Mary Beard

Mary Beard sits in a category of her own for me. A Cambridge classicist specializing in Ancient Rome, she refused to lock her scholarship inside the ivory tower and instead carried ancient history into living rooms as a television presenter while serving as a trustee of the British Museum. The Wolfson History Prize, the Princess of Asturias Award, the OBE; the honors read like a roll call, and every one feels deserved. What moves me most is her conviction that the past belongs to everyone, that a single Roman stone can open a window onto human life. Few public intellectuals make rigor this generous and this accessible.

Dame Winifred Mary Beard (born 1 January 1955) is an English classicist specialising in Ancient Rome. She is a trustee of the British Museum and formerly held a personal professorship of classics at the University of Cambridge. She is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, and Royal Academy of Arts Professor of Ancient Literature.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Name (English)

Mary Beard

Name (Japanese)

メアリー・ビアード

Reading

めありー・びあーど

Born

January 1, 1955 (age 71)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Goat

Origin

Much Wenlock, United Kingdom

Blood type

Private

Height

Private

Agency

Private

Occupation

historian of religion / university teacher / television presenter / classical philologist / historian

Elementary school

Private

Junior high

Private

High school

Shrewsbury High School

University

Newnham College

Awards & achievements

• Officer of the Order of the British Empire
• 2016 Bodley Medal
• 2016 Princess of Asturias Awards
• 2009 Wolfson History Prize
• Fellow of the British Academy
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• honorary doctor of the Open University of Catalonia

Spouse

Private

Children

Private

Parents

Private

Siblings

Private

Motto

Private

• Xhttps://x.com/wmarybeard
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A1%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%93%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89

Tags

• historian of religion
• university teacher
• television presenter

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.