Greg Woolf FSA FSA Scot FBA
Born	Gregory Duncan Woolf (1961-12-03)3 December 1961 (age 64)
Title	Ronald J Mellor Professor of Ancient History
Academic background
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford Trinity College, Cambridge
Thesis	Cultural change in central France under Roman rule (1991)
Doctoral advisor	Peter Garnsey[1]
Academic work
Discipline	Ancient history Archaeology
Sub-discipline	History of the Roman Empire Classical archaeology Iron Age Europe
Institutions	University of Leicester Christ's College, Cambridge Magdalen College, Oxford Brasenose College, Oxford Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford University of St Andrews University of London Institute of Classical Studies University of California, Los Angeles

Gregory Duncan Woolf,FSA, FSA Scot, FBA (born 3 December 1961) is a Britishancient historian,archaeologist, and academic. He specialises in thelate Iron Age and theRoman Empire. Since July 2021, he has been Ronald J. Mellor Chair of Ancient History atUniversity of California, Los Angeles. He previously taught at theUniversity of Leicester and theUniversity of Oxford, and was then Professor of Ancient History at theUniversity of St Andrews from 1998 to 2014. From 2015 to 2021, he was the Director of theInstitute of Classical Studies, andProfessor ofClassics at theUniversity of London. From January 2025 he assumed the role of Director at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) at New York University.^[2]

Woolf was born on 3 December 1961 inHemel Hempstead,Hertfordshire, England.^[3] He was educated atBexhill Grammar School, agrammar school inBexhill-on-Sea,East Sussex.^[3] From 1981 to 1985, he studiedancient andmodern history atChrist Church, Oxford.^[4] He graduated from theUniversity of Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1985; as per tradition, this was later promoted to aMaster of Arts (MA (Oxon)) degree.^[5] From 1985 to 1990, he undertookpostgraduate research inclassics atTrinity College, Cambridge. He graduated from theUniversity of Cambridge with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1990.^[4] Hisdoctoral supervisors werePeter Garnsey,Keith Hopkins,Ian Hodder, andSander van der Leeuw.^[6] Hisdoctoral thesis was titled "Cultural change in central France under Roman rule".^[7]

Woolf began his academic career while still studying for his doctorate; he was a part-time lecturer at theUniversity of Leicester and aresearch fellow ofChrist's College, Cambridge. In 1990, after completing his doctorate, he moved to theUniversity of Oxford to teachancient history andarchaeology.^[6] From 1990 to 1993, he was aFellow ofMagdalen College, Oxford. Then, from 1993 to 1998, he was a Fellow ofBrasenose College, Oxford and a lecturer in theFaculty of Classics.^[5][6]

In 1998, Woolf moved to theUniversity of St Andrews to becomeProfessor of Ancient History.^[8] He was Head of the School of Classics between 2004 and 2009.^[9] During the 2009 to 2010academic year, he wasvisiting fellow at theMax Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies,University of Erfurt.^[6][8] On 1 January 2015, he joined theUniversity of London as Professor of Classics and Director of theInstitute of Classical Studies.^[8]

In July 2021, Woolf moved to the United States where he joinedUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as Ronald J. Mellor Chair of Ancient History.^[10][11] In 2022, he became editor of theJournal of Roman Archaeology.^[12][13] Since January 2025, he has been Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Studies and director of theInstitute for the Study of the Ancient World,New York University.^[14][15]

Woolf gave theRhind Lectures for 2004/2005; the series was titledMen who turned towards the light: Cult and creativity in the Romans' world. The Rhind Lectures are a series of lectures on archaeology and they are hosted by theSociety of Antiquaries of Scotland. In July 2012, he appeared onBBC Radio 4 as a guest onIn Our Time to discussHadrian's Wall.^[16] In December 2012, he appeared again onIn Our Time, this time to discuss theCult of Mithras.^[17]

In 2016, he was elected aFellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA),^[18] and aMember of the Academia Europaea (MAE).^[19] In July 2017, he was elected aFellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom'snational academy for the humanities and social sciences.^[20] In 2021 he was elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.^[21]

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(November 2015)

• Woolf, Greg (January 1994). "Becoming Roman, staying Greek: Culture, identity and the civilizing process in the Roman East".Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society.40:116–143.doi:10.1017/S0068673500001875.S2CID 170935906.
• Bowman, Alan K.; Woolf, Greg, eds. (1994).Literacy and power in the ancient world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521433693.
• Woolf, Greg (1998).Becoming Roman: the origins of provincial civilization in Gaul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521414456.
• Woolf, Greg, ed. (2003).The Cambridge illustrated history of the Roman world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521827751.
• Edwards, Catharine; Woolf, Greg, eds. (2003).Rome the cosmopolis. New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521800051.
• Woolf, Greg (2006).Et tu, Brute?: the murder of Caesar and political assassination. London: Profile Books.ISBN 978-1861977410.
• Woolf, Greg (2011).Tales of the barbarians: ethnography and empire in the Roman West. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN 978-1405160735.
• Woolf, Greg (2012).Rome: an empire's story. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0199603084.
• Hemelrijk, Emily; Woolf, Greg, eds. (2013).Women and the Roman City in the Latin West. Leiden: Brill.ISBN 978-9004255944.
• König, Jason; Oikonomopoulou, Katerina; Woolf, Greg, eds. (2013).Ancient libraries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1107012561.
• König, Jason; Woolf, Greg, eds. (2013).Encyclopaedism from antiquity to the Renaissance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1107038233.
• König, Jason; Woolf, Greg, eds. (2017).Authority and expertise in ancient scientific culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1107060067.
• Woolf, Greg (2020).The life and death of ancient cities: a natural history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0199664733.
• Rüpke, Jörg; Woolf, Greg, eds. (2021).Religion in the Roman Empire. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag.ISBN 9783170292260.

• Living people
• Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
• Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
• British classical scholars
• Historians of ancient Rome
• British archaeologists
• Academics of the University of Leicester
• Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford
• Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford
• Classical scholars of the University of St Andrews
• Classical scholars of the University of London
• Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
• Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
• Fellows of the British Academy
• People from Hemel Hempstead
• 1961 births
• Historians of libraries

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