Miriam Griffin 1935-2018 - by Matthew Leigh

Aug 27, 2026

A memorial piece honoring Miriam Griffin (1935–2018), celebrated Roman historian and a central figure at the Oxford Classics Faculty and Somerville College’s Classics School. It traces her education from Erasmus Hall High School through Barnard and Radcliffe, then Oxford, highlighting her devotion to her husband Jasper Griffin during his long decline. The account reviews her First Class degree, research on Seneca, influential teaching at Somerville and Trinity, and major monographs spanning Seneca to Nero, alongside editorial service and scholarly leadership.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Miriam Griffin 1935-2018

Education and Oxford life

Academic career and teaching

Major scholarship and editorial service

Personal recollections from Matthew Leigh

Bulletin 49 (2020) [https://cucd.blogs.sas.ac.uk/bulletin/](https://cucd.blogs.sas.ac.uk/bulletin/) Miriam Griffin 1935-2018 by Matthew Leigh M iriam Griffin was one of the most distinguished Roman historians of her generation and a pillar both of the Oxford Classics Faculty and of the Classics School at Somerville College. Born Miriam Dressler in New York on June 6, 1935, to Leo, a schoolmaster, and Fanny, a stenographer, Miriam was a brilliant student at Erasmus Hall High School. At university she had to choose between Music, Physics, and Classics, and we may count ourselves blessed that she chose the last. Having completed her AB at Barnard College in New York in 1956 and then taken an AM at Radcliffe College in 1957, Miriam came to St Anne’s College, Oxford, in the same year to read for a second BA in Classics. At this time it was very common for Classicists coming to Oxford with a BA from another university to take Greats over three years and this continued to be the case until the development of specialist Masters degrees in the 1980s and 1990s. At St Anne’s Miriam formed close friendships with such figures as Anne Lonsdale, the distinguished Sinologist and future President of New Hall, Cambridge, and Devaki Jain, the pioneering feminist economist. She also met her husband , Jasper Griffin, Tutor in Classical Languages and Literature at Balliol College from 1963-2004, and a beloved partner for the rest of her life. The extraordinary devotion that Miriam showed to Jasper through the long years of his decline is a story little broadcast because she sought no credit for it. It was simply an act of love. The care taken of her by their beloved daughters, Julia, Miriam, and Miranda, through her own illness was no less remarkable. She doted on her granddaughter, Zuzana, whose visits from New York gave her great joy. Miriam graduated from St Anne’s with a First Class degree in 1960. Her scholarship was greatly prized by the formidable Margaret Hubbard and she was soon elected to a Junior Research Fellowship in the same college as she pursued research for her doctorate on the life and works of Seneca the Younger. Miriam also contributed greatly to the teaching of Roman History in St Anne’s. In 1967, however, a Tutorial Fellowship in Ancient History at Somerville College became available and Miriam made the short trip across the Woodstock Road to join what would be her academic home for the rest of her life. From 1967 to 2002 Page 1 Miriam nurtured generations of Ancient History students at both Somerville and latterly Trinity College as well. Her undergraduate and graduate students included such distinguished figures as Tessa Rajak, Gillian Clark, Kathleen Coleman, and Hannah Cotton , and she was treasured by pupils and colleagues alike. For much of her time at Somerville she worked together with Lesley Brown and Nan Dunbar and together they ran a very successful Classics school. Miriam’s scholarly output was remarkable. Perhaps best known are her monographs, Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (Oxford, 1976) and Nero: The End ofa Dynasty (London, 1984), but there was so much more. Her enduring engagement with the borderlines between Roman History and Philosophy saw her produce Seneca on Society (Oxford, 2013), a guide to the De Beneficiis, translations of both this work and Cicero’s De Officiis, and two volumes co-edited with Jonathan Barnes on Roman Philosophy entitled Philosophia Togata I and II. From her earliest article on the De Brevitate Vitae in the 1962 Journal of Roman Studies to her two-part essay on Philosophy, Cato, and Roman Suicide in the 1986 Greece and Rome , and right up to her final years, Miriam also produced a series of major contributions to scholarly journals. Shortly before her death she discharged herself from hospital in order to attend a party to celebrate the publication of her collected papers, entitled Politics and Philosophy at Rome, which runs to a full 775 pages. Miriam was also

FAQs

Who was Miriam Griffin, and why was she significant in Roman history?

Miriam Griffin was a distinguished Roman historian of her generation and a pillar at Oxford Classics and Somerville College’s Classics School, known for both scholarship and teaching.

What were some of Miriam Griffin’s major scholarly works?

Her well-known monographs include Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (1976) and Nero: The End of a Dynasty (1984), along with later works such as Seneca on Society (2013) and translations and co-edited volumes on Roman philosophy.

How did Miriam Griffin contribute to academic life beyond her research?

She served as editor of Classical Quarterly (2002–2007) and supported the Clarendon Ancient History Series for OUP, and her Festschrift Philosophy and Power in the Graeco-Roman World reflected the esteem of her former pupils.

Aug 27, 2026

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