Dr Paul Roberts is Research Keeper in the Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford University.  

Paul, originally from Ross on Wye in Herefordshire, studied Classics at the University of Cambridge, and Classical Archaeology at Sheffield and Oxford.  He then lived in Italy for several years, from Milan to Sicily, teaching, researching, soaking up Italy’s wonderfully rich culture (and food and wine!) He has travelled the Roman Empire from Britain to Syria and has excavated in Britain, Greece, Libya, Turkey and in particular Italy. He is currently excavating a Roman Villa in the Molise region of Central Italy. His research focuses on the daily life of ordinary people in the Greek and Roman worlds, and he has written books and articles on Greek and Roman daily life, Pompeii and Herculaneum, Sicily, Roman Emperors, mummy portraits, and Greek and Roman ceramics and glass. His latest book Ancient Rome in Fifty Monuments will appear in April 2024.

From 1994 to 2015 he was Senior Roman Curator in the Greek and Roman Department at the British Museum.  Among his many duties he assisted with the major exhibitions Ancient faces (1997) and Gladiators and Caesars (2000).  In 2011  he co-curated Roman Sexuality: Images, Myths and Meaning at Nottingham University and Brading Villa, Isle of Wight.   In 2013 he finally curated his own exhibition – the hugely successful Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum (2013). At the Ashmolean from 2015, he co-curated Storms, War and Shipwrecks: Sicily and the Sea (2016) telling the history of Sicily through shipwreck finds. Most recently (2019/20) at the Ashmolean he curated Last Supper in Pompeii, a tribute to the Roman love affair with food and wine and the Ashmolean’s most visited exhibition ever.  

Paul is a very  experienced speaker and has lectured to many different audiences – from schools and Universities to  literary festivals,  local societies, volunteer groups and U3A.  In particular he is an enthusiastic and popular speaker for The Arts Society (previously NADFAS) and over the last two decades has travelled extensively to over 250 member societies across the country and in Europe.

In 2014 Paul was awarded the prestigious Classical Association Prize in recognition of the contribution of  Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum to the promotion of Classics in the UK.

In May 2022 Paul was appointed Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy) , by  the Italian Ambassador on behalf of the Italian State. Awarded to those who promote cultural ties between their own countries and Italy, the award in this case recognised the celebration of Italian  Archaeology, art and culture in Paul’s excavations, publications and in particular, exhibitions.  In November 2023 Paul was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London