Matthew Sears

Other titles

Professor and Undergraduate Advisor, Classics.

Research interests

• Ancient Greek and Roman History
• Greek and Latin Historiography
• Ancient Warfare and Society

Current projects

• A comprehensive study of soldier burials and commemoration in Early-Iron-Age and Archaic Greece

Biography

Matthew A. Sears is a historian of ancient Greece and Rome, specializing in military monuments and commemoration, war and society, and ancient historiography. He publishes widely on Greek and Roman politics, society, and culture, and has bylines in The Washington Post, The Globe & Mail, Maclean’s, and Time Magazine. He holds a PhD in Classics from Cornell University

At UNB he teaches a wide range of courses, including all levels of Greek and Latin language and literature, and a variety of history and culture courses in translation. He regularly leads travel study programs to Greece with UNB, and has been the Gertrude Smith Professor at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, directing its intensive Summer Session.

Teaching

Courses in 2024-2025

• Classics 3033: Ancient History: The Romans from Republic to Empire
• Classics 3513: The Trojan War: Myth and History
• Classics 3333: The Art and Archaeology of Greece
• Greek 1203 and 1213: Introductory Ancient Greek

Other courses regularly taught

• Classics 1403: The Ancient Greeks: Gods, Heroes, Politicians and Poets
• Classics 3003: Ancient History: The Greeks from the Trojan War to Alexander the Great
• Classics 3063: Ancient Greek Warfare
• Classics 3623: Remembering War in Ancient Greece (taught on location in Greece)
• Classics 4303: The Archaeology of Athens

Selected publications

Books

Sparta and the Commemoration of War. Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Understanding Greek Warfare. Routledge, 2019.

Battles and Battlefields of Ancient Greece: A Guide to their History, Topography and Archaeology (co-author with C. Jacob Butera). Pen & Sword, 2019.

Athens, Thrace and the Shaping of Athenian Leadership. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Peer-reviewed articles

"Old Battles and New Funerary Monuments in Classical Attica.” Forthcoming in Hesperia.

“Brasidas and the Un-Spartan Spartan.” The Classical Journal 116.2 (2020) 173-198.

“The Tyrant as Liberator: The Treasury of Brasidas and the Acanthians at Delphi.” Classical Philology 114.2 (2019) 265-278.

“Mother Canada and Mourning Athena: From Classical Athens to Vimy Ridge.” Arion 25.3 (2018) 43-66.

“The Camps of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, 42 B.C.” (co-author with C. Jacob Butera). Hesperia 86.2 (2017) 359-377.

“Alexander’s Cavalry Charge at Chaeronea, 338 BCE” (co-author with Carolyn Willekes). Journal of Military History 80.4 (2016) 1017-1035.

“Thucydides, Rousseau and Forced Freedom: Brasidas’ Speech at Acanthus.” Phoenix 69.3/4 (2015) 242-267.

“Alexander and Ada Reconsidered.” Classical Philology 109.3 (2014) 211-221.

“The Topography of the Pylos Campaign and Thucydides’ Literary Themes.” Hesperia 80.1 (2011) 157-168.

“Warrior Ants: Elite Troops in the Iliad.” Classical World 103.2 (2010) 139-155.

“A Note on Mardonius’ Emissaries.” Mouseion 9.1 (2009) 21-28.