Rate My Professor Graeme Clarke

Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke AO FAHA was a distinguished classicist and archaeologist affiliated with the Australian National University (ANU). Born in New Zealand in 1934, he completed his undergraduate and master's degrees with first-class honours in Classics at the University of Auckland, receiving the Fowlds Memorial Certificate for the most outstanding Arts student. He then pursued further studies at Balliol College, Oxford, earning a BA with first-class honours in Literae Humaniores in 1959, along with the College Prize and Jenkyns Travel Award. Clarke was awarded a D.Litt. by the University of Melbourne in 1976 for his work on Minucius Felix's Octavius and related publications. His career began with teaching at Canberra University College, followed by a lectureship at ANU (1961-1963), senior lectureship at the University of Western Australia (1964-1966), associate professorship at Monash University (1967-1968), and a professorship in Classical Studies at the University of Melbourne (1969-1981). In 1982, he returned to ANU as Professor of Classical Studies and Deputy Director of the Humanities Research Centre (1982-1990), later serving as Director until his retirement in 1999.

Clarke's research spanned Patristics, early Christianity, Late Antiquity, and classical archaeology. He authored a critical translation and commentary of Minucius Felix's Octavius (1973) and edited four volumes of the Letters of St. Cyprian of Carthage (1984-1989), with a fifth volume on De Lapsis co-authored in 2012. He co-edited influential collections including Rediscovering Hellenism (1989), Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity (1998), Reading the Past in Late Antiquity (1990), and Christianity in Roman Africa (2014). A pioneer in field archaeology, Clarke directed the Australian Mission to Jebel Khalid in Syria from 1987 to 2010, excavating a Seleucid fortress town and publishing seven comprehensive volumes between 2002 and 2023. His legacy includes a major donation of over 450 excavation artifacts to the ANU Classics Museum, establishing the Graeme Clarke Teaching Collection for hands-on learning. Clarke received the Order of Australia (AO) in 2009, was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) in 1975, and held leadership roles such as President of the Australian Society for Classical Studies (1976-1978) and council member of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens. He passed away in 2023.