author
Cyril Bailey
1871–1957
Best known for bringing Lucretius and Epicurean thought to a wider modern audience, this Oxford scholar wrote with unusual clarity and calm authority. His work helped generations of readers approach ancient philosophy as something vivid, humane, and worth arguing with.
1 Audiobook
The Religion of Ancient Rome
by Cyril Bailey
About the author
Born in London in 1871, Cyril Bailey was an English classicist who spent most of his academic life at Balliol College, Oxford, where he served as a fellow and tutor from 1902 to 1939. He was later honored as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
Bailey is especially remembered for his scholarship on Lucretius and Epicurus. He edited, translated, and commented on classical texts with a style that made demanding ideas feel approachable, and he also worked on collections such as The Oxford Book of Greek Verse. That mix of careful learning and readable prose made him influential well beyond specialist circles.
He died in 1957, but his books have remained useful to readers interested in Roman poetry, ancient ethics, and the long afterlife of Epicurean philosophy. For many people, he still serves as a reliable guide to how the classical world thought about pleasure, reason, and the good life.