Margaret Hallo Beattie: a Tribute

​Margaret Hallo Beattie (16 December 1942 to 13 April 2021) taught Greek and Roman History and Latin at Macquarie University from 1973 until 1992, during which time she was a long-term editor of the journal Ancient Society: Resources for Teachers (from 1974 to 1987). Her speciality was the Late Roman Republic and her particular passion was the Gracchan era. Her admiring students presented her with a badge proclaiming “I’m biased to Gaius: Long live the Gracchi” (and branded “SPQR Products” on the reverse).

She was born Margaret Olive Hallo in Monto in country Queensland, and began her education at a two-room primary school, before going up to Warwick’s PGC on the banks of the Condamine, coming to the attention there of one of the co-principals, the celebrated poet, literary critic and activist, Dorothy Green, who spotted Margaret’s talent and nurtured her interests in music and the classics.
Her daughter records that “‘Halo’, as Mum was known, was mischievous, subversive, had people in stitches of laughter and was often in trouble; she was frequently sent to the headmistress’s office, where Dorothy would look up and say ‘oh it’s you again’, before showing Mum some book or music, and telling her to look suitably chastened when she returned to the classroom.” (Green had come to this position already with an established record as a journalist and literary critic from the ABC, and went on to become the first female lecturer at Monash University, subsequently teaching at the ANU and gaining an even wider public profile in the Nuclear Disarmament movement.) One of her fellow students and friends there was Bev(erley) Kingston, who would become a prominent feminist historian of Australian Women’s History.

Margaret became the school pianist, and her love of Latin and the classics dated from the same period. She also showed a flair for dramatics (which she never lost). She performed on the Warwick stage in J.M. Barrie’s Quality Street, about two sisters who start a school ‘for genteel children’, and — at the age of seventeen — as Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. The local Warwick press gushed (April, 1960):
 
“Margaret Hallo, star of last year’s performance of ‘Quality Street’, gave an almost professional touch to her interpretation. She possesses an uncanny insight into character, to an extent rare among schoolgirls, an unfaltering stage sense and a zest and vitality which communicate themselves irresistibly to the audience.”
 
Margaret then attended the University of Queensland, taking out First Class Honours in Classics, in the School (as it was then) of Latin Language and Literature, in 1964 (awarded 1965). During her studies in St Lucia she was particularly influenced by the young Beryl Wilkinson, who would soon, as Beryl Rawson, become Australia’s first female Professor in the field of Classics and Ancient History in Canberra. Margaret followed Beryl to the ANU, completing her Masters degree there in 1966. Presumably under Beryl’s influence, she then took up postgraduate studies in the United States (at the University of Illinois), where her broader cultural interests flourished. Here she met her husband-to-be, James, a passionate scientist (a celebrated chemist), swimmer, opera and art lover, and unionist, whom she married in 1968. They were to enjoy 53 years of happy wedlock, until they passed within weeks of each other.

The couple returned to Australia in 1972, and Margaret took up her post at Macquarie in the following year. There, as mentioned above, she taught a wide range of courses in Ancient History, Latin and other related fields, and influenced generations of students. Her forte was, of course, the late Roman Republic, which became her signature course, taken over from the founding father of Ancient History at Macquarie, Professor Edwin Judge, whom she was ever ready to challenge. Their in-class debates, which he relished, shocked the students. Her intensive research also continued. She handed over to the present author boxes of notes, and valuably annotated photocopies. Old tapes of her lectures remain entertaining (not least for the odd acerbic comment), and edifying, as her theatrical flair also never deserted her.
 
The words for Margaret are style, elegance and vivacity. She was quick-witted, and she was an exacting critic. She had strong views about style and standards — but she could tolerate scruffy people like the present author. She held herself to the same high standards she expected of others — and, as a perfectionist, she never completed her doctoral dissertation. Yet she made a deep impression about all those with whom she came into contact, both nationally and internationally. 
 
Chronic illness sadly forced her to undertake teaching on a part-time basis for a number of years —until, in 1992, because of the persistence of that condition, she had to retire — prematurely — from teaching altogether. This was tragic in a number of ways. It deprived her of doing something that she dearly loved; it deprived students of a gifted and inspiring teacher; and it deprived her colleagues of a running mate whom they deeply admired and respected. From her students, on the news of her passing, and with a number holding academic positions in both Australia and the States, there came a flood of sadness mixed with joyous memory, anecdotal chuckles, and a certain awe. Phrases like "a phenomenal lecturer, and a delightful and charismatic person" recurred over and over — as well as "exuberant, funny and just damn smart."
 
She was also a loving mother, who took an inspiring pride in her children, the twins Andrew and Kate, one of them now a senior academic in German and European Studies, and the other a barrister specialising, inter alia, in human rights law.
 
Few who engaged with Margaret will ever forget her acumen and the forthright manner of its expression, her wit and her perceptiveness, her strong moral compass, and her sense of social justice. She was one of a kind.

A tribute by Macquarie honorary associate professor Dr Tom Hillard