Simon Corcoran (/ˈkɔːrkərən/ KOR-kər-ən) is a British ancient historian and lecturer in ancient history within the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University.[1]

Simon J.J. Corcoran
Simon Corcoran in 2003, Knap of Howar
Alma materSt John's College, Oxford
OccupationHistorian
EmployerNewcastle University
Known forRoman Law
Websitehttp://www.roman-empire.co.uk

Corcoran was a senior research fellow at University College, London from 1999 to 2015. He received his D.Phil. from St John's College, Oxford in 1992. He was awarded the Henryk Kupiszewski Prize[2] for his book The Empire of the Tetrarchs in 1998.[3] At University College he worked on 'Projet Volterra',[4] an extensive on-line public database of law (Roman, Germanic or ‘barbarian’, and ecclesiastical) for the period AD193–900.

From 2014 Corcoran has been a member of the Steering Committee of the British Epigraphy Society.[1][5] He is a Consulting Editor for the Journal of Late Antiquity and a Scientific Advisor for Revue Antiquité tardive.[6][7] From 2006 to 2009 he served on the Council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and on the council for the British Institute at Ankara from 2011 to 2015.[1][8][9][10][11]

In 2016 Corcoran was a member of the panel for BBC Radio 4's In Our Time episode on Justinian's Legal Code with Caroline Humfress and Paul du Plessis.[12]

Gregorian Code discovery

edit

In 2010 the Volterra database was used by Corcoran and Salway to identify previously unknown fragments of the Gregorian Code. The "Fragmenta Londiniensia" are seventeen pieces of parchment estimated to date from AD400, the document having been cut up and re-used as book-binding material. This is the first direct evidence yet discovered of the Gregorian Codex.[13][14][15][16][17]

Bibliography of works

edit

Books

edit

Greed is a motive everyone can understand. Lactantius includes greed and avarice as a notable part of the tetrarchic maladministration practised by Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, and Maximinus, and indeed the cause of the inflation the edict seeks to curb. Thus it is Diocletian's greed that gives rise to the Prices Edict itself.

— Simon Corcoran, Empire of the Tetrarchs
  • Frier, Bruce W; Connolly, Serena; Corcoran, Simon; Crawford, Michael Hewson (2016), The Codex of Justinian : a new annotated translation with parallel Latin and Greek text. [Vol. 3, Books VIII-XII], Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1107119826
  • Corcoran, Simon (2000), The Empire of the Tetrarchs, Imperial Pronouncements and Government AD 284–324 (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-815304-X

Selected publications

edit

See also

edit

Footnotes

edit
  1. ^ a b c "Staff Profile - History, Classics and Archaeology, School of - Newcastle University". Ncl.ac.uk. 8 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  2. ^ Relazione della Commissione giudicatrice del "Quarto premio romanistico internazionale Gérard Boulvert" (PDF) (in Italian), 1998, Il Premio del Centro Romanistico Internazionale "Copanello", intitolato ad Henryk KUPISZEWSKI e destinato a contribuire alla maggior diffusione del diritto romano, al volume di Simon Corcoran, The Empire of the Tetrarchs, ... avendo formulato su di essa il seguente giudizio: "Importante opera sulla produzione normativa dell'età dioclezianea, che si fa apprezzare per il sapiente uso delle fonti e la chiarezza dell'esposizione"
  3. ^ "Staff page at UCL". Archived from the original on 19 April 2009.
  4. ^ Project Volterra, University College London, 2000, ISBN 9780198153047, OCLC 44255728, archived from the original on 29 October 2010, Presents Project Volterra, one of the Research Projects of the British Academy that is based in the History Department of University College London. Explains that the aim of the project is to promote the study of Roman legislation in its full social, political, and legal context.
  5. ^ "Steering Committee". The British Epigraphy Society. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  6. ^ "Journal of Late Antiquity". Project MUSE. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  7. ^ "Revue Antiquité tardive". Association pour l’Antiquité tardive. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  8. ^ "Law and Empire, AD 193–455: The Project Volterra", Athenaeum (in Italian), 91, no. 2: Amministrazione di Athenæum, Università: 725, 2003, ISBN 9780198153047, ISSN 0004-6574, OCLC 98047545{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  9. ^ Kaiser, Wolfgang (2009), "Project Volterra II (Law and the End of the Empire), Colloquium 2: Authorities and Subjects and Manuals and Jurisprudence, London, UC, 15.-16. September 2008", Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Romanistische Abteilung (in German), 126, H. B̐ưohlau: 682, doi:10.7767/zrgra.2009.126.1.682, ISSN 0323-4096, OCLC 440690917, S2CID 112925949
  10. ^ "Journal of Late Antiquity". The Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  11. ^ "Home". BIAA. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  12. ^ "In Our Time: Justinian's Legal Code". BBC Radio 4. November 2016.
    • Extended podcast version: link
  13. ^ Pearse, Roger (27 January 2010). "Lost Roman legal text found". Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  14. ^ Lost Roman law code discovered in London, Arts and Humanities Research Council, 28 January 2010, archived from the original (Podcast) on 14 March 2010, retrieved 28 January 2010
  15. ^ Jack, Malcolm (28 January 2010). "Cracking the codex: Long lost Roman legal document discovered". The Independent. These fragments are the first direct evidence of the original version of the Gregorian Code. Our preliminary study confirms that it was the pioneer of a long tradition that has extended down into the modern era and it is ultimately from the title of this work, and its companion volume the Codex Hermogenianus, that we use the term 'code' in the sense of 'legal rulings'.
  16. ^ Kennedy, Maev (28 January 2010). "Experts identify scraps of lost Roman law text: Copy of the Gregorian Code, which was first drafted in AD300, had been chopped up and used to cover medieval book". The Guardian. The fragments were bought by a private collector at a sale in London. After failing either to translate the script or identify the subject, he circulated photocopies which eventually reached Salway and Corcoran.
  17. ^ Rachel Kaufman (10 February 2010). "Lost Roman Codex Fragments Found in Book Binding". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
edit