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Biography

I came up to Oxford in 2004 to read Literae Humaniores (Classics) at St. Hugh’s College, moving for my graduate study to Brasenose, where I wrote a doctoral thesis on the Roman philosopher and poet Lucretius. I held a junior research fellowship at New College, and spent two years as a departmental lecturer in Latin before coming to Exeter as tutor in Michaelmas 2016. When not doing Classics I enjoy maintaining my (very amateur) interests in art history and the Stone Age.

Research

My research to date has been focused on the language, style, and literary form of philosophical texts written in Latin during the first century BC. I am currently completing a commentary on the second book of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, for Lorenzo Valla. I am also working on topics in Seneca’s Natural Questions, and in the poetry of Avienius.

Teaching

I teach Exeter undergraduates in all aspects of Latin language and literature, and some Greek (Homer’s Iliad). In recent years I have lectured on Virgil, Horace, Propertius, Lucretius, Cicero, and vulgar Latin. I have supervised graduate theses on various Latin authors, including Manilius, Vitruvius, Prudentius, Juvenal, and Virgil.

Selected Publications

‘Diogenes of Oinoanda on the meaning of ‘pleasure’ (NF 192)’, ZPE 191, 2014: 84-89.

‘Definition and ordinary language in Cicero, De Finibus 2’, CP 111.1, 2016: 54-73.

‘Rationalism and the theatre in Lucretius’, CQ 66.1, 2016: 140-54.

‘Memmius the Epicurean’ (with Llewelyn Morgan), CQ 67.2, 2017: 528-54.

‘Common ground in De Rerum Natura’, forthcoming in Donncha O’Rourke (ed.) Approaches to Lucretius (CUP).

‘First Thoughts on Linguistic Naturalism’ (with G. Pezzini), in G. Pezzini, B. Taylor (eds.) Language and Nature in the Classical Roman World (CUP, 2019), 1-14.

Language and Nature in the Classical Roman World, edited with G. Pezzini, (CUP, 2019).

Lucretius and the Language of Nature (OUP, forthcoming 2020).

‘Lucretius and early Latin’ in J.N. Adams, A. Chahoud, G. Pezzini (edd.) Early Latin: Constructs, Diversity, Reception (CUP, forthcoming).