Margaret Roxan was a British archaeologist and expert on Roman military diplomas. Her major contribution to the discipline was three edited collections of newly-found diplomas that acquired a scholarly authority and place as the direct successor of Theodor Mommsen and Herbert Nesselhauf. She also edited the diplomas for publication in The Roman Inscriptions of Britain.
Education and career
Although her first degree was awarded in Psychology from University College London in 1948, in 1960 she started a university extension course in archaeology. She earned a diploma with distinction from the Institute of Archaeology in 1967, and she gained her PhD some six years later. Her thesis topic was on the auxiliary regiments of the Iberian peninsula. After being awarded her doctorate she lectured at the London University extramural department and the Inner London Education Authority. She undertook her research for over thirty years with minimal help in kind from a number of institutions, including an Honorary Research Fellowship at the Institute of Archaeology and then at the Institute of Classical Studies in Senate House. Much of her work took place in a tiny room she was granted on the fourth floor of the Institute of Archaeology. Through her numerous publications she made sure the discovery of new military diplomas were made promptly available, travelling widely within Europe to do so, and making her expertise available in connection with the diplomas emerging from eastern Europe. Through her publications she illuminated the potential for Roman military diplomas as a source material and the significance of the information that could be gleaned from their study. For example, one diploma, issued to a soldier in the army of Britain on 23 March 178, was found in Bulgaria. It was shown to Margaret in the 1990s, and she showed it was possible to clarify—and challenge—part of the account of the suppression of an invasion of Britain given by the Graeco-Roman historian Cassius Dio. Her work was noted for its care, skill and rigor.
Margaret Roxan was born on 21 January 1924 in Hackney, London. In 1945, she married David Roxan, a journalist, with whom she had five children, and remained married to him until his death in 1999. She died on 26 June 2003.
Selected publications
1977 The witnesses to Roman military diplomata ', Arheoloski Vestnik 28, 299-333.
1978 Roman military diplomas 1954-77, Institute of Archaeology Occasional Publication No. 2.
1983 Mann, J. C., Legionary recruitment and veteran settlement during the Principáte, edited for publication by M. M. Roxan, Institute of Archaeology Occasional Publication No. 7.
1990 The military diplomata', R. G. Collingwood and R. P. Wright, The Roman inscriptions of Britain, Vol. II, fase. 1, ed. S. S. Frere, M. Roxan and R. S. O. Tomlin.
1991 'Women on the frontiers', Roman Frontier Studies 1989. Proceedings of the XVth international Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, ed. V. A. Maxfield and M. J. Dobson, 462-67
1994 Roman military diplomas 1985-93, Institute of Archaeology Occasional Publication No. 14.
1995 'The hierarchy of the auxilia. Promotion prospects in the auxilia and work done in the last twenty years', La Hiérarchie de l'armée romaine sous le Haut-Empire. Actes du Congrès de Lyon, rassemblés et édités par Y. Le Bohec 139-46
1997 'Settlement of veterans of the auxilia - a preliminary study', Roman Frontier Proceedings of the XVIth International Congress of Roman Frontier W. Groenman-van Waateringe, B. L. van Beek, W. J. H. Willems, and S. L. Wynia 483-91
2000 'Veteran settlement of the auxilia in Germania', Kaiser, Heer und Gesellschaft in der Römischen Kaiserzeit : Gedankschrfit für Eric Birley, Hrsg. G. Alföldy, B. Dobson, W. Eck 307-26.
2002 'Vespasianus Velageno', Limes XVIII: Proceedings of the XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in Amman, Jordan, ed. P. Freeman, J. Bennett, Z. T. Fiema and B. Hoffmann, BAR International Series 1084 2v. 945-48.
