HName:  Ashby, Thomas  

DateBorn:   1874

Placeborn:  Staines, England

Datedied: 1931

Placedied:   London

HDescrip:  Archaeologist and architectural historian of ancient Rome.  Ashby attended Winchester where he already secured the nickname "Titus".  At 16, his family abandoned a brewing concern to move to Rome because his father wished to explore the Campagna.   Through his father, Ashby met the archaeologist Rodolpho Lanciani (1847-1929).  He won a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford University, studying under Sir John L. Myres (1869-1954) and Francis J. Haverfield (1860-1919).  In 1901 Ashby became the first scholar (student) of the British School at Rome (known at the time as the British School of Archaeology, History and Letters of Rome) in the Odescalchi Palace. He published five long articles beginning in 1902 on the topography of classical Rome for the new Papers of the British School. In 1903 he was appointed its assistant director and in 1906, Director.  He received his Ph.D. from Oxford in 1905.  When the British School incorporated in 1912 and moved to the Valle Guilia, he became its first director.  During these years, Ashby set the direction for the School.  During World War I, he was mentioned for meritorious service in the Red Cross. At age 47 he married Caroline May.  Ashby photographed Rome and the Campagna extensively, leaving over 9000 negatives to the School at the time of his death.  He was also an avid collector of prints documenting the city and surroundings throughout history.  He owned the sketches of Carlo Labruzzi (1756-1818) manuscript notes of Diego Revilles (1690-1742) on Tivoli, and drawings by Jakob Philipp Hackert and Richard Wilson.  In all, about 6000 prints and circa 1000 drawings.  He left his directorship at the British School at 51 (1925) to work on a number of publications.  His work on the Roman Campagna and his Architecture of Ancient Rome, both of 1927, are well regarded today.  He completed Samuel Platner's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (1929) and a major work on Roman aqueducts, published posthumously.  In addition, he excavated the Roman settlement of Venta Silurum (today, Caerwent) in Wales. An accidental fall from a train resulted in his untimely death at 57.  His collections were dispersed to several scholarly institutions.  His print collection was sold to the Vatican Library in 1933, his artifacts from the Roman Campagna, including his collection of brick stamps, were donated to the American Academy in Rome.  His personal library remained at the British School.

HCountry:   United Kingdom

HBiography:   Medwid, Linda M.  The Makers of Classical Archaeology:  A Reference Work.  New York:  Humanity Books, 2000 pp.  26-28; Dictionary of National Biography, 1931-40, pp. 19-20; Boyle, Leonard E. "The Collection of Thomas Ashby in the Vatican Library." in,  Views of Rome.  New York, NY:  Harper & Row, 1988, pp. 15-19; Anderson, James C.  “Thomas Ashby.”  Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology.  Nancy Thomson de Grummond, ed.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 1996, p. 93-4.

HBibliography: The Aqueducts of Ancient Rome, edited by I. A. Richmond. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1935; The Roman Campagna in Classical Times.  London: E. Benn, 1927; [completed by Ashby]  Platner, Samuel Ball.  A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press, 1929; [revised edition by Ashby of] Anderson, William J., and Spiers, Richard Phené.  The Architecture of Ancient Rome : an Account of its Historic Development, being the second part of The Architecture of Greece and Rome. London: Batsford, 1927.