Prominent professor and Hellenist Roderick Beaton took the oath to become a Greek citizen at a ceremony held at the Bank of Greece on Tuesday.
Beaton, who joined the faculty at King’s College London in 1981, became Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature in 1988. He retired from the college in 2018 after also having served as head of the college’s Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies and director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies.
He is a fellow of the British Academy and of King’s College, and was recognized by the Greek state with the Commander of the Order of Honor of the Hellenic Republic (2019). He is a fluent speaker and writer of Greek and has often been interviewed and commented in Greek media. He also has numerous publications, including “The Greeks: A Global History,” which has been recently published in Greek translation.
The request for honorary citizenship had been submitted to the government by Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras.
“Professor Beaton firmly believes that the long history of Greece does not relate to Greeks alone, but to the entire world as well,” said Stournaras, noting that Beaton claims that Greek is one of three languages globally that show a continuity in written form for over 3,000 years – the others being the Chinese and Hebrew.
Beaton is already a Greek, “and this honorary citizenship is simply the official recognition of a lifetime’s relationship with Greek letters and the Greek culture,” Stournaras said.
Source: ekathimerini