Stephen Phelps Oakley, FBA (born 20 November 1958) is a British classicist and academic. An expert on the work of

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

, he is the ninth Kennedy Professor of Latin at the

University of Cambridge 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 ...

and a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of Emmanuel College.

Early life and education

Oakley was born on 20 November 1958. He was educated at

Bradfield College Bradfield College is a coeducational public school (independent boarding and day school) for pupils aged 13–18, in the village of Bradfield, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It is noted for its open-air Greek theatre and its trien ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

. He went on to study at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

, where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts 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 deg ...

(BA) degree in 1980 and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(PhD) degree in 1985.

Academic career

From 1984, he worked at the university's Emmanuel College, first as a research fellow and, from 1986, as an official fellow. In 1998, he accepted a position at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

which he held until 2007. He then returned to Cambridge to succeed Michael Reeve as the Kennedy Professor of Latin. In 2024, he held the Lyell Readership in Bibliography at the University of Oxford, giving the associated Lyell Lectures on the transmission of Latin text.

Bibliography

* ''The hill-forts of the Samnites (Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome, 10)'', British School at Rome, London, 1995. * ''A Commentary on Livy: Books VI–X, Volume I, Introduction and Book VI'', Oxford University Press, 1997. * ''A Commentary on Livy: Books VI–X, Volume II, Books VI-VIII'', Oxford University Press, 1998. * ''A Commentary on Livy: Books VI–X, Volume III, Book IX'', Oxford University Press, 2005. * ''A Commentary on Livy: Books VI–X, Volume IV, Book X'', Oxford University Press, 2005.

References

Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of classics British Latinists Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Living people 1958 births Kennedy Professors of Latin Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge People educated at Bradfield College {{UK-academic-stub