Ramsay MacMullen (March 3, 1928 – November 28, 2022) was an American historian who was Emeritus Professor of History at Yale University, where he taught from 1967 to his retirement in 1993 as Dunham Professor of History and Classics. His scholarly interests were in the social history of Rome and the replacement of paganism by Christianity.
MacMullen was born in New York City on March 3, 1928. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
When MacMullen was honored for a lifetime of scholarly achievement at the 2001 annual meeting of the American Historical Association with the Award for Scholarly Distinction, the award citation called him "the greatest historian of the Roman Empire alive today."[1] With important new books published in 2006 and 2009 and 2011 and 2014 aged 78 and 81 and 86, he was a powerful voice for scholarly accuracy and lucidity among students of the Roman world.
MacMullen died on November 28, 2022, at the age of 94.[2]