Ian Plant

Ian's fields of research are Greek history and historiography, especially the study of Thucydides. He also works on mythology, Egyptian religion in Greek and Latin writers and women writers from Ancient Greece and Rome. He has taught widely including in ancient languages (Ancient Greek, Latin), Greek society and literature (Mythology, Greek Heroes), historiography (Women Writers, Thucydides and Herodotus) and Greek history (Athens, Sparta).

Among his current research projects are:

• Thucydides and the writing of history
• Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome and their reception.
• Ancient Greece: Women's public and private texts

Dr Ian Plant is a member of the Discipline of History and Archaeology in the School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts. He studied Classics (including Ancient Greek and Latin) and Ancient History at the University of Canterbury, where he completed his doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr Katherine Adshead and Professor Kevin Lee. He taught at the University of Western Australia before taking up the post at Macquarie.

Current HDR

George Topalidis, Aphrodite: An Examination of Greek Local Cult and Near Eastern Influence.

HDR: Completed

John McLellan, The Military Career of Pausanias of Lacedaemon (2000).

Christopher Matthew, A Storm of Spears: A Reappraisal of Hoplite Combat (2009).

Kay Leiper, Education, Literacy and its Cognitive Effects: Problem-Solving and Decision-Making in Homer and Archaic and Fifth-Century BC Athens (2013).

Jennifer Irving, The Greek Epigraphic Evidence for Healer Women in the Greek and Roman World (2015).

Lucy Schulz, Finding the Female in Ancient Greek Landscapes (2019).

Kathryn White, Gender and Death: Women on Greek Funerary Monuments in the Archaic and Classical Periods (2019).

Elizabeth Stockdale, The Principles of Female Figures in the Odyssey (2023).

Ian Debenham, The Roman Shipbuilding Industry (2024).

MRES

Lucinda Guzman, Hera’s Lettuce: Women and the Peculiar Uses of Flowers, Fruit and Vegetables in Ancient Greek Festivals for Women (2014).

George Topalidis, The Stages of Hera: Reconstructing the Sacred Marriage (2022).

Beatriz Machado Pinto R. Cecilio, You will be remembered: Images of grief and mourning on Athenian White-Ground Lekythoi (2025).

MA by Research

Emmanuel Agoratsios, Politics and Oracles: A Study of Athenian Political Relations with the Delphic Oracle in the Archaic Period c. 632/1—505/4 B.C. (2006).