Bertrand Lançon

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Bertrand Lançon, born in 1952 in Le Mans, is a French historian and novelist who specializes in late Antiquity. After studies with the Jesuits, he studied at the University of Maine, where he met late Antiquity with Jacques Biarne. He worked as a history teacher in 1976, then in 1989 became a temporary teaching and research attaché at the University of Maine. He earned his PhD in 1991 at the Sorbonne under Charles Pietri, with a thesis on disease and healing in Gaul from the 3rd to the 6th century. He taught ancient history in Valenciennes (1993–1996) and then at the University of Western Brittany (1996–2012). Since 2012 he has been a Professor of Roman History at the University of Limoges.

His books question the idea that the Roman Empire declined and explore how people thought, behaved, and practiced religion as Christianity spread. He coined the term “nosomonde” to describe Christians’ view of late Antiquity as a world that felt sick. Key works include Rome dans l’Antiquité tardive (1995), studies on Constantine the Great and Theodosius I, and the French translation of Jerome’s Chronique with Benoît Jeanjean. He helped create the Brest-based Gestiat group to study late antique sources, publishing volumes on Marcellinus of Illyricum (1998; 2013–2014). He co-authored Les premiers chrétiens and Constantin, Auguste chrétien (2012), and L'histoire de la misogynie (2013). His biography of Theodosius appeared in 2014, and several works have been translated into many languages.

Lançon is also a novelist. Since 2006 he has written the Les Enquêtes de Festus, a series about a Roman investigator in late antiquity, where Christianity and barbarian migrations shape society. He describes these books as “Roman detective novels.” He has also translated Vincenzo Capirola’s lute treatise into French and founded the Lucs & Guiternes association, which organized lute lectures and concerts in western France in the 1980s.