David Woods

I graduated with a 1st class BA in Greek and Latin from St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, in 1987. I did my postgraduate research at the Queen's University of Belfast under the supervision of Dr. Raymond Davis, and obtained my PhD in 1991 for my thesis 'The Christianization of the Roman Army in the Fourth Century'. I then worked in the Rescue and Insolvency Division of the chartered accountants Coopers & Lybrand, Belfast. I taught Latin for a year (1995-96) at St. Patrick's Classical School, Navan, Co. Meath, before obtaining a temporary appointment in the Department of Ancient Classics, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth (1996-98). I was appointed to a temporary post at UCC in October 1998, and received a permanent post in October 1999. I was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2008.

I am primarily interested in the military and political history of the period c.AD14-750, with the greatest emphasis on the reigns of Caligula (AD37-41) and Nero (AD54-68), the Constantinian dynasty (c.AD306-63), and the early Arab-Byzantine wars (c.AD632-95). Hence I am particularly interested in the works of the Roman biographer Suetonius and of the historians Tacitus (c.AD120) and Ammianus Marcellinus (c.AD390), as well as the work of later Byzantine chroniclers such as Theophanes Confessor (c.AD818). I also have a very strong interest in the study of coinage, whether Roman, Byzantine, Arab-Byzantine, or even Anglo-Saxon.

My teaching interests reflect my research interests in the military and political history of the Roman and early Byzantine empires.