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Anthony A. Barrett

historian of classical antiquity

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ112369832
Source-derived summary

Anthony Arthur Barrett (born July 30, 1941) is a British-Canadian Classical scholar and the author of several books on Roman antiquity.

Life

Barrett attended Hookergate Grammar School, near Rowlands Gill, then the University of Durham (King’s College), where he graduated in Latin in 1963. He subsequently studied Classics as a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Toronto, and Classical Archaeology at Oxford University (St. John’s College). After retirement, he studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge University (Sidney Sussex College).

In 1968, he was appointed assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in the Department of Classics, now the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies. He was subsequently promoted to associate professor, and became full professor in 1984. He served as department head from 1993 – 1998. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2000. In 2002, he was awarded a two-year Killam Research Fellowship for work on the history of the Roman Empire.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Anthony A. Barrett” is historian of classical antiquity. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Anthony, Barrett and historian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 1963, 1968, 1984—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1941. For this dossier, Anthony, Barrett and historian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “historian of classical antiquity” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q112369832. VIAF identifies the subject as 111153889. The Library of Congress control number is n80141698. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1963, 1968 and 1984.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Anthony A. Barrett”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Anthony A. Barrett primary sources, Anthony A. Barrett archive and Anthony research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Anthony A. Barrett”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Anthony A. Barrett” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.