Pat Southern

Patricia Southern (born 1948) is an English historian of classical Rome.

Early life

Born in 1948 near Altrincham, Cheshire, Southern studied Ancient History and Archaeology with the Universities of London and Newcastle upon Tyne.

Career

Southern was the librarian of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne from 1983 to 1996 and later at the library of the Newcastle upon Tyne Literary and Philosophical Society. She has published 13 books on Roman history and archaeology and contributed numerous articles on Roman history to the BBC History website and the academic Roman studies journal Britannia.

She has also written a history of her home town of Altrincham.

Southern's first two books The Roman Cavalry and The Late Roman Army were co-authored and illustrated by Karen Dixon. Dixon also illustrated several other books in the publisher's catalogue. Dixon's analysis of morale in the late Roman Army was well received and influenced the development of the study of military psychology in history pioneered by John Keegan in The Face of Battle.