Gary Forsythe
Email: Gary.Forsythe@ttu.edu
Office: 150F Humanities
Website: http://myweb.ttu.edu/gforsyth/
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Gary Forsythe received his Ph.D. in ancient history from the Ancient History Graduate Group at the University of Pennsylvania. At that time there was only one other graduate program in the country devoted exclusively to the study of ancient Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman history. After teaching a wide range of courses in ancient history and ancient Greek and Latin languages and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Bryn Mawr College, and the University of Chicago, he became a member of the Department of History at Texas Tech University in 2000.
Dr. Forsythe is the author of nine books and numerous scholarly articles and book reviews. One of his books (A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War, published by the University of California Press, 2005) won the university president's annual book award for the best book published by a Texas Tech University faculty member. He has been the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship and a two-year fellowship in the School of Historical Study at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has been interviewed several times for the podcast Ithaca Bound, a program devoted to the mythology, legends, and history of the ancient Mediterranean world, and which offers to its listeners interviews of many scholars on a wide range of topics.
He is also the subject of a Youtube video concerning how a blind person over fifty years, from undergraduate college student to college professor and well-published scholar, has adapted to numerous changes in technology in order to acquire the material necessary for his education, teaching, and scholarship; and how over the years he has acquired and produced a very unique and voluminous personal braille library of ancient Greek and Latin texts.
Select Publications
A Critical History of Early Rome
During the period from Rome's Stone Age beginnings on the Tiber River to its conquest
of the Italian peninsula in 264 B.C., the Romans in large measure developed the social,
political, and military structure that would be the foundation of their spectacular
imperial success. In this comprehensive and clearly written account, Gary Forsythe
draws extensively from historical, archaeological, linguistic, epigraphic, religious,
and legal evidence as he traces Rome's early development within a multicultural environment
of Latins, Sabines, Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians. His study charts the development
of the classical republican institutions that would eventually enable Rome to create
its vast empire, and provides fascinating discussions of topics including Roman prehistory,
religion, and language.
In addition to its value as an authoritative synthesis of current research, A Critical History of Early Rome offers a revisionist interpretation of Rome's early history through its innovative use of ancient sources. The history of this period is notoriously difficult to uncover because there are no extant written records, and because the later historiography that affords the only narrative accounts of Rome's early days is shaped by the issues, conflicts, and ways of thinking of its own time. This book provides a groundbreaking examination of those surviving ancient sources in light of their underlying biases, thereby reconstructing early Roman history upon a more solid evidentiary foundation.
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Livy and Early Rome
Livy's work is of interest to two distinct schools of history and literary criticism
and Forsythe argues that this has resulted in some conflicting interpretations about
various aspects, including Livy's sources and his relationship to his subjects. This
study concentrates on Livy's working methods as an ancient historian, a perspective
often overlooked, and is aimed at readers interested in early Roman history and Livian
historiography. All extracts are accompanied by English translations.
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A Concise History of Western Civilization
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The Historian L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi and the Roman Annalistic Tradition
Forsythe exhaustively examines all surviving fragments from Piso's history. Piso's
centrality to many important historical and historiographical issues of the regal
period, early republic, and middle republic and the relative abundance of his fragments
and testimonia on his life make the work wide ranging in its scope. In a comprehensive
and contextual manner, the author treats his subjects in the broader contexts of Roman
history and the annalistic tradition.
Contents: List of Abbreviations; Preface and Acknowledgements; Piso's Family and Political Career; Prolegomena to the History; Piso's First Book, The Regal Period; Piso's Second and Third Books, The Early Republic; Piso's Later Books, The Middle Republic; Appendix, Testimonia and Fragments; Bibliography; Index.
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Department of History
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Address
Texas Tech University, Box 41013, 3001 15th Street, Humanities (formerly English/Philosophy) 165, Lubbock, TX 79409 -
Phone
806.742.3744 | Fax: 806.742.1060 -
Email
info.history@ttu.edu