Education
After Brentwood School, he graduated in classics at King"s College, Cambridge in 1958.
(This is a volume of studies concerned with death and its ...)
This is a volume of studies concerned with death and its impact on the social order. The first topic considered is gladiatorial combat; not merely popular entertainment, it was also an important element in Roman politics. The book then investigates the composition of the political elite in the late Republic and Principate (249 BC - AD 235), showing that ideals of hereditary succession disguised high rates of social mobility. The final chapter ranges over aristocratic death rituals and tombs, funerals and ghost stories, to the search for immortality and the power of the Roman dead in distributing property by written wills.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521271177/?tag=2022091-20
(The enormous size of the Roman empire and the length of t...)
The enormous size of the Roman empire and the length of time it endured call for an understanding of the institutions which sustained it. In this book, Keith Hopkins, who is both classicist and sociologist, uses various sociological concepts and methods to gain new insights into how traditional Roman institutions changed as the Romans acquired their empire. He examines the chain reactions resulting from increased wealth; various aspects of slavery, especially manumission and the cost of freedom; the curious phenomenon of the political power wielded by eunuchs at court; and in the final chapter he discusses the Roman emperor's divinity and the circulation of untrue stories, which were a currency of the political system. Professor Hopkins has developed an exciting approach to social questions in antiquity and his book should be of interest to all students of ancient history and of historical sociology.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521281814/?tag=2022091-20
After Brentwood School, he graduated in classics at King"s College, Cambridge in 1958.
He was professor of ancient history at the University of Cambridge from 1985 to 2000. Hopkins had a relatively unconventional route to the Cambridge professorship. He spent time as a graduate student, much influenced by Moses Finley, but left before completing his doctorate for an assistant lectureship in sociology at the University of Leicester (1961-1963).
He returned to Cambridge as a research fellow at King"s College, Cambridge (1963-1967) while at the same time taking a lectureship at the London School of Economics, before spending two years as professor of sociology at Hong Kong University (1967-1969) After a further two years at the London School of Economics (1970-1972), he moved to Brunel University as professor of sociology in 1972, also serving as dean of the social sciences faculty from 1981 to 1985.
In 1985 he was elected to the Cambridge chair in ancient history. The fullest account of his career and significance as an ancient historian is in his British Academy necrology (West.V. Harris, Proceedings of the British Academy 130 (2005), 3–27).
(The enormous size of the Roman empire and the length of t...)
(This is a volume of studies concerned with death and its ...)