Loren J Samons

Professor of Classical Studies, Boston University Chief Academic Advisor & Executive Director, The Institute for Hellenic Culture and the Liberal Arts, The American College of Greece

Curriculum Vitae

Loren Samons specializes in the history of Greece in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C., with particular interests in Athenian politics and imperialism. His current research focuses on the figures of Perikles and Kimon, Athenian foreign policy, and the composition of Herodotus’ and Thucydides’ histories. He also has interests in the later Roman empire, ancient warfare, and the classical tradition. Professor Samons hails from Arkansas, where he first learned how to cast a flyrod and pick a guitar. When he is not teaching or writing, he spends most of his time harassing the trout population of North America.

Research Interests

Greek history in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C.; Athenian democracy and imperialism; Greek and Roman historiography; warfare in antiquity; later Roman empire

Current Projects

Kimon and the Creation of Classical Athens (under contract for Cambridge University Press).

Select Publications

Pericles and the Conquest of History: A Political BiographyPericles and the Conquest of History: A Political Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2016)The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles, editor and contributor (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

What’s Wrong With Democracy? From Athenian Practice to American Worship (University of California Press, 2004; paperback, 2007).

Empire of the Owl (Athenian Imperial Finance), Historia Einzelschriften 142 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2000).