David Malcolm LewisFBA (7 June 1928,London – 12 July 1994,Oxford) was an English historian who was Professor ofAncient History at theUniversity of Oxford. He is most renowned for his monumental two-volume edition of the inscriptions of Archaic and Classical Athens and Attica. His breadth and depth of knowledge was so widely admired that for decades he was invited by other scholars to comment upon and improve a high proportion of all book manuscripts in the field of Greek history before they went to publication.
Lewis was a "student" (that is,fellow) ofChrist Church, Oxford and Professor of Ancient History at theUniversity of Oxford. In his obituary inThe Guardian newspaper (16 July 1994), it was stated that Prof. Lewis "has been, for the last two or three decades, the world's leading authority in the field ofGreekepigraphy." He was also an authority in several ancillary fields, "a profoundly learned scholar in Greek history" according to the Princeton Alumni Weekly memorial tribute.
A native ofLondon, he attended theCity of London School, was an undergraduate atCorpus Christi College, Oxford (where he said he was one of the last people to be allowed to do postgraduate work without registering for a higher degree) and studied for hisPhD in classics atPrinceton University. He also studied at theInstitute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey, theBritish School inAthens, and atChrist Church, Oxford.
Lewis was a scholar of ancientGreek history. Much of his work was concerned withinscriptions, but he insisted (in particular in an address to the epigraphic conference inUniversity of Cambridge in 1967) thatepigraphy should not be an activity for initiates only, but should be one means among others to the end of understanding the ancient world as fully as possible. He took a particular interest in what could be learnt from texts which even those who venture into the world of inscriptions find intimidating, accounts of expenditure and inventories of temple treasures; and this interest was extended to oriental documents, in particular the fortification tablets fromPersepolis.
HisJewish faith prompted the development of a second area of expertise,Middle Eastern history.
Lewis was very proud of his work in editing three volumes on Archaic and Classical Greek history in the second edition of theCambridge Ancient History. He published a book,Sparta and Persia, in 1977, and a shorter work,The Jews of Oxford, in 1992. He also edited several Oxford publications in the classics, includingThe Decrees of the Greek States published posthumously in 1997. He also published hundreds of book reviews, as many as eighteen appearing in a single year (1977).
