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Sir Ronald Syme ( 11 March, 1903 – 4 September, 1989), New Zealand-born historian, was the preeminent classicist of the 20th century.
He was born to David and Florence Syme in Eltham, New Zealand, where he attended primary and secondary school; a bad case of measles would seriously damage his vision during this period. He moved to New Plymouth Boy's High School (a dormitory of which bears his name today) at the age of 15 and was head of his class for both of his two years. He continued to the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington, where he studied French language and literature while working on his degree in Classics. He attended the School of Literae Humaniores at Oriel College, Oxford between 1925Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 See also 1925 in aviation 1925 in film 1925 in literature 1925 in mu and 1927Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 See also 1927 in aviation 1927 in film 1927 in literature 1927 in mu, graduating with a First Class degree in ancient history and philosophy.
In 1929Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 See also 1929 in aviation 1929 in film 1929 in literature 1929 in mu he became a Fellow of Trinity CollegeTrinity College (in full: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It stands in Broad Street, next door to Balliol, and is particularly known for its attractive gar, where he became known for his studies of the Roman army and the frontiers of the Empire. During the Second World WarWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, he worked as a press attaché in the British Embassies of BelgradeFor other uses see Belgrade (disambiguation Belgrade ( Serbian, Beograd , (population in Belgrade region 1,711,800 by census of 2002) is the capital of Serbia (since 1403) and Serbia and Montenegro (since 2003) and Yugoslavia ( 1918- 2003). The city lies (where he acquired a knowledge of Serbo-Croatian) and Ankara, later taking a chair in classical philology at Istanbul University. His refusal to discuss the nature of his work during this period led some to speculate that he worked for the British intelligence services in Turkey, but proof for this theory is lacking.
In 1949, he was appointed Camden Professor of Ancient History at Brasenose College, Oxford, a position which he held until his retirement in 1970. He was knighted in 1959 and received the Order of Merit in 1976. He continued his prolific writing and editing until his death at the age of 86.