Harry Sidebottom

Dr Harry Sidebottom was brought up in racing stables in Newmarket, where his father was a trainer, and was in a basket saddle on a donkey before he could walk.

He was educated at various schools and universities, including Warwick and Oxford, where he took his doctorate (with Studies in Dio Chrysostom “On Kingship”) in Ancient History at Corpus Christi College. Harry has taught Classical History at various universities, and is now a Lecturer in Ancient History at Lincoln College.

His main scholarly interests are Greek culture under the Roman Empire (looking at the compromises and contradictions involved when an old and sophisticated culture is conquered and ruled by what it considers to be a younger and less civilised power) and warfare in classical antiquity (thinking about how war was both waged and thought about by Greeks and Romans). He has published numerous chapters in books, and articles and reviews in journals, becoming an internationally recognised scholar in these fields.

His first book, Ancient Warfare, was published by OUP in 2004, to critical acclaim. The TLS described it as ‘jam-packed with ideas and insight … a radical and fresh reading of Greek and Roman warfare that is both surprising and stimulating’. For the Guardian, it was a ‘boot-camp for the brain – a short sharp shock to the presumptions’. The Contemporary Review called it ‘a tour de force’ and Robin Lane-Fox described it as ‘outstandingly good’. It has been translated into Japanese, Chinese, German and Greek. Harry is also the Editor of the forthcoming Blackwell Encyclopedia of Ancient Battles.

Since publication of Fire in the East (Penguin) in 2008, he has written and published a novel each year, all of which have been Sunday Times top-5 bestsellers. His Warrior of Rome series has been published in 14 countries.

His latest book, Those Who Are About To Die: Gladiators And The Roman Mind (Hutchinson Heinemann / Knopf) is published this month. Brilliantly written and thrillingly researched, it tells the stories of the gladiators and those who observed them – from grand emperors to lowly slaves – illuminating and analysing the all-consuming passion of the Roman Empire for the spectacle of humans fighting to the death. Tom Holland described is a ‘a grippingly original way of making the alien world of the Roman Amphitheatre both accessible and comprehensible’.