Thomas Stranex (South Africa)

I am from Cape Town, South Africa, where I did nothing of any note for the first two decades of my life. After finishing school and finding that I had little to do with myself, I decided to teach myself Ancient Greek to relieve the boredom, with the hope that it would impress girls (it did not). Latin naturally followed. After this, I decided to formalise things and studied for a BA in Classics, French, and German, followed by an Honours degree (a peculiar quirk of South African higher education) in Ancient Greek Literature.

Through the generosity of the Ertegun Scholarship, I have now come to Oxford to read for an MPhil in Ancient History. I am primarily interested in things strange, obscure, or fragmentary, which has led to a rather diffuse set of interests. For my dissertation, I intend to look into popular religious innovation and cult in Roman Anatolia, with particular attention to how the local elite got involved with these things. I am also quite excited to learn Syriac and familiarise myself with epigraphy while I am here.

In my free time, I read, take walks, and dabble in the odd bit of language learning from time to time (I have recently picked up Old Persian and currently have my eye on Akkadian, a daunting if rather exciting prospect).