Dr Andrew Bayliss PhD, BA (Hons), DipEd

Dr Andrew Bayliss

Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology
Associate Professor in Greek History
Head of the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 8229
Email
a.bayliss@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Arts Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I am passionate about Ancient History and what it can teach us about the modern world. Learning how to analyse ancient sources gives us the critical thinking skills we need to evaluate the many forms of information we come across in our daily lives.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Ancient History
  • First Class Honours Degree in History, majoring in Ancient History
  • Diploma of Education

Biography

I’ve been obsessed with Ancient History since I learned about the last stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae when I was twelve. I studied Ancient History for my BA at Macquarie University in Australia, stayed on there for my PhD, before I had the opportunity to further my research at the British School at Athens. After moving to the UK I worked at the Department of Classics at Nottingham before coming to the University of Birmingham.

Teaching

I regularly teach on the core undergraduate modules ‘The Greek World’, ‘Rethinking the Ancient World’, and ‘Understanding Ancient Societies’, and the MA module ‘Research and Scholarship’. The optional modules I co-ordinate include ‘The Spartan kosmos’, ‘Thinking Athenian’, and the MA module ‘Herodotus and Ancient Worlds’.

Postgraduate supervision

I would welcome research students interested in all aspects of Spartan society, Athenian politics, Alexander the Great, and the early Hellenistic period.

Find out more - our PhD Classics and Ancient History  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

My current research centres on Classical Spartan society. I am particularly interested in the mindset of Spartan citizens, and am currently compiling a database of ancient references to Spartan emotions, actions and attitudes. My research on Sparta naturally extends to the helots, and I am particularly interested in the rural hinterlands of Spartan territory where helots lived and laboured for their abusive masters.

My previous publications have focused on the swearing of oaths in ancient Greece, Athenian history, politics, and epigraphy, the Successors of Alexander the Great, and Eighteenth-century perceptions of ancient Greece.

Other activities

I currently contribute to the department’s Study Tour module, which includes a 10-day guided tour of archaeological sites during the Easter vacation. Showing our second-year students the archaeological sites of Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae and Epidaurus is one of the highlights of the teaching year for me.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Bayliss, A 2022, The Spartans: A very short introduction. Very short introductions, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Bayliss, A 2020, The Spartans. Oxford University Press.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Bayliss, A 2023, Herodotus and Spartan Obedience. in Herodotus and Spartan Austerity. Classical Press of Wales.

Bayliss, A 2020, Plutarch on Tyrtaios and the Great Rhetra. in Plutarch & Sparta. Classical Press of Wales.

Chapter

Bayliss, A 2017, Good to slaughter the lives of young men? The role of Tyrtaeus’ poetry in Spartan Society. in LF Bantim (ed.), Esparta: Politica e sociedade. Prismas.

Bayliss, A 2017, Once an ally, always an ally: Sparta’s approach to policing the oaths of her allies in the late fifth and early fourth centuries. in E Moloney & MS Williams (eds), Peace and Reconciliation in the Classical World. Routledge.

Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Bayliss, A 2017, Androcles. in AH Sommerstein (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Greek Comedy. Wiley-Blackwell.

Bayliss, A 2017, Archedicus. in AH Sommerstein (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Greek Comedy. Wiley-Blackwell.

Bayliss, A 2017, Demetrius Poliorcetes. in AH Sommerstein (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Greek Comedy. Wiley-Blackwell.

Bayliss, A 2017, Demochares. in AH Sommerstein (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Greek Comedy. Wiley-Blackwell.

Bayliss, A 2017, Macedonia. in AH Sommerstein (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Greek Comedy. Wiley-Blackwell.

Bayliss, A 2017, Philippides. in AH Sommerstein (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Greek Comedy. Wiley-Blackwell.

Bayliss, A 2017, Stratocles. in AH Sommerstein (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Greek Comedy. Wiley-Blackwell.

Bayliss, A 2017, Tyrtaios and other entries. in Brill's New Jacoby. Brill. <https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-jacoby/tyrtaios-580-a580?s.num=0>

Bayliss, A 2017, agonothetes. in AH Sommerstein (ed.), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Greek Comedy. Wiley-Blackwell.

View all publications in research portal