Off Canvas Phone

Off Canvas Email

Off Canvas Share

Habs welcomes Dr Peter Liddel

On Monday 1 March 2021, Habs was delighted to introduce Dr Peter Liddel of the University of Manchester to speak on the subject of ancient Greek inscriptions.

The study of Greek inscribed texts, known in academic language as ‘epigraphy’, is an important subdiscipline within the field of ancient Greek history. As Dr Liddel explained, the interest in Greek inscriptions dates back to the 16th century, but epigraphy did not gain full academic respectability until the middle of the 19th, in the generation after the liberation of Greece from Ottoman rule.

Dr Liddel showed that until as late as the 17th century it was speculated in Britain, even in educated circles, whether Greece was populated. The near total ignorance in the West about Greece while under Ottoman suzerainty contrasts with the hungry fascination with Greek antiquities in the 19th century and beyond, felt among western European nations.

The School is privileged to have been able to listen to a world expert in the field. This was a magnificent crossing of interrelated disciplines: for modern historians, a reminder that questions about use of source material have a long and ancient history; for ancient historians and Classicists, a reminder that the evidence with which we grapple has a rich modern history behind it also which we can, at times, overlook.