Anthony Birley
Anthony Richard Birley (8 October 1937 – 19 December 2020) was a British ancient historian, archaeologist, and professor. He played a leading role in excavations at Vindolanda, a Roman fortress near Hadrian’s Wall, and wrote several books on Roman Britain and the emperors of the second century AD.
Born in Chesterholm, Northumberland, he was the son of archaeologists Eric and Margaret Birley. His father bought a house next to Vindolanda, and Anthony and his brother Robin began digging at the site as boys.
He was educated at Clifton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he earned a first-class BA in classics in 1960. He completed his PhD at Oxford in 1966, studying Roman military command from Hadrian to Caracalla. He held Craven Fellowship (1960–1962) and was a research fellow at Birmingham, before becoming a lecturer at Leeds and later a Reader.
Birley served as Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester from 1974 to 1990 and taught at the University of Düsseldorf from 1990 to 2002; he was also an Honorary Professor at Durham. He published extensively on Roman Britain and empire, and was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (1969), a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute (1981), and a member of the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1994–2002).
He was a founder trustee of the Vindolanda Trust from 1970 and led as Chair of Trustees from 1996 to 2016.
Birley married Susanna Garforth-Bles in 1963; they had two children, Ursula and Hamish, before divorcing in 1986. He married Heide in 1989 and gained three stepchildren.
He died of lung cancer on 19 December 2020, aged 83.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:09 (CET).