author
Tenney Frank
1876–1939
A leading American scholar of ancient Rome, he wrote with unusual range about Roman history, literature, and the workings of the Roman economy. His books helped bring the social and economic life of Rome into sharper focus for modern readers.
2 Audiobooks
Vergil: A Biography
by Tenney Frank
Life and literature in the Roman republic
by Tenney Frank
About the author
Born in Clay Center, Kansas, in 1876, Tenney Frank became one of the best-known American classical scholars of his generation. He studied at the University of Kansas and later earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago, building a career that joined close reading of Latin literature with a wide curiosity about Roman society and history.
He taught at Bryn Mawr College and then at Johns Hopkins University. His work ranged across Roman poetry, politics, archaeology, and especially economic and social history, and he became widely known for books such as Economic History of Rome and A History of Rome. He also edited parts of the large reference project An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome.
Frank died in Oxford, England, in 1939. He is still remembered for helping shift the study of Rome beyond battles and emperors toward everyday life, trade, population, and the deeper forces shaping the ancient world.