Matthew A. Sears

Biography

Matthew Sears joined the department of Classics and Ancient History in July, 2013. Prior to coming to UNB, he taught for two years at Wabash College, a liberal arts college in Indiana. He is broadly interested in ancient Greek politics, society, and culture; cross-cultural contact in the ancient Mediterranean; ancient historiography; and the history of classical warfare. His doctoral work focused on the inter-state and cross-cultural relationship between Athens and Thrace (a region on the northern periphery of the Greek world), particularly the experiences of a number of prominent Athenian military leaders. His book on this topic, Athens, Thrace, and the Shaping of Athenian Leadership, has been published by Cambridge University Press. Currently, Sears is working on two book projects. The first explores the importance of the Spartan general Brasidas' campaign in Thrace during the Peloponnesian War. Brasidas inaugurated what we might call the "Spartan tradition of imperialism," the central idea of which is that it is a moral good to force peoples and states to be free, even by military means. Such ideas have continued on to the present day where they are routinely dismissed as mere hypocrisy. For Brasidas and the Spartans in the fifth-century BCE, however, there was no practical or philosophical contradiction in liberation even against the will of the liberated. The other book, tentatively titled Battles and Battlefields of Ancient Greece: A Guide to their History, Topography, and Archaeology, is being co-written by Jake Butera of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and is under contract with Pen & Sword books. This book, a traveller’s guide, will include historical overviews, site descriptions, and detailed guides to further reading for twenty of Greece’s most important and evocative ancient battles. Sears has published articles and presented papers on many aspects of the ancient world, including the depiction of soldiers in the Iliad, the diplomatic techniques employed by the Persians during their invasion of Greece, and Thucydides’ literary treatment of the Battle of Pylos.

Research Interest

History