Harold Mattingly obituary

My father, Harold Mattingly, who has died aged 92, was a colourful and controversial scholar of ancient history.

His major scholarly contributions in the field centred on long-running controversies in which the recurrent pattern was that he adopted a minority view against the prevailing orthodoxy and courageously maintained his position across decades in the face of sustained (and sometimes dismissive) criticism from senior academics. Unfortunately for his opponents, he had an annoying habit of being right.