Dr Brown's main research areas include the interpretation and contexts of Archaic Greek poetry, especially Homeric epic; the beginnings of Greek historiography and philosophy; Greece and Rome from the perspectives of comparative Indo-European language and culture; the socio-economic history of Archaic and Classical Greece, especially Archaic tyranny; Marxist, Critical Theory and sociological approaches to the Ancient World; “Big History”, with a focus on the ‘transition from Antiquity to Feudalism, 300-800 AD’.

Dr Brown has taught Greek and Roman history from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, in addition to Classical Greek at all levels. His theoretical introduction to ancient and modern historiography, which he has run since 2005, is a particular favourite.

Ben has supervised many Honours and Masters theses, with a special interest in those on Greek culture and history, and/or theses with a theoretical focus.

Dr Brown is currently working in four areas. The main project is a monograph on ‘Figures of Autonomy’ in Ancient Greece, studying forms and spaces of alienation in early Greek literature and history; the second is a general survey of land-tenure systems in the Graeco-Roman world, with a view to building typologies of surplus extraction from Solon to the late Empire; the third is a commentary on Book 23 of the Iliad; the last is a prolegomenon to a commentary on the fragments of Hekataios of Mlletus.