Professor Simon Swain

Professor Simon Swain

FBA
Classics
Two Year Fellow since 2024

I am a Hellenist with research interests in the Greek literature and culture of the Roman period and the general historical background to this, especially in the eastern Roman empire. In recent years I have focussed on late antiquity. I have a particular interest in the development of Greek ideas in medicine, politics, economics, ethics in the Arabic culture of the Islamicate Middle Ages. I have extensive leadership experience up to pro-vice-chancellor and vice-president level at Warwick and at the British Academy. I currently chair the Academy’s UK-wide Early Career Researcher Network, which I founded in 2020. I have extensive grant income and currently lead the Wellcome Trust project “Liquid Knowledge” (2026-2031) on the rise of uroscopy as a dominant form of diagnosis and prognosis from Late Antiquity to the Islamicate and Byzantine Middle Ages.

Links
Email: s.c.r.swain@warwick.ac.uk
ORCHID Profile
Research Areas
Greco-Roman History, Culture, Literature
Reception of Greek Thought in Medieval Islamicate Culture and Science

Selected Publications

Themistius and Valens

Orations 6-13 (2021)

A Literary History of Medicine. The ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-atibbāʾ of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah

(with E. Savage-Smith and G. van Gelder) (2020) 

Pseudo-Galenica. The Formation of the Galenic Corpus From Antiquity to the Renaissance

(with C. Petit and K-D. Fischer) (2021)

Galeni In Hippocratis Epidemiarum librum II commentariorum I-VI versio Arabica 

(with U. Vagelpohl) (2016)

Economy, Family, and Society from Rome to Islam

A Critical Edition, English Translation, and Study of Bryson’s “Management of the Estate” (2013)

Themistius, Julian, and Greek Political Theory under Rome

Texts, Translations, and Studies of Four Key Works (2013)

Grants and Awards
  • Wellcome Trust: Senior Investigator Award on the development of medical summaries in Medieval Islam; RAs Uwe Vagelpohl, Ignacio Sánchez, Nick Aubin (2019-2026)
  • Wellcome Trust: Fellowship on Rāzī’s Twelve Books; awardee B. Hallum (from 2018-2024)
  • Wellcome Trust: Fellowship on the history of Phrenitis; awardee C. Thumiger (2015-2018) 
  • Wellcome Trust: Senior Investigator Award for edition, translation, and commentary on Ibn Abī Usaybiʿa’s history of physicians; joint with Emilie Savage Smith; RAs: Ignacio Sanchez, Peter Joosse, Bruce Inksetter (from 2013 to 2017)
  • Wellcome Trust: Fellowship on Galen’s commentaries in Arabic on Epidemics Bk 6; awardee U. Vagelpohl (from 2012 to 2018)
  • AHRC research grant on Nemesius’ On the Nature of Man; RA: P. Starr (from 2008 to 2011)
  • Wellcome Trust project grant on Galen’s commentaries in Arabic on Epidemics; RAs: U. Vagelpohl, B. Hallum (from 2008 to 2011)
  • AHRC research grant on Greco-Islamic philosophy; RA: E. Wakelnig (from 2007 to 2010)
  • Leverhulme Trust: Major Research Fellowship on Greco-Roman and Islamic oeconomics (from 2007 to 2010)
  • Wellcome Trust: University Award on Greek and Islamic medicine; awardee P. E. Pormann (from 2006 to 2011)
  • RCUK Academic Fellowship in Italian Humanism; awardee M. Vanhaelen (from 2006 to 2011)
  • Greco-Roman and Islamic physiognomy; RAs: R. Hoyland, I. Repath (from 1999 to 2001)