Classical scholars of Princeton University
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
20th-century Canadian historians
Canadian male non-fiction writers
1947 births
Classical scholars of the University of Lethbridge
Classical scholars of the University of Pennsylvania
Historians of ancient Rome
21st-century Canadian historians
Members of the American Philosophical Society