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Staff Profiles

Dr Simon Corcoran

Senior Lecturer in Ancient History

Background

I completed my doctorate at Oxford on the emperor Diocletian and the era of the tetrarchs in 1992, which was subsequently published as the prize-winning The Empire of the Tetrarchs (Clarendon Press, 1996), and I maintain a strong interest in the era of Diocletian and Constantine.

However, my principal area of interest is Roman legal history across both antiquity and the early Middle Ages, on which I have published widely in print and on-line, especially as part of work for the Volterra Roman law projects at University College London (1999-2015).

I have a particular interest in manuscripts and the transmission of ancient texts (especially legal texts), and was trained in palaeography at both the University of Liverpool (1993/4) and King’s College London (2000/1). I was involved in the identification of parchment fragments of the otherwise lost Roman legal work, the Gregorian Code, in 2010, on which I am currently writing a book in collaboration with my project colleague, Benet Salway.

I have a strong interest in Greek and Latin epigraphy and have served on the Steering Committee of the (2014-2022). I previously served on the Councils of the (2006-2009), the(2011-2015), and.the  (2018-2021).


Academic Qualifications

2018: Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

1994: M.Ar.Ad. Archives Administration, University of Liverpool.

1992: D.Phil. Ancient History, University of Oxford.

1984: BA Literae Humaniores (Classics), University of Oxford.


Academic Positions

2023-2024: Corresponding Fellow in residence (ERC Consolidator Grant ), Institute for History and European Ethnology, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

2016- : Lecturer (Senior Lecturer from 2022) in Ancient History, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, Â鶹´«Ã½.

2016- : Honorary Senior Research Associate, Department of History, University College London.

1999-2015: Senior Research Fellow (on the Volterra Roman law projects), Department of History, University College London.

1995-1998: Assistant Archivist, Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham.




 

Research

Much of my research is focussed on the history, manuscript tradition, and impact of the Justinian Code (published in its surviving revised edition in AD534), and on other late antique and early mediaeval legal works in the Roman tradition including the Summa Perusina and the Lex Romana Canonice Compta. I am also finishing a book with Dr Benet Salway of UCL on the that we have identified as coming from the otherwise lost Gregorian Code (a precursor of that of Justinian).

I have recently been working on a well-known manuscript by the early English historian, William of Malmesbury (c.1090-c.1143), Bodleian Arch. Selden B16, which contains both Roman historical and Roman legal texts. I am also contributing to several international projects, including "Beyond the Black Hole: Locating Junian Latins in the Roman Empire", the Oxford Guide to the Transmission of the Latin Classics, and the project at Pavia on late antique juristic thought.

I am currently a Corresponding Fellow on the ERC Consolidator Grant project ("Understanding Late Antique Top-Down Communication: A Study of Imperial Constitutions"), run by Prof. Peter Riedlberger based at the University of Bamberg (2021-2026). For this I will be researching, among other things, Justinian's Novels (6th century) and the Sirmondian Constitutions (5th century). I spent most of the academic year 2023/24 in Bamberg as part of the AntCoCo team..

I am happy to supervise research not only in late Roman/early mediaeval legal history, but in late antiquity generally, including the era of the tetrarchy and Constantine. I am happy also to supervise topics relating to slavery in the ancient world.


Teaching

Academic Year, 2025/2026


Admin Role:

Head of Classics Section


Semester 1 teaching

CAH2009 (Portfolio in Ancient History: Commentaries): lecturer

CAH2061 (Slavery in Greco-Roman Antiquity): module leader

HCA1008 (Global Ancient Histories): lecturer


Semester 2 teaching

CAH2017 (The Roman World from Hadrian to Heraclius): lecturer

CAH2208 (Issues in Ancient History): lecturer

HCA2000 (Sacred words and dirty deeds: Thriving in Late Antiquity): lecturer

HCA2001 (The Mediterranean: a connected past): lecturer


All Year

CAC3000 (Stage 3 Classical Studies & Ancient History undergraduate dissertation module): lecturer and dissertation supervisor.



Publications

  • Article

    • Corcoran S. . Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 2017, 60(1), 96-116.

  • Book Chapters

    • Corcoran S. William of Malmesbury and the Novels in the Selden Breviary. In: Jaillette, P; Moreau, D, ed. De Legibus Novellis ad Theodosianum pertinentibus: Promulgation, réception, compilation. Edipuglia, 2025. Submitted.
    • Corcoran S. . In: López Barja, P; Masi Doria, C; Roth, U, ed. Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire Volume 1: History, Law, Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023, pp.132-152.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Hahn J; Menze V, ed. The Wandering Holy Man: The Life of Barsauma, Christian Asceticism and Religious Conflict in Late Antique Palestine. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2020, pp.25-49.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Destephen,S; Dumézil,B; Ingelbert,H, ed. Le Prince chrétien de Constantin aux royautés barbares (iv-viii siècle). Paris, France: Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, 2018, pp.3-27.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Lohsse, S; Marino, S; Buongiorno, P, ed. Texte wiederherstellen, Kontexte rekonstruieren. Internationale Tagung über Methoden zur Erstellung einer Palingenesie, Münster, 23.–24. April 2015. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017, pp.139-160.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Freu C; Janniard S; Ripoll A, ed. Libera curiositas. Mélanges d'histoire romaine et d'Antiquité tardive offerts à Jean-Michel Carrié. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016, pp.97-114.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Frier B, ed. The Codex of Justinian: A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp.xcvii-clxiv.
    • Corcoran S, Crawford M, Salway B. . In: Frier,B, ed. The Codex of Justinian. A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp.1407-1485.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Herrin,J;Nelson,J, ed. Ravenna: Its Role in Earlier Medieval Change and Exchange. London: Institute of Historical Research, 2016, pp.163-197.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Stone R; West C, ed. Hincmar of Rheims : Life and Work. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015, pp.129-155.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Papaconstantinou,A;McLynn,N;Schwartz,D, ed. Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond. Papers from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, University of Oxford, 2009-2010. Abingdon: Routledge, 2015, pp.67-94.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Procházka,S;Reinfandt,L;Tost,S, ed. Official Epistolography and the Language(s) of Power. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference of the Research Network Imperium and Officium. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2015, pp.219-236.
    • Corcoran S. . In: Radner,K, ed. State Correspondence in the Ancient World from New Kingdom Egypt to the Roman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp.172-209.

  • Review

    • Corcoran S. . Antiquité Tardive 2024, 31, 358-361.