Dr Benjamin Gray

My research concentrates on the entwined evolution of Greek society, politics and political thought from the end of the Peloponnesian War to the early Roman Empire. Central to this work is studying Greek inscriptions as context for, but also contributions to, Greek political thinking, including on questions of mobility, disorder, justice and civic virtue. I have written especially on, first, civil war, exile and reconciliation in the Classical and Hellenistic periods; and, second, the crisis and reinvention of the polis and cosmopolitanism in the transition from the Hellenistic to the Roman world, connecting Anatolian inscriptions with literary and philosophical texts. In future, I intend to explore further how greater attention to the complex, much expanded Greek world of the Hellenistic period, especially its inscriptions, can transform our understanding of ancient Greek politics and political thinking in context, and why they matter for the subsequent history of democracy, citizenship and political theory. The ancient world in modern politics and political theory is another major concern of my work, especially in connection with modern refugee history and German history. 

I teach a wide range of topics in ancient history, especially Greek. I also supervise postgraduate students working on Greek history, including its connections with modern politics and political theory.