Roger Tomlin


Roger Simon Ouin Tomlin is a British archaeologist specialising in the translation of Latin text and epigraphy. Tomlin is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford.

Early life

Tomlin first studied Honour Moderations at Oxford University before continuing onto study Literae humaniores. His college tutor was Peter Brunt, the Camden Professor of Ancient History.

Career

After graduating Tomlin worked in the US for a couple of years before returning to take up a post at the University of Oxford teaching Late Roman History. He succeeded Richard Wright as editor of the Roman Inscriptions of Britain project and started working intensively on translating inscriptions. Tomlin published the first translation of the curse-tablets from the Roman Baths at Aquae Sulis in 1988. Tomlin translated the Bloomberg tablets, a collection of 405 wooden tablets inscribed with ink found between 2010 and 2013 during excavations for the Bloomberg building in London. In 2019, a stylus from Roman London was translated by Tomlin; it was found to contain a humourous message to give to someone as a souvenir.
He is a member of the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents.

Awards

Tomlin was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 5 May 1976.
In March 2017 he received the István Hahn prize and gave an honorary lecture at Eötvös Loránd University.
Tomlin had a Festschrift dedicated to him in 2019, titled "Litterae Magicae: Studies in honour of Roger S. O. Tomlin".

Select publications