James Frank Gilliam

James Frank Gilliam ( born March 14, 1915 in Seattle, † 16 March 1990 in Princeton, New Jersey) was an American historian and philologist Classic.

Life

James Frank Gilliam studied at San Jose State College (BA 1935) and at Stanford University ( MA 1936). He then went to Yale University, where he closely joined to the ancient historian Michael Rostovtzeff. After the graduation (1940 ) he worked as an instructor in Classics, interrupted by his use in the Second World War 1941 to 1945.

1947 went Gilliam as Assistant Professor at the Wells College in Aurora (New York). In 1949 he moved to the University of Iowa, where he rose to Professor of History and Classics. After a year as Professor of History at the University of Oregon (1961-1962) he was a professor of Greek and Latin at the Columbia University. His final place of activity he found in 1965 in Princeton, where he was appointed at the Institute for Advanced Study ( IAS) as Professor of Classics and History. Already 1958/1959 and 1963/1964 he had been a member of the IAS.

From 1970 onwards, Gilliam worked part-time at Columbia University: By 1981, as curator of the papyrus collection until 1985 as an adjunct professor. From 1972 to 1975 he was a guest lecturer at Princeton University. In 1978/1979 he taught as Sather Professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Services

As a student Rostovtzeffs Gilliam is concentrated in his research on Papyrology and Roman military history. Based on the findings of Dura Europos, where Rostovtzeff had directed the excavations in the 20s and 30s, Gilliam treated inscriptions and papyrological documents of the Roman military history in the eastern provinces. Results of his research, he explained in numerous essays, in which he dealt with almost all aspects of the complex Roman military history. His mastery of the material enabled him to develop a comprehensive representation in monographic form. He made such a work several times in view, but there were never materialized.