Charles Freeman (historian)

Charles P. Freeman is a scholar and freelance historian specialising in the history of ancient Greece and Rome. He is the author of numerous books on the ancient world including The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason. He has taught courses on ancient history in Cambridge's Adult Education program and is Historical Consultant to the Blue Guides. He also leads cultural study tours to Italy, Greece, and Turkey. In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He lives in Suffolk, England.

From an early age Freeman was passionate about history and spent his school holidays helping on archeological digs run by Ipswich Museum. He studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge, and after graduation spent a year teaching in Sudan.

He also holds a master's degree in African history and politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and an additional master's degree in applied research in education from the University of East Anglia.

In 1978 he was appointed head of history at St. Clare's, Oxford, an international sixth form college and spent ten years there. He spent thirty years in total as a teacher and examiner/senior examiner with the International Baccalaureate. From 1988 he has worked full-time as a professional freelance historian. A biography at Yale University Press provides further details.

Charles Freeman lives in Suffolk near Framlingham, England, with his second wife Lydia; between them they have seven children. Lydia is a joint Master of the Easton Harriers.

• The World of the Romans: Illustrated Encyclopedia of World History. Published November 11, 1993 by Oxford University Press.
• Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean. Published November 14, 1996
• The Legacy of Ancient Egypt. Published April 1, 1997 by Facts on File/Checkmark Books
• The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. Published August 1, 1999
• The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason. Published October 7, 2003
• A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State. Published February 5, 2009
• A New History of Early Christianity. Published October 27, 2009
• Sites of Antiquity: From Ancient Egypt to the Fall of Rome, 50 Sites that Explain the Classical World. Published November 7, 2009
• The Horses of St. Mark's: A Story of Triumph in Byzantium, Paris, and Venice. Published August 12, 2010
• Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe. Published May 24, 2011