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Honoris Causa

The following was the address by Professor Murray at Graduation Ceremony, 1949, to the Chancellor.

Mr. Chancellor., it is with a deep and humble sense of privilege that I come forward to ask you to confer on Ronald Syme, a scholar of international repute, the highest honour which the Faculty of Arts in this University can bestow.

Ronald Syme was born in this country, and was a student of Victoria University College, who graduated with great distinction in the University of New Zealand. The brilliant promise which he showed in his classical studies has been amply fulfilled by his subsequent career as a student at Oriel College and as a Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford. The many articles which he has published in learned journals on various aspects of the early Roman Empire, show originality, insight, learning and scholarship which have earned him the admiration and respect, of students of Roman History throughout the world, and have brought him the coveted honour of a Fellowship of the British Academy. At the present time the finest fruits of his scholarship are his magnificent chapters in the Cambridge Ancient History on the Frontier Policy of the Early Roman Empire, and his brilliant book "The Roman Revolution," hailed by scholars as a masterpiece, in which with skill and clarity he describes the complicated interplay of character at the time when Rome and her possessions changed from a republic to an empire with a firmly founded Principate. These works have put Ronald Syme in the forefront of those scholars who study the history of ancient Rome, and they arc an achievement which amply justifies the honour which the University of New Zealand has decided to confer upon him. But Ronald Syme has applied his powers of mind with equal distinction in other spheres. During the late war he served his country well in difficult and delicate tasks in South Eastern Europe and the Near East.

It is pleasant to record that strong confirmation of the decision of this University to honour Ronald Syme has recently come from the University of Oxford, which has elected him to its Camden Professorship of Ancient History.

With the one regret, Hr. Chancellor, that Ronald Syme is not here in person to receive the honour, I pray you to honour his native land and the University in which he first began the higher studies, by conferring upon him in absentia, on behalf of the University of New Zealand, the degree of Doctor of Literature Honoris causa.