#  Ernst Badian 

 

 



   ![Picture of Ernst Badian](/sites/g/files/omnuum4421/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/history/files/ernst_badian.jpeg?itok=IWyjoj7z) 

 



 





 

 Ernst Badian, John Moors Cabot Professor of History, Emeritus, was one of the world’s most eminent ancient historians. Appointed to the Department of History in 1971, and by courtesy a voting member of the Department of the Classics in 1973, he became emeritus in 1998. Born in Vienna, he and his parents fled the mounting persecution of the Jews in 1938 and settled in New Zealand.

 Badian received a B.A. with first-class honors and an M.A. from then Canterbury University College, Christchurch (University of New Zealand); he took a B.A. from Oxford University with first-class honors, and wrote his dissertation under the great Roman historian Sir Ronald Syme, two volumes of whose papers he would later edit. From the dissertation emerged his *Foreign Clientelae, 274–70 B.C.* (1958), still recognized as a classic study of how the social institution of patrons and clients shaped early Roman imperialism in and beyond Italy and molded the politics of the later Republic. This theme resulted in major studies: *Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic* (1967) and *Publicans and Sinners* (1972). Mastery of the primary sources, particularly inscriptions, and technically intricate and rigorous analysis of fragmentary prosopographical evidence characterized Badian’s approach. From scrappy biographical information about many individuals, he deduced political and institutional patterns that greatly deepened our understanding of the ancient world.

 ***[Continue Reading](https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/display/secfas/Memorial%20Minutes?preview=/216662529/273101089/Badian_Memorial_Minute.pdf)***  
Image: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Badian)



 

 

 





 

 

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