Dr. Michael B. Simmons was born in Raleigh, N.C. He specializes in Church History and Patristics, with a focus upon ancient languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, etc.).  In addition to teaching history courses, he also offers Hellenistic Greek, Classical Hebrew, and intermediate readings in Latin. In 2003 he was honored as one of AUM’s Distinguished Research Professors. He published Arnobius of Sicca (Oxford) in 1995, and he is finishing a second book on Porphyry of Tyre. He has read papers at the the American Academy of Religion, North American Patristics Society, and the International Patristics Conference, University of Oxford. He has published articles in such journals as the Harvard Theological Review, Classica et Mediaevalia, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, and Studia Patristica; and his Arnobius of Sicca will appear in the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (forthcoming). In 2012 he received a scholarship from AUM’s School of Liberal Arts to attend and read two papers in Spanish at the Primer Congreso Internacional de Estudios Patrísticos, San Juan, Argentina. When he is not teaching or doing research, Dr. Simmons enjoys cooking, playing his Fender Stratocaster, and spending time with his beloved wife, Maria Antonieta.