Dr Alex Imrie (MA (Hons), MScR, PhD, FHEA)
Tutor in Classics
Contact details
- Email: A.Imrie@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
School of History, Classics & Archaeology
William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School
Teviot Place - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AG
Availability
Office Hours are Thursdays 2pm - 3pm (By Appointment, please email)
Background
Born and raised here in the city, Edinburgh is my family home as well as my academic one. The first in my family to attend university, I completed my undergraduate degree in Ancient History at Edinburgh in 2007. After a couple years working in retail management, specializing in kilts and highlandwear, no less, I returned to pursue the MSc by Research in Classics in 2009. Immediately thereafter, thanks to good fortune in receiving some funding, I proceeded to undertake my PhD in Classics, graduating in 2015. I started working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant during my doctorate and have worked as a Tutor in Classics since then, serving periodically as a Teaching Fellow within the department, moreover. I have also worked at the University of St Andrews as a Tutor (2015-16) and as a Research Associate (2019-21). Alongside my teaching roles, I have worked as the Scottish regional co-ordinator for the charity Classics for All since 2017. Outside academia, I am an avid boardgamer and father to two young boys who continue to be more interested in dinosaurs than the Romans.
Responsibilities & affiliations
Classical Association of Scotland: Secretary (2023 - Present); National Outreach Co-ordinator (2018-2023).
Classical Association Teaching Board: CAS Representative (2019 - Present)
Classics Development Group: CAS Representative (2019 - Present)
Classics for All: Scottish Regional Network Organiser (2018 - Present)
Scottish Qualifications Authority: National Qualification Support Team Member for Classical Languages (2018 - Present) and Classical Studies (2022 - Present)
Undergraduate teaching
- Ancient History 2a: Past and Present in the Ancient World
- Ancient History 2b: Themes and Theories in Ancient History
- The Greek World 1b: Greece's New Horizons
- The Roman World 1a: The Rise of Rome
- The Roman World 1b: The Roman Empire
- The Severans
Past PhD students supervised
Hotalen, Christina - PhD - Embodying the Empire: Imperial Women and the Evolution of Succession Ideologies in the Third Century - Committee & Examining Chair - Awarded 2020, University of South Florida.
Research summary
Places:
- Europe
- Mediterranean
- North Africa
- Near East
Themes:
- Ancient Civilisations
- Imperialism
- Political History
- Material Culture
- Classics Education in Scotland
Periods:
- Antiquity
Current research interests
My primary research interests concern the history of the Severan era (AD 193-235). I am currently writing a biography of the emperor Caracalla, and am working on an article (co-written with Matilda Brown) on the factionalism within the later Severan court. I am also interested in the ways that the historian Cassius Dio reacts to the events of the Severan era, and how he articulates his political outlook throughout the span of his 80-book Roman History. Recently, I have also become more interested in the history of Classics teaching in Scotland, and how this impacts on current practice.Invited speaker
2023: 'The Gods of the Severans: Imperial Religiosity in an Age of Transition', University of Aberdeen Religious Studies Postgraduate Seminars
2022: 'Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know: Researching the Severan Era and its Key Players', Open University Masters Researcher Day
2021: 'The Severan Dynasty', Imperial Power in the Roman World, York St John University
2021: 'Transfusing Classics: Campaigning to Expand and Diversify from Within', What Have the Ancients Ever Done for Us? Conference, Trinity College Dublin
2020: 'Keeping it in the Family: Re-evaluating the Role of the Emesene Severans', Edinburgh University Classics Seminar Series (co-presented with Matilda Brown)
2019: 'Fake News, a Birther Scandal, and the First Lady's Sex Life: Snapshots from the Severan Era', Scottish Council of Independent Schools Classics Conference
2012: ‘Why was it introduced? A reinterpretation of the constitutio Antoniniana/La Constitución de Caracalla: razones de su promulgación; un reexamen', Roman Empire Symposium: The Constitutio Antoninana (212-2012), Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima
Papers delivered
2023: 'Bruce and the Spider: The Fight to Return Classics to Scotland’s Classrooms’, Classical Association Conference, Cambridge
2023: 'Wha's Like Us? Using Ancient Voices to Build a Modern Community', Classical Association Conference, Cambridge
2022: 'The Severans in Scotland', Classical Association of Scotland Ancient Voices Summer Programme, Edinburgh
2021: 'Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves: The Later Severan Women as Imperial Power Brokers', Women in Ancient Cultures Conference, London (co-delivered with Matilda Brown)
2019: 'Classics and Gaming', Classical Association of Scotland Ancient Voices Summer Programme, Edinburgh
2018: 'The Ghost of Alexander: Literary Influences on the Emperor Caracalla', Greek and Roman Pasts in the Long Second Century: The Intellectual Climate of Cassius Dio, Banff AB
2017: 'The Eternal City at War: Depictions of Rome During Civil War in Cassius Dio', Cassius Dio: The Impact of Violence, War, and Civil War, Aalborg
2016: 'Friends in Low Places: The Antonine Constitution as a Tool of Patronage', Classical Association Conference, Edinburgh
2016: 'The Severan Sejanus? Parallels Between Plautianus and Sejanus in Cassius Dio', Cassius Dio: Method and Approaches, Odense
2014: 'He Suddenly Became Alexander: Caralla, Alexander the Great and the Historicity of the 'Macedonian Phalanx'', Ancient Warfare Conference, Aberystwyth
2013: 'The Treasonous Caesar: The Involvement of P. Septimius Geta in the Assassination Plot of AD 205', AMPAH, Cambridge
2013: 'The Case of the Missing Letter: A Re-appraisal of the Fall of Plautianus', STAGE Conference, Glasgow
2012: 'A Manipulative Matriarch? Re-evaluating the Image of Julia Domna', Classical Association Conference, Exeter
More video
In the press
2022: 'The Severans', Two Friends Talk History [podcast]
2021: 'The Rise of Caracalla', The Ancients (History Hit) [podcast]
2021: 'Alexander Mania? Caracalla's Macedonian Phalanx', The Ancients (History Hit) [podcast]
BOOKS - AUTHORED
Imrie, A. (2018) The Antonine Constitution: an edict for the Caracallan Empire. Leiden: Brill (Impact of Empire 29).
ARTICLES
Imrie, A. (2021) ‘Caracalla and “Alexander’s Phalanx”: caught at a crossroads of evidence.’ Greece & Rome 68.2: 222-238.
Imrie, A. (2020) ‘The Coronavirus Pandemic, Exams Crisis and Classics in Scottish Schools.’ Journal of Classics Teaching 21(42): 55-59.
Imrie, A. (2019) ‘Caledonia Resurgens: Reflections on the Campaign to Revive Classics in Scotland.’ Journal of Classics Teaching 20(39): 111-16.
Imrie, A. (2018) ‘Africanus Princeps? The emperor Caracalla and the question of his African heritage.’ Journal of Black Studies 49.4: 370-82.
Imrie, A. & Bingham, S. (2015) ‘The Prefect and the Plot: a reassessment of the murder of Plautianus.’ Journal of Ancient History 3.1: 76-91.
Imrie, A. (2014) ‘A Case of Mistaken Identity: Julia Domna as Concordia on RIC 380 & 381.’ Revue belge de Numismatique et de Sillographie 160: 307-15.
CHAPTERS
Imrie, A. (2021) The Severan Sejanus? Parallels between Plautianus and Sejanus in Cassius Dio, in J. M. Madsen and C. H. Lange (eds), Cassius Dio the Historian: Methods and Approaches. Leiden: Brill. pp. 273-91.
Imrie, A. (2020) The War Comes Home: Rome and Romans during civil conflict in the Roman History, in C. H. Lange and A. G. Scott (eds), Cassius Dio: the impact of Violence, War and Civil War. Leiden: Brill. pp. 165-91.
BOOK REVIEWS
Imrie, A. (2022) Review of A. G. Scott, Emperors and Usurpers: An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio’s Roman History, Books 79[78]-80[80] (AD 217-229) (Oxford, 2018), Plekos 24.
Imrie, A. (2021) Review of A. Besson, Constitutio Antoniniana: L'universalisation de la citoyenneté romaine au 3e siècle (Basel, 2020), Sehepunkte 21.5.
Imrie, A. (2020) Review of J.M. Madsen, Cassius Dio (Ancients in Action) (London, 2020), Classical Review 70.2.
Imrie, A. (2018) Review of C.H. Lange, J. M. Madsen (eds), Cassius Dio – Greek Intellectual and Roman Politician, (Leiden, 2016), Classical Review 68.1.
Imrie, A. (2017) Review of D. Rohrbacher, The Play of Allusion in the Historia Augusta, (Madison, 2016), Mouseion 14.3.
Imrie, A. (2017) Review of: A. Kemezis, Greek Narratives of the Roman Empire under the Severans (Cambridge, 2014), Mouseion 14.1.
Imrie, A. (2016) Review of C. Ando (ed.), Citizenship and Empire in Europe 200-1900: The Antonine Constitution after 1800 years (Stuttgart, 2016), Ancient History Bulletin Online Reviews 6.