Raymond Chevallier

Raymond Chevallier (21 June 1929 – 30 November 2004) was a French historian, archaeologist and Latinist. A former member of the École française de Rome, honorary president of the "Société française de Photogrammétrie et télédétection", he was a lecturer at the École pratique des hautes études, then teaching assistant and finally professor of Latin language and literature at the University of Tours. His seminar of historic topography and was attended by numerous French fr: R. Agache, fr, R. Goguey, D. Jalmain, L. Monguilan, etc. He specialized in the study of Roman roads and ancient traces by aerial photography. Born in Bourg-en-Bresse in 1929 to a family of teachers, Raymond Chevallier entered the Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1950. After he passed his agrégation in letters and graduated from the Ecole pratique des hautes études IVth section in 1955, he left for the École française de Rome of which he was a member from 1956 to 1958, and soon became one of the specialists of ancient Northern Italy. On his return to France, he served as an assistant to the Sorbonne, from 1958 to 1962, and then as assistant professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes in 1963. He was then appointed to the Faculty of Letters at Tours, He spent the rest of his academic career there, first as an instructor, then as a professor of universities, for many years running the Institute of Latin Studies at this institution. His indefatigable activity as a researcher led Raymond Chevallier to found and preside the André-Piganiol Research Center and to organize annually numerous symposia. Raymond Chevallier was a resident member of the Société des Antiquaires de France, which he presided over in 1997, and his international reputation earned him the distinction of becoming a correspondent of the Pontifical Academy of Archaeology in 1978 and member of the German Archaeological Institute in 1986. Several decorations over the years testified to the quality of his work.