The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at 2 p.m. on Saturday 21 May 2022, in Room G37, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. The President, Professor Tim Cornell, was in the chair and welcomed members and non-members to the AGM, the first held in person since 2019, as the 2020 and 2021 AGMs had been held online due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

The President reported on the Society's activities over the previous year, starting with its publication programme. He thanked the current Editors, Professor Peter Thonemann (JRS) and Professor Will Bowden (Britannia), and the Reviews Editors, Dr Myles Lavan (JRS) and Dr Nick Hodgson (Britannia). He reported on the sad death of the Britannia copy-editor, Gina Coulthard, in February: her meticulous attention to detail, efficiency and good humour are much missed by all who worked with her. The Society has now made new arrangements with CUP for the production of Britannia in the future. The President also reported that since the last AGM, the Society has published Britannia Monograph 34, Bridge over Troubled Water: The Roman Finds from the River Tees at Piercebridge in Context by Hella Eckardt and Philippa Walton. The book won the Current Archaeology Award for best Research Project of the Year, and is already sold out. It is available gratis online with the Archaeology Data Service (ADS): https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/series.xhtml?recordId=280. Britannia Monograph 35, Chedworth Roman Villa, by Simon Esmonde Cleary, Jason Wood and Emma Durham, in conjunction with the National Trust, has also just been published and a book launch would be held following the AGM. The President also noted that two further editions of Epistula had also been published online and emailed to members, and he thanked the Editor, Dr Frances McIntosh.

The President then turned to the programme of events and lectures. Since the last AGM, we have continued with our events programme, with a mix of in-person, hybrid and online talks. The Society has organised site visits to Brading Roman villa on the Isle of Wight and to Colchester; two colloquia: ‘Knowledge and Curiosity at the Court of Nero’, and the ‘City of Rome’; a Zoom lecture with Thorsten Opper who took us behind the scenes at the British Museum exhibition on Nero; a joint event with the Hellenic Society (‘Being an Islander’) and, most recently, the M.V. Taylor Lecture with Ida Östenberg. He reported that in a couple of weeks, on 7 June, there would be a lecture held jointly with the Hellenic Society and Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, by Professor Judith Herrin at Senate House, on Rethinking Late Antiquity as Early Christendom. In March, the Archaeology Committee had again supported the Regional Heritage Centre's Archaeology Forum at Lancaster University. However, the main event was the twice-postponed Roman Archaeology Conference (RAC/TRAC) held in early April in Split. Despite ongoing concerns over the pandemic, the war with Ukraine, and numerous flight cancellations, 240 delegates registered in Split for three days of talks, including two plenary events (one in the cellars of Diocletian's palace), and an additional two days of excursions to neighbouring sites and museums. RAC was also the opportunity to present the prizes to the winners of the BA Roman Archaeology dissertation prizes from 2020 and 2022 (Stevie-Louise Legg and Rachel Rolphe). The President thanked Dr Tino Lelekovic, the organiser in Croatia, for all his efforts over the last four years in ensuring that the conference actually took place and was very successful, despite all the setbacks.

The President also thanked the Chair of the Archaeology Committee, Dr Ursula Rothe, and the Vice-Chair, Dr Alex Smith, for their work on the Roman Archaeology Conference. He also thanked the Schools Committee (its chair, Dr Clare Harvey) and the Roman Studies Committee (its chair, Professor Roland Mayer). The Roman Studies Committee had introduced a new MA dissertation prize this year: this had been won by Siobhan McChane (KCL). The President also thanked everyone who had served on all the Society's Committees and Council, including the retiring members: Dr Siobhan Chomse, Dr Ian Goh, Dr Mairéad McAuley, Dr Donncha O'Rourke and Dr Bobby Xinyue. He also thanked Dr Andrew Burnett, who was stepping down after serving as Vice-President for ten years and President for four.

The President also thanked Professor Mike Trapp (the Hon. Librarian), Ms Joanna Ashe and the team of Librarians, for all their hard work in running the Library during the pandemic, and for now returning to the usual opening hours. The digitisation project funded by the A.G. Leventis Foundation has continued, and we are grateful to the Leventis Foundation for renewing their grant for another two years, until 2024. The fundraising appeal continues and the Society and Library remain grateful to all members who continue to make donations, and people can still easily contribute online via the HARL website: www.hellenicandromanlibrary.org. Members can also make a donation while shopping with Amazon Smile and by using the ‘Give as you Live’ scheme: all the details are available on the HARL website. Meanwhile, the Schools Committee has been very grateful for the grant of £20,000 from the Polonsky Foundation which has enabled them to award more grants to schools than has been possible in the past.

Professor Cornell then invited Dr Kay to introduce the accounts.

Dr Kay began by reading an extract from the report of the Society's independent auditors, Buzzacott LLP, which is contained in the Society's Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2021: ‘In our opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31st December 2021, and of its income and expenditure for the year then ended.’

Dr Kay noted that total income for the year was £452,978 (2020: £427,008), an increase of 6 per cent. Income from the publishing agreements with Cambridge University Press, for JRS and Britannia, was up by 7 per cent at £145,832 (2020: £135,811), while revenue from membership subscriptions showed a 16 per cent increase to £102,023, following an increase in rates. Investment income had largely recovered to pre-pandemic levels as companies in our investment portfolio reinstated dividends that had been cut during 2020.

Total costs for the year were marginally higher at £367,381 (2020: £365,129), the only significant change being an increase in Library costs, from £143,714 in.2020 to £159,184 in.2021, following the ending of 2020's furlough arrangements.

Net income before investment gains and losses was £85,597 (2020: £61,879). Net cash flow from operating activities (and investment income) in 2021 was a positive £36,030 (2020: £47,801). Net gains for the year on units held in the BNY Mellon Newton Growth & Income Fund were £286,175 (2020: net losses of £14,178) and the value of the investment portfolio at the end of the year was £2,083,901. Of this amount, £1,003,674 (2020: £865,773) was in restricted funds and £1,080,227 (2020: £921,953) was unrestricted. The total assets of the Society at 31 December 2021 were £3,239,683 (2020: £2,867,911).

Professor Cornell thanked Dr Kay for all his work as Hon. Treasurer. He asked the members to approve the Report of the Council and Financial Statements for 1 January to 31 December: Dr Tim Leary proposed and Mrs Sally Carter-Esdale seconded the motion. That the Council be authorised to agree the remuneration of the Auditors was proposed by Dr Henriette van der Blom and seconded by Dr John Bradley. That Buzzacott be appointed Auditors of the Society for the period 1 January to 31 December 2022 was proposed by Dr Helen Cockle and seconded by Dr Andrew Burnett.

Dr Penny Goodman proposed and Dr John Bradley seconded the following nominations for Council: as President for 2022–2025: Professor R.K. Gibson; Vice-Presidents for 2022–23: Professor T.J. Cornell, Professor C.H. Edwards, FBA, Professor D.W. Rathbone; as Hon. Treasurer and Hon. Secretary for 2022–23: Dr P.B. Kay, FSA and Professor R.G. Mayer, respectively; and as Council members for 2022–25: Dr Clive Cheesman, Dr Elisabeth O'Connell, Dr Andrew Roberts, Professor Federico Santangelo, Dr Marguerite Spoerri Butcher and Dr Katharine Walker.

All the above Resolutions were passed nem. con.

Dr Kay gave the following vote of thanks to Professor Cornell who was stepping down as President after four years:

This is the last AGM which our President, Tim Cornell, will be chairing and I want to thank him on behalf of the Society for all he has done for us over the last four years, because, most generously, Tim agreed to stay on as President, beyond the normal three-year term, for an extra year.

Tim is the fourth President with whom I have worked since I became Treasurer, and so this is the fourth encomium for a departing President that I have delivered. At the last farewell that I gave to a departing President, to Catharine Edwards, I said I was beginning to feel a bit like Tiresias in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, in that I'd seen it all before. Four years on, I'm now thinking that I am more like Methuselah who supposedly lasted 969 years.

For a President who has held office during a pandemic, Tim has achieved an enormous amount. Apart from anything else, he made sure that all the Society's activities kept going throughout Covid and the various lockdowns, as we moved our events online. But there has been much more.

Apart from chairing Council, Tim has been very supportive of the journals (and their editors) and the Society's committees, and he has regularly attended the Roman Studies Committee, the Investment Committee, and the Schools Committee, where he has been particularly supportive of the school-grants programme. He has also been diligent about attending the Board of the Hellenic and Roman Library and the Library Management Committee. He was closely involved with the setting-up of the Germanicus Postgraduate Scholarship and is now acting as a mentor to the current holder.

In addition to the usual Roman Society evening lectures, Tim has introduced and chaired two M.V. Taylor lectures, in 2020 and 2022, and two conferences at the British Museum: the first on ‘The People of Roman Britain at Home and Abroad’ in November 2018, and the second on ‘Roman Temples in Britain and Gaul’ in November 2019. And, at Senate House, he introduced and compered the day-long conference, ‘Saving Ancient Treasures for the World’, in July 2019, a Book launch event for Peter Wiseman's The House of Augustus in November 2019, and two colloquia on ‘Knowledge and Curiosity at the Court of Nero’ and on the ‘City of Rome’, both in the autumn of 2021

Not to be intimidated by the nightmare that is Zoom, he even chaired an online joint conference with the Association for Roman Archaeology, on ‘New Research on Nero’, in May 2021.

But, even after all this, despite pandemics and invasions by mad potentates, last month he flew east to Croatia to introduce the Roman Archaeology Conference in Split and present the Society's two BA Roman archaeology dissertation prizes.

Oh, and by the way, he also slipped in a paper, on Roman dictators and modern politics at our June 2019 AGM, and he talked about the Past and Future of the Roman Society at the FIEC conference in August 2019.

Super Tim, as he will now be widely known, will give his much-postponed Presidential lecture in November.

So, an amazing record of involvement in the Society's affairs. But, unfortunately, there is one fly in the ointment. I discovered recently that in addition to being a keen follower of the noble art of cricket, he is also a fanatical supporter of Manchester City. For those of you who have been living in a ditch for the last few years, this is a soccer team that could well win the Premiership title tomorrow. Given competing allegiances, that of course has severely upset at least one officer of the Society and, more worryingly, the Society's secretary. To make matters worse, I have just discovered that Roy Gibson, whom you have just voted in as Super Tim's successor, is also a Manchester City supporter. As a certain Roman orator once said, ‘O tempora, o mores!’.

Tim: I am sure I speak for all the officers of the Society, the members of Council and of the various committees in saying how much we have all enjoyed working with you and, on behalf of the Society, thank you very much indeed.

The AGM was followed by a colloquium on Hadrian and a book launch for Britannia Monograph 35.

Colloquium on Hadrian

2.30 Dr Matt Symonds: What did Hadrian's Wall do?

3.00 Mr Richard Abdy: Why was Hadrian such a big spender?

3.45 Tea

4.15 Professor Rhiannon Ash: Hadrian's Energetic Ab Epistulis: Suetonius and Imperial Letters in the De Vita Caesarum

Book Launch

5.00 Book Launch: Britannia Monograph 35 – Chedworth Roman Villa

5.30 Reception