Timothy Howe

Associate Professor
Ancient Mediterranean History
Ancient Studies
howe@stolaf.edu


Tim Howe was born in California and spent his formative years in the Sierra Nevada foothills, chasing cattle and sheep on his parents' farm. After completing a B.A. in History and Anthropology at Cal State, Chico, he went "out east" to Penn State for his M.A. and Ph.D. , and was finally able to combine his two interests (ancient history and agriculture) in a dissertation analyzing the animal production strategies of the Ancient Greeks. Also at Penn State, as a student in a Golden Age Latin class, he met his wife, Mary.

Historian, archaeologist, Greek and Latin epigrapher, his fascination with the Ancients began at the tender age of 1 and a half, when he proudly flushed a copy of Thucydides down the toilet. Reflecting his wide interests, he teaches a range of classes about the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, from Egypt and Mesopotamia to Greece, Carthage, Rome and Late Antique Europe. He is especially interested in warfare, agriculture, law, religion, and historiography and has written several articles on these topics. His first book, Pastoral Politics: Animals, Agriculture and Society in Ancient Greece (Regina, 2008), #9 in the Association for Ancient Historians Monograph series, argues that Greek choices about agriculture affected ancient peoples at all levels of society, in all professions and in all types of community, from rural to urban, in a multitude of ways. The book is a discussion about land use, especially politicized land non-use, and attempts to answer three questions: (1) why did wealthy (and even some non-wealthy) people in a dry, mountainous region like Greece prioritize the production of animals to such a degree that they removed their best land from cereal or other food cultivation; (2) how did these people justify taking essential land away from food production in order to raise non-food animals such as horses; and (3) how did these choices about land affect those individuals directly and not directly involved in animal production?

Continuing his life-long interest in Alexander the Great, he co-edited Macedonian Legacies: Studies in Ancient Macedonian History and Culture in Honor of Eugene N. Borza (Regina, 2009), a collection of essays from 13 experts in the field honoring his teacher, noted Alexander the Great scholar, Eugene N. Borza. Professor Howe is currently working on a book about the historiography of the Alexander sources.

He has visited many different parts of the Mediterranean, both as a researcher and a teacher, and is always ready to share weird travel stories with anyone bold enough to enter his office. In the Interims of 2006 and 2008 he took 30 students to Greece. He hopes to continue teaching students in Greece and in the future plans to develop an Interim trip to Italy.




He, his wife, and his cats are avid birdwatchers and gardeners, and he (and the cats) love to fish. Cooking, especially Mediterranean cooking, is his passion. Someday he hopes to have a farm of his own, full of organic gardens, sheep, a cow or two, and perhaps the odd goat.

He is the faculty advisor for the St. Olaf Society for Ancient History (http://www.stolaf.edu/orgs/sah/).