Ronald Syme Annual Lecture 2015 The Syme lecture is held every year in Michaelmas term, it was established in memory of the Roman Historian Sir Ronald Syme. Sir Ronald Syme was a Fellow of the College from 1970 until 1989. He is regarded as the twentieth century’s greatest historian of ancient Rome.

Roger Bagnall’s lecture focused on the comparison between two males ‘ the councillor and the clerk’ from the Siwa Oasis, Ancient Egypt. The first case about a man named ‘Serenos’, the councillor, and the second, a man with no known name, the clerk. The Lecture was introduced by Prof Martin Goodman.

Roger Bagnall is Leon Levy Director and Professor of Ancient History in the faculty of ‘Institute for the study of ancient world’ at New York University. He studied at Yale University and University of Toronto. Prof. Bagnall has a background in Ancient History, as he was Jay Professor of Greek and Latin and Professor of History at Columbia University for 33 years. He has a number of publications including: Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800 (Ann Arbor 2006) (with R. Cribiore) and Amheida I. Ostraka from Trimithis, volume 1 (New York 2012) (with G. R. Ruffini).