The School of Historical and Philosophical Studies History

Professor Emeritus Ronald Ridley


Professor Emeritus

Email:
r.ridley@unimelb.edu.au
Fax:
(+61 3) 8344 7894


Ronald Thomas Ridley was born 27 December 1940 and educated at Canterbury Boys' High School and University of Sydney (BA Hons 1962, MA 1966), DLitt (Melb.1992)


Positions Held


Fellowships

 

Main Teaching and Research Interests

The history of the ancient world (Egypt-Rome), the history of historiography, the history of Egyptian and Roman archaeology, the history of autobiography.

 

Publications

Books

  1. Pharaonic Egypt in Victorian libraries. Melbourne: Melbourne University, Dept. of History, 1970 (iii + 104 pp; a bibliography).
  2. The unification of Egypt. Deception Bay: Refulgence Press, 1973 (72 pp; the origins of Egyptian civilisation c.3000 BC)
  3. Zosimus, New History, translated with commentary. Canberra: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1982 (xv, 263 pp).
  4. Gibbon's complement: Louis de Beaufort. Venice: Istituto Veneto, 1986 (200 pp; the first book on the leading historian of the Roman Republic in the eighteenth century).
  5. The history of Rome: a documented analysis. Rome: Bretschneider, 1987 (696 pp).
  6. The Historical Observations of Jacob Perizonius. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1991 (120 pp with 3 plates; the first book on the leading historian of the Roman Republic in the seventeenth century).
  7. The eagle and the spade. The archaeology of Rome during the Napoleonic era. Cambridge: CUP, 1992 (28 + 328 pp). ISBN 0521 401917.
  8. Jessie Webb, a memoir. Melbourne: MU History Dept., 1994 (xviii + 206 pp). ISBN 07325 06085 (the life of one of the University's best known and earliest women teachers).
  9. Melbourne's monuments. Melbourne: MUP, 1996 (174 pp). ISBN 0522 847277.
  10. Napoleon's Proconsul: the life and times of Bernardino Drovetti (17761852). London: Rubicon Press 1998 (xii + 372 pp). ISBN 0948695-59-5.
  11. The infancy of historiography (inaugural lecture). Melbourne: MU History Dept., 1998 (13 pp). ISBN 07325 15491.
  12. The Pope's archaeologist: the life and times of Carlo Fea. Rome: Quasar 2000 (493 pp). ISBN 88 7140 177 8.
  13. The diary of a Vice-Chancellor. University of Melbourne 1935-1938, by Raymond Priestley, edited by Ronald Ridley. Melbourne: MUP 2002 (xxxviii + 555 pp) ISBN 0522849857.
  14. The emperor's retrospect. Augustus' Res Gestae in epigraphy, historiography and commentary. Leuven: Peeters 2003 (xxv + 251 pp). ISBN 90429 1347 9.
  15. What an historian knows. University of Melbourne, School of Historical Studies. 2008

  16. Magick City: travellers to Rome from the Renaissance to 1900 (forthcoming).
  17. The prince as poisoner: the 'trial' of Prince Sigismondo Chigi in Rome in 1790 (with Dino Bressan) (forthcoming)

Chapters in Books

  1. 'Roman imperial coins: portraits and slogans' in The classical coin. Melbourne: The University, 1974; 8-23.
  2. 'Res Gestae divi Augusti: the problem of chronology' in Hestiasis, Studi di tarda antichità offerti a Salvatore Calderone. Messina, 1986, vol.2, 265-291.
  3. 'Archaeology in the service of empire: the French excavations at Rome, 1809- 1814' in Images of the ancient world, ed. Sagona and Zimmer. Melbourne, 1988, 89-104.
  4. 'Patavinitas among the patricians? Livy and the Conflict of the Orders' in Staat und Staatlichkeit in der frühen römischen Republik. Akten des Internationalen Symposiums vom 21-25 Juli 1988 an der Freien Universität, Berlin, ed. W. Eder, 1990, 103-138; with contributions 85-86, 477-478, 552-554.
  5. Tributes to Professor E. A. Judge on his retirement from the chair of history, Sydney. Macquarie University, 1992, 3-4.
  6. 'And the king says: official history in the ancient western world from the third millennium BC to the third century AD' in Authorized pasts, ed. D.E. Kennedy. Melbourne, MU Dept. of History (1995), 17-48.
  7. 'T.R.S. Broughton and Friedrich Münzer' in Linderski (ed.), Imperium sine fine. Stuttgart, 1996, 43-55. ISBN 3515 069488.
  8. 'Livy and the Hannibalic War' in The Roman Middle Republic. Politics Religion and historiography c.400-133 BC, ed. Christer Bruun. Papers from a conference at the Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, September 11-12, 1998. Rome. Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, 2000, 13-40.
  9. 'Friedrich Münzer's Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families' in F. Münzer, Roman aristocratic parties and families, trans. Therese Ridley, Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, xix-xxxviii. ISBN 08018 5990 5.
  10. 'Ettore Pais and the English-speaking world', in Leandro Polverini (ed.), Aspetti della storiografia di Ettore Pais. Perugia, Universita degli Studi, 2002, 41-73. ISBN 88 495 0535 3.
  11. 'The discovery of the Etruscans in the early nineteenth century: some archival documents', in G. Clark (ed.), Archives and excavations. Essays on the history of archaeological excavations in Rome and northern Italy from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. London. The British School at Rome, 2004, 255-266.
  12. 'An original subject. 150 years of Ancient History', in The life of the past. The discipline of History at the University of Melbourne. Melbourne, Dept. of History, 2006, 155-171. 0975839225.
  13. 'The hoplite as citizen' in E. Wheeler (ed.), The armies of classical Greece. Aldershot. Ashgate, 2007, 153-193. ISBN 978 0 7546 2684 8.
  14. 'Despotism and deceit: Yes, but what happened before and after?' in Private and public lies, Leiden, Brill, 2010, 373-385.
  15. Dictionary Smith in Philathenaios, studies in honour of Michael J. Osbourne, Athens, Hellenike Epgraphike Etaireia, 2001, 227-251.

Reference Works

  1. 'Drovetti, Bernardino' in Dizionario biografico degli italiani 41: 712-716 (1992) (3,000 words).
  2. 'Carlo Fea' in Dizionario biografico degli italiani 45: 518-528 (1995) (6,000 words).
  3. Dictionary of the history of classical archaeology, NY, Greenwood Press, 1996. Some fifteen articles, including 'Rome' (3,000 words).
  4. Dictionary of historians and historical writing, London, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997: articles (1,000 words each): Giulio Beloch, James Henry Breasted, Gaetano de Sanctis.
  5. 'Echard, Laurence' in Dictionary of national biography, Oxford 2003, vol.17, 641-2.
  6. 'William Culican' in Australian dictionary of biography 1981 - 1990, vol. 1, 278-279 (2007)

Journal Articles

  1. 'Notes on the establishment of the tribunate of the plebs', Latomus (Brussels) 27: 535-554 (1968).
  2. 'The fourth and fifth century civil and military hierarchy in Zosimus', Byzantion (Brussels) 40: 91-104 (1970).
  3. 'Eunapios and Zosimos', Helikon (Rome) 9/10: 91-104 (1970).
  4. 'Zosimus the historian', Byzantinische Zeitschrift (Munich) 65: 272-302 (1972).
  5. 'Notes on Julian's Persian expedition', Historia (Wiesbaden) 22: 317-330 (1973).
  6. 'Roman declarations of war', The historian (Melbourne) 25: 60-65 (1973).
  7. 'The economic activities of the perioikoi', Mnemosyne (Leyden) 27: 281-293 (1974).
  8. 'Was Scipio Africanus at Cannae?' Latomus (Brussels) 34: 161-165 (1975).
  9. 'Cicero and Sulla', Wiener Studien (Vienna) 88: 83-108 (1975).
  10. 'The enigma of Servius Tullius', Klio (Berlin Academy) 57: 147-177 (1975).
  11. 'Ettore Pais', Helikon (Rome) 15/16: 500-533 (1976)
  12. 'From dynastic marriage to the Milvian Bridge', Mundus antiquus (Melbourne) 1:62-81 (1976)
  13. 'The Cambridge Ancient History', editorial policy, Mundus antiquus (Melbourne) 1: 48-61 (1976).
  14. 'Reactions to Octavian-Augustus', Iris (Melbourne), 9-27 (1977).
  15. 'Sumerian inscriptions of the Early Dynastic Period', Mundus Antiquus 2: 79-94 (1978).
  16. 'The genesis of an historian: Gibbon's English journal', Mundus Antiquus 2: 64-78 (1978).
  17. 'The world's oldest annals'. Kokalos (Palermo) 25: 104-116 (1979)
  18. 'The hoplite as citizen: Athenian military institutions in their social context', Antiquité classique (Brussels) 48: 508-548 (1979).
  19. 'The origin of the Roman dictatorship', Rheinisches Museum (Bonn) 122: 302-309 (1979).
  20. 'In collaboration with Theodor Mommsen: Ettore Pais and the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum', Klio (Berlin Academy) 61: 497-506 (1979).
  21. 'Impressions of Champollion's correspondence', Mundus Antiquus 3: 8-21 (1980).
  22. 'Inscriptions and documents of the Dynasty of Agade', Mundus Antiquus 3: 65-80 (1980).
  23. 'Fastenkritik, a stocktaking', Athenaeum (Pavia) 68: 264-298 (1980).
  24. 'Livy and the Concilium Plebis', Klio (Berlin Academy) 62: 337-354 (1980).
  25. 'Anonymity in the Vita Constantini', Byzantion (Brussels) 50: 241-258 (1980).
  26. 'Un prince accompli et un parfaitement honnête homme', Quaderni catanesi di studi classici e medievali (Catania) 2: 373-423 (1980).
  27. 'The economics of civil war', Helikon (Rome) 21: 27-41 (1981).
  28. 'The extraordinary commands of the late Republic: a matter of definition', Historia (Wiesbaden) 30: 280-297 (1981).
  29. 'Exegesis and audience in Thucydides', Hermes (Wiesbaden) 109: 25-46 (1981).
  30. 'Un astronome normand dans le forum romain', Annales de Normandie 31: 295-300 (1981; in French).
  31. 'The discovery of the Pyramid Texts', Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache (Leipzig) 110: 74-80 (1983).
  32. 'Pompey's commands in the 50's: how cumulative?' Rheinisches Museum 126: 136-148 (1983).
  33. 'Falsi triumphi, plures consulatus', Latomus (Brussels) 42: 373-382 (1983).
  34. 'Augustus' right-hand men', Iris (Melbourne) 10-26 (1983).
  35. 'Machiavelli and Roman history in the Discourses', Quaderni di Storia (Bari) 18: 197-219 (1983).
  36. 'Dumas père, director of excavations', Pompei Herculaneum Stabiae 1: 259-28 (1983).
  37. 'Auguste Mariette, one hundred years after', Abr-Nahrain (Leyden) 22: 118-158 (1983/4).
  38. 'To be taken with a pinch of salt: the destruction of Carthage', Classical philology (Chicago) 81: 140-146 (1986).
  39. 'Augusti manes volitant per auras: the archaeology of Rome under the Fascists', Xenia (Rome) 11: 19-46 (1986)
  40. 'The consular tribunate: the testimony of Livy', Klio (Berlin) 68: 444-465 (1986) 41.
  41. 'The genesis of a turning-point: Gelzer's Nobilität', Historia (Wiesbaden) 35: 474-502 (1986).
  42. 'Machiavelli's edition of Livy', Rinascimento (Florence) 27: 327-341 (1987).
  43. 'Echoes of Justin in Machiavelli's Discorsi', Critica storica (Rome) 25: 113-118 (1988).
  44. 'The monuments of the Roman Forum: the struggle for identity', Xenia (Rome) 17: 71-90 (1989).
  45. 'The fate of an architect: Apollodoros of Damascus', Athenaeum (Pavia) 67: 551-565 (1989).
  46. 'La révolution sans mission: Louis de Beaufort', Index (Naples) 19: 19-33 (1991).
  47. Review of Bernardino Drovetti, Epistolario, ed. S. Curto and Laura Donatello, Milan 1986 in JEA 77: 237-241 (1991).
  48. 'Champollion in the tomb of Seti I: an unpublished letter', Chronique d'Egypte (Brussels) 66: 23-30 (1991).
  49. 'Francesco Bartoli: a corrected obituary', Storia dell'arte (Rome) 72: 195-198 (1992).
  50. 'A pioneer art-historian and archaeologist of the eighteenth century: the comte de Caylus and his Recueil', Storia dell'arte 76: 362-375 (1992).
  51. 'To protect the monuments: the Papal Antiquarian (1534-1870)', Xenia Antiqua (Rome) 1: 117-154 (1992).
  52. 'On knowing Sebastian Le Nain de Tillemont', Ancient Society (Leuven) 23: 233-295 (1992).
  53. 'The praetor and the pyramid. The Tomb of Gaius Cestius in history, archaeology and literature', Bollettino di Archeologia (Rome) 15: 1-29 (1992).
  54. 'Four unpublished letters by, or relating to, Bernardino Drovetti', Chronique d'Egypte (Brussels) 69: 203-214 (1994).
  55. 'The mysterious James Gilbert: the forgotten sculptor 1854-1885', LaTrobe Library Journal 54: 18-32 (1995).
  56. 'The trials of the municipal historian: Livy and the Roman nobility', Iris 8: 33-47 (1995).
  57. 'The founding of the German Archaeological Institute: unpublished documents', Römische Mitteilungen (Rome) 1996: 155-171.
  58. 'The discovery of the Esquiline silver treasure: unpublished documents', Antiquaries' Journal (London) 76: 215-222 (1996).
  59. 'In defence of the cultural patrimony: Carlo Fea goes to court', Xenia antiqua (Rome) 5: 143-158 (1996).
  60. 'The first historian of the Roman Republic: the tercentenary', Ancient Society (Leuven) 27: 277-315 (1996).
  61. 'The missing magister equitum', Zeitschrift für Papyrus und Epigrafik (Bonn) 116: 157-161 (1997).
  62. 'An unpleasant bicentenary: the Treaty of Tolentino', Xenia antiqua (Rome) 6: 175-194 (1997).
  63. 'What's in a name: the so-called First Triumvirate', Arctos (Helsinki) 33: 133-144 (1999).
  64. 'The dictator's mistake: Caesar's escape from Sulla', Historia (Wiesbaden) 49: 211-229 (2000).
  65. 'The saga of an epic: Gilgamesh and the constitution of Uruk', Orientalia (Rome) 69: 341-367 (2000).
  66. 'Leges agrariae: myths ancient and modern', Classical philology (Chicago) 95: 459-467 (2000).
  67. 'The forgotten topographer: Stefano Piale', Xenia antiqua (Rome) 9: 179-200 (2000).
  68. 'The contradictory revolution: the Italian war (9189 BC)', Ancient History (Macquarie) 33: 30-57 (2003).
  69. 'Attacking the world with five cohorts: Caesar in January 49', Ancient Society (Leuven) 35: 127-152 (2004).
  70. 'The absent pontifex maximus', Historia (Wiesbaden) 54: 275-300 (2005).
  71. '"A fanatical yet rational devotion": Augustus and the legions', Antichthon 39: 48-76 (2005).
  72. 'Antiochos XIII, Pompeius Magnus and the unessayed coup', Ancient Society (Leuven) 36: 8195 (2006).
  73. 'Ennio Quirino Visconti: a vital restored date', Roma moderna e contemporanea 16: 209-212 (2008)
  74. 'Gaetano de Sanctis and the missing Storia dei Romani', Arctos (Helsinki) 42: 159-190 (2008)
  75. 'Eulogy of the lost republic or acceptance or acceptance of the New Monarchy? Livy's ab urbe condita', Antichthon 44: 68-95 (2010)
  76. 'L. Corneluis Sulla as untrained master of military science', Rivista di filologia ed istruzione classica 138: 96-111 (2010)

 

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