The Doyen of Oinoanda

While the circle of names associated with the Oinoandan scholarship is small the name that stands out most prominently in recent times is that of Professor Martin Ferguson Smith, OBE, MA, MLitt, LittD, FSA who currently holds the title as Emeritus Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. He was Professor of Classics there from 1988 to 1995 (Emeritus Professor thereafter).

He is internationally known as an editor and translator of Lucretius and as the discoverer and editor, over more than forty years, of extensive sections of the inscription set up by Diogenes of Oinoanda. The results of his work at Oinoanda has been presented in several books and about 60 articles. 

He was awarded the international Theodor Mommsen Prize for Herculaneum Papyrology in 2004. As well as remaining very active in classical research, including at Oinoanda, he has recently produced work on Rose Macaulay, Dorothy L Sayers, and Virginia Woolf. He was appointed OBE 'for services to scholarship' in 2007. Since 1995 he has lived on Foula, a remote and rugged island 20 miles west of the Shetland mainland.

We have already quoted from his many and various essays, his major works on the subject are the two volumes:

• The Epicurean inscription / Diogenes of Oinoanda ; edited with introduction, translation and notes by Martin Ferguson Smith. 660 p., 18 p. of plates : ill., maps, plans ; 24 cm. Napoli : Bibliopolis, 1993.

• Martin Ferguson Smith, Supplement to Diogenes of Oinoanda The Epicurean Inscription. Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici. La Scuola di Epicuro. Napoli: Bibliopolis, 2003. Pp. 156; figs. 6. ISBN 88-7088-441-4