Matthew Sears

Current projects

• A comprehensive study of soldier burials and commemoration in Early-Iron-Age and Archaic Greece.
• An examination of the impact and commemoration of Roman battles in 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 2025-2026

• AWS 1403: The Ancient Greeks: Gods, Heroes, Politicians and Poets
• AWS 3003: Ancient History: The Greeks from the Trojan War to Alexander the Great
• AWS 3023: The Mediterranean World between Alexander and Cleopatra
• Greek 2205: Intermediate Ancient Greek
• Greek 3205: Beginning Ancient Greek Reading: Euripides

Other courses regularly taught

• AWS 3033: Ancient History: The Romans from Republic to Empire
• AWS 3513: The Trojan War: Myth and History
• AWS 3333: The Art and Archaeology of Greece
• AWS 3063: Ancient Greek Warfare
• AWS 3623: Remembering War in Ancient Greece (taught on location in Greece)
• AWS 4303: The Archaeology of Athens
• Greek 1203 and 1213: Introductory Ancient Greek

Selected publications

Books

Avenging Caesar: The Battle of Philippi and the Death of the Republic (co-author with C. Jacob Butera). Under contract with Yale University Press.

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

"Fighting on the Dog’s Heads: Cynoscephalae and the Search for the Ideal Ancient Battlefield” (co-author with C. Jacob Butera). Journal of Military History 89.3 (2025) 576-599.

"Old Battles and New Funerary Monuments: Tombstones Along Sacred Routes in Classical Attica.” Hesperia 94.1 (2025) 95-141.

“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.