Elizabeth Rawson

Elizabeth Donata Rawson (13 April 1934 – 10 December 1988) was a classical scholar known primarily for her work in the intellectual history of the Roman Republic and her biography of Cicero.

Elizabeth Rawson was the daughter of Graham Stanhope Rawson and Ivy Marion Enthoven, who married in 1930. The Rawsons were originally a Yorkshire family whose lineage can be traced back to around 1500, but Elizabeth's great-great-grandfather had settled in Kent in the early 19th century. The family lived at 8 Campden Hill Square, Kensington. Rawson grew up in an environment where classical music, theatre, and intellectual achievement were highly valued. Her father, described as "somewhat remote," earned a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Jena in Germany. Her mother, a Dutch Jew, gave assistance during the 1920s to political exiles and opponents of the Fascist regime in Italy, where she had pro-Fascist cousins. In her first book, The Spartan Tradition in European Thought, Rawson acknowledged the influence of her mother, "who in no way resembles a Spartan Mother, save in her dislike of unnecessary verbiage."

Rawson was an early Fellow of New Hall, Cambridge (1967–80) and subsequently (1980–1988) Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. She had been a Rome Scholar 1957–59.

In 1988, Rawson was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. She died that same year in China after one term spent teaching at Nankai University, at the age of 54. She bequeathed her personal library to New Hall, where it is available in a reading area as the Rawson Collection.

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