Miriam T. Griffin
| Miriam T. Griffin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 6, 1935 New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Classical scholar |
| Spouse(s) | Jasper Griffin |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Somerville College, Oxford |
| Thesis title | Seneca: the statesman and the writer |
| Thesis year | 1968 |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Ancient history |
| Institutions | Somerville College, Oxford |
| Doctoral students | Nicholas Cole, J. Alison Rosenblitt, Greg Golden, Hannah Cotton, Kathleen Coleman, David Wardle |
| Notable works | Nero: the end of a dynasty, Seneca: a philosopher in politics |
Miriam Tamara Griffin (née Dressler; born June 6, 1935) is an American classical scholar who has been a tutor of ancient history at Somerville College at Oxford University since 1967. She specialises in Roman history and has written books about Emperor Nero and his tutor, Seneca.
Born in New York, Griffin's alma mater is Barnard College in New York, from which she holds a BA degree. Additionally, she has an AM degree from Radcliffe College, Massachusetts (now the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study). Her Oxford University alma mater is Somerville College, one of the constituent colleges of the university, where she matriculated in 1957. She graduated with a First in "Greats" in 1960, as did Jasper Griffin. They married that summer. She completed her DPhil at Oxford writing a dissertation titled Seneca: the statesman and the writer in 1968.
Miriam Griffin has been Tutor in Ancient History at Somerville College since 1967. Her research interests are listed on the Oxford Classics Faculty website as 'Roman History, Late Republic and Early Empire, Intellectual History'.
Griffin is a scholar of the Julio-Claudian imperial dynasty and additionally works in ancient philosophy. In Seneca: a Philosopher in Politics (1976) Griffin examines the tensions between philosophy and politics in the life and career of Seneca. It has been described as "a work of consequence" and an "authoritative book" and remains in print. So does Nero: The End of a Dynasty (1987), her examination of the collapse of Nero's reign. Griffin places Nero as a person, including "his desire for popularity and his fear and insecurity", in the context of the social and legislative structures of his time, and examines the ways in which this contributed to his downfall. She said in an interview with The New York Times that "Nero was a man of taste, rather than intellect, and by the time of his death, I think, he was losing his mental balance". The incipient rebellion against his rule threw him into a state of panic, she added, exacerbated by his persecutory delusions. Her work was reviewed as a "splendid book", a "perceptive study", and "close to giving us the definitive account of the last and worst of the Julio-Claudians".
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