Graham Oliver is an ancient historian. He studies Greek history, in particular epigraphy (the study of inscriptions), Classical and Hellenistic history, and the ancient economy and society of ancient Greece from the Archaic to Roman eras. His interests also extend to the reception of ancient Greek culture: Oliver works on ancient Greece in the long 18th-century, and has published on the relationship between ancient Greece and the commemoration of the war dead in the early 20th century.

Graham Oliver is an ancient historian. He studies Greek history, in particular epigraphy (the study of inscriptions), Classical and Hellenistic history, and the ancient economy and society of ancient Greece from the Archaic to Roman eras. His interests also extend to the reception of ancient Greek culture: Oliver has is working on ancient Greece in the long 18th-century and has published on the relationship between ancient Greece and the commemoration of the war dead in the early 20th century.

Much of his focus has been on the Athenian polis, perhaps one of the most famous the city-states of ancient Greece. His 2007 book War, food, and politics in early Hellenistic Athens (Oxford University Press) deals with the interlocking themes of warfare, food supply, and the political economy, and their impact on the people and running of the Athenian polis in the late fourth and third centuries B.C. Oliver is working now on a broader study that looks at the social and economic history of Athens after the death of Alexander the Great and down the first century B.C. when Athens was sacked by Sulla in 86 BCE.

Underpinning much of Oliver's research is the study of inscriptions.  He is completing an edition of the Athenian state's public decisions that were recorded on stone and set up between the years 321 and 301 BCE. This was a fascinating period when the city of Athens fell under Macedonian influence. An oligarchic Athenian government was later replaced by a democratic system that also saw the city realign itself with new international powers. In these years, after the death of Alexander the Great, the eastern Mediterranean saw the rise of the Successors, and many of them became Kings. Like many other communities, Athens in the late fourth century naturally sought to develop her own contacts with some of these powerbrokers and the epigraphy of the city reflects these efforts. Oliver's edition of these inscribed records will be published in the Inscriptiones Graecae series.

Oliver's interest in inscriptions has extended to monumental culture and memory. His desire to explore these themes has led him to other periods of history, notably the Long 18th century and the more recent past. These interests resulted in his co-edited volume on the commemoration of the war dead. Cultures of commemoration: war memorials ancient and modern (2012) offers a new approach to memory and the commemoration of war that parallels ancient and modern practices and stresses the degrees to which the recent past draws on the worlds of ancient Greek and Roman commemorative practice. Oliver continues to work on the post-antique reception of ancient Greek culture.

• C V Starr Lectureship Fund, 2017, $5000
• Loeb Classical Library Foundation Award, 2016-2017, $31375
• With Adele Scafuro, Arete Foundation, 2016-2018, $198,000
• The University of Liverpool, 'Writing and beyond', interdisciplinary research project, Faculty Grant, 2011-2012, £1620.
• UK Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology, Epigraphy training workshop, 2011, £5000.
• British Academy: Joint application with Professor P. J. Rhodes (University of Durham) and Dr P. Low (University of Manchester) for sponsorship of a conference, 'Cultures of Commemoration: war memorials, ancient and modern', 16-17 July 2004, £5000.
• The University of Liverpool, Research Development Fund, preparation for the major research grant application on Athenian epigraphy, 1998, £1420.
• The University of Liverpool, Research Development Fund, preparation for the major research grant application on Athenian epigraphy, 1997. £300.

'People and cities: economic horizons beyond the Hellenistic polis', in H. Börn and N. Luraghi (eds), The Polis in the Hellenistic World, Stuttgart: Steiner, 2018, 159-17

'The Alexander Romance and Hellenistic political economies', in R. Stoneman, K. Nawotka, and A. Wojciechowska (eds), The Alexander Romance in History and Literature (Ancient Narrative Supplement), Groningen, 2018, 111-128.

‘Reading Inscribed Letters from Roman Macedonia’, Manual/a resource about art and its making, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, 2016.

'Naming the dead, writing the individual: classical traditions and commemorative practices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries', in P. Low, G. J. Oliver, and P. J. Rhodes (eds), Cultures of Commemoration: war memorials, ancient and modern', Oxford, The British Academy/Oxford University Press, 2012, 113-34.

'Démographie des migrations et mobilité dans la Méditerranée grecque à l'époque classique et à la haute époque hellénistique', in L. Capdetrey and J. Zurbach (eds), Mobilités grecques. Migrations, réseaux, contacts en Méditerranée, de l'époque archaïque à l'époque hellénistique (Scripta Antiqua 46), Bordeaux, Ausonius, 2012, 137-56.

'The Agoranomoi at Athens', in L. Capdetrey and C. Hasenohr (eds), Agoranomes et édiles. Institutions des marchés antiques (Scripta Antiqua 44), Bordeaux, Ausonius, 2012, 81-100.

P. Low, G. J. Oliver, and P. J. Rhodes (eds), Cultures of Commemoration: war memorials, ancient and modern, The British Academy/OUP, 2012. ISBN 9780197264669. xiv + 199 pages + 25 figures.

'Before "Lycurgan Athens": the origins of change', in V. Azoulay and P. Ismard (eds), Clisthène et Lycurgue d'Athènes. Autour du politique dans la cité classique, Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, 119-31

'Mobility, society, and economy in the Hellenistic period' in Z. Archibald, J. K. Davies, and V. Gabrielsen (eds). The economies of Hellenistic societies, 3rd – 1st centuries BCE. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011, 345-67.

'Foreign Names, Inter-Marriage and Citizenship in Hellenistic Athens', in R. Catling, F. Marchand, and N. Kanavou (eds), Onomatologos. Studies in Greek Personal Names presented to Elaine Matthews, Oxford, Oxbow Books, 2010, 155-69.

War, food and politics in early Hellenistic Athens, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-928350-7. xxiii + 360 pages

Z. Archibald, J. Davies, V. Gabrielsen and G. J. Oliver (eds), Hellenistic Economies, Routledge, London, 2001. ISBN 0-415-23466-2. xvi + 400 pages + 42 figures + 11 tables.

G. J. Oliver (ed.), The Epigraphy of Death: Studies in the History and Society of Greece and Rome, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-85323-915-0. vi + 225 pages + 36 figures and illustrations.

G. J. Oliver, R. Brock, T. J. Cornell, and S. Hodkinson (eds), The Sea in Antiquity, International Series, British Archaeological Reports S899, Oxford, BAR, 2000. ISBN 1 84171 160 8. ix + 180 pages.

The British School at Athens, Visiting Fellow, 2012
St John's College, The University of Oxford, Visiting Scholarship, 2010
École Normale Supérieure, Paris, Visiting Professor, 2006
Arts and Humanities Research Board-funded Senior Research Fellowship, 1999-2004
The University of Oxford, Craven Fellow, 1992-1993
Lady Margaret Hall, The University of Oxford, Scholarship, 1988-1989
The University of Oxford, Charles Oldham Scholarship award, 1988
The University of Oxford, Oxford University Essay prize, 'New Initiative in Archaeology', 1987

British Epigraphy Society; Association Internationale d'Épigraphie grecque et latine; Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies; Roman Society; American Institute of Archaeology; Greek Epigraphical Society; American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy

Ancient Greek History and culture; Greek language and literature