Staff profile

I am a historian of ancient Greece, with particular interests in the political history of the Classical Greek World, and in the history (and ideology) of Greek interstate relations. I also work on Greek historiography and epigraphy.

Before coming to Durham (in September 2018), I was a member of the Department of Classics & Ancient History at the University of Manchester; before that, I studied at Oxford (for my undergraduate degree) and Cambridge (for my PhD), and was W.H.D.Rouse Research Fellow in Classics at Christ's College, Cambridge.

Doctoral Supervision

I would be interested in supervising research projects in Greek political history (particularly of the Classical period) and historiography (especially, but not only, Thucydides).

School Talks and Outreach

I am happy to give talks on topics in Greek history and historiography. Potential topics include the Persian Wars; Athens & Athenian Democracy; Sparta; the commemoration of the War Dead in Classical Greece; Thucydides. (This is not an exhaustive list, and I would be happy to discuss other possibilities.)

• Epigraphy
• Greek historiography, particularly Thucydides
• Greek political history

Authored book

• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2019). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections 7: Chatsworth. Attic Inscriptions Online
• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2019). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections 8: Broomhall. Attic Inscriptions Online
• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2019). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections 5: Lyme Park. Attic Inscriptions Online
• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2019). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections 6: Leeds City Museum. Attic Inscriptions Online
• Low, P. (2007). Interstate Relations in Classical Greece: Morality and Power. Cambridge University Press

Chapter in book

• Low, P. (2023). Thucydides on Empire and Imperialism. In P. Low (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Thucydides (143-159). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316227442.013
• Low, P. (2021). Xenia and Proxenia in Thucydides' Sparta. In A. Powell, & P. Debnar (Eds.), Thucydides and Sparta (163-182). Classical Press of Wales
• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2019). Four Unpublished Inscriptions (and One Neglected Collector) from the World Museum, Liverpool. In C. F. Noreña, & N. Papazarkadas (Eds.), From Document to History: Epigraphic Insights into the Greco-Roman World (408-430). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004382886_024
• Low, P. (2018). Hegemonic Legitimacy (and its Absence) in Classical Greece. In M. Canevaro, A. Erskine, B. Gray, & J. Ober (Eds.), Ancient Greek History and Contemporary Social Science (433-454). Edinburgh University Press
• Low, P. (2017). State and Warlord in Classical Greece: From Bipolarity to Multipolarity. In T. Ñaco del Hoyo, & F. López Sánchez (Eds.), War, Warlords, and Interstate Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean (36-53). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004354050_004
• Low, P. (2017). Thucydides on the Athenian Empire and Interstate Relations. In S. Forsdyke, E. Foster, & R. Balot (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides (99-114). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199340385.013.22
• Low, P. (2016). Lives from stone: epigraphy and biography in classical and Hellenistic Greece. In R. Fletcher, & J. Hanink (Eds.), Creative Lives in Classical Antiquity (147-174). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316670651.007
• Low, P. (2014). Empire and crisis in fourth-century Greece. In V. Gouschin, & P. Rhodes (Eds.), Deformations and Crises of Ancient Civil Communities (63-72). Steiner
• Low, P. (2013). Remembering and forgetting: the creation and destruction of inscribed monuments in Classical Athens. In J. Tumblety (Ed.), Memory and History: Understanding Memory as Source and Subject (71-87). Routledge
• Low, P. (2013). Law, authority and legitimacy in the Athenian Empire. In J. Duindam, J. Harries, N. Hurvitz, & C. Humfress (Eds.), Law and Empire: Ideas, Practices, Actors (25-44). Brill Academic Publishers
• Low, P. (2012). The Monuments to the War Dead in Classical Athens: Form, Contexts, Meanings. In P. Low, G. Oliver, & P. Rhodes (Eds.), Cultures of Commemoration (12-38). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197264669.003.0002
• Low, P. (2012). The Greek reply to the satraps’ revolt: peace, common peace and war in fourth-century Greece. In J. Wilker (Ed.), Maintaining Peace and Interstate Stability in Archaic and Classical Greece (118-134). Verlag Antike
• Low, P. (2011). Athenian foreign policy and the quest for stability. In G. Herman (Ed.), Stability and Crisis in the Athenian Democracy (67-86). Steiner
• Low, P. (2011). The power of the dead in Classical Sparta: the case of Thermopylae. In M. Carroll, & J. Rempel (Eds.), Living through the Dead: Burial and Commemoration in the Classical World (1-20). Oxbow Books
• Low, P. (2011). Die Moral zwischenstaatlicher Politik im klassichen Griechenland: Thukydides und sein Kontext. In E. Baltrusch, & C. Wendt (Eds.), in Besitz für immer? Geschichte, Polis und Völkerrecht bei Thukydides (42-62). Nomos
• Low, P. (2010). Remembering defeat and victory in democratic Athens. In D. Pritchard (Ed.), War, Democracy and Culture in Classical Athens (341-358). Cambridge University Press
• Low, P. (2009). The Athenian Empire. In G. Boys-Stones, B. Graziosi, & P. Vasunia (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies (65-76). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199286140.013.0006
• Low, P. (2006). Commemorating the Spartan war dead. In A. Powell, & S. Hodkinson (Eds.), Sparta and War. Classical Press of Wales

Edited book

• Low, P. (Ed.). (2023). The Cambridge Companion to Thucydides. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316227442
• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (Eds.). (2013). Inscriptions and their Uses in Greek and Latin Literature. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780199665747.001.0001
• Low, P. (Ed.). (2008). The Athenian Empire. Edinburgh University Press

Journal Article

• Low, P. (2024). The Origins of the Peloponnesian War, the Origins of the Peloponnesian War, and Theories of International Relations. Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, 41(1), 76-91. https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340428
• de Lisle, C., Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2022). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections: National Museums Scotland. AIO papers, 14,
• Low, P., & Liddel, P. (2021). A Greek Funerary Stele in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK). Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 219, 125-129
• Low, P., & Liddel, P. (2021). Two Megarian inscriptions at Brocklesby Park (UK). The Journal of epigraphic studies, 4, 47-62. https://doi.org/10.19272/202113701004
• Low, P. (2020). Remembering, forgetting, and rewriting the past: Athenian inscriptions and collective memory. Histos, Supplements(11), 235-268
• Low, P. (2018). Panhellenism without Imperialism? Athens and the Greeks before and after Chaeronea. Historia, 67(4), 454-471. https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2018-0018
• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2016). A new inscription from Liverpool and its afterlife: World Museum Liverpool 27.8.85.3. Hermathena, 200-201,
• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2015). An honorific gnome of the koinon of the Phrikyladai: a new inscription from Liverpool. Annual of the British School at Athens, 110, 263-284. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0068245415000076
• Low, P. (2005). Looking for the language of Athenian imperialism. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 125, 93-111. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0075426900007126
• Low, P. (2003). Remembering war in fifth-century Greece: Ideologies, societies, and commemoration beyond democratic Athens. World Archaeology, 35(1), 98-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/0043824032000078108
• Low, P. (2002). Cavalry identity and democratic ideology in early fourth-century Athens. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, 48, 102-122. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0068673500000857

Other (Print)

• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2020). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections 9: Brocklesby Park
• Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2020). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections 12: Great North Museum: Hancock