James Noel Adams CBE FBA (24 September 1943 – 11 October 2021) was an Australian specialist in Latin and Romance Philology.
He later held positions at Christ's College, Cambridge (Rouse Research Fellow in Classics 1970–1972); at the University of Manchester (1972–1995, most recently as professor of Latin); at St John's College, Oxford (visiting senior research fellow 1994–1995); and at the University of Reading (Professor of Latin 1995–1997).
In 2002 he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (Hon FAHA),[3] and in 2007 as a Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE).
His monograph titled The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (1982) became an indispensable standard reference and remained in print for over thirty years.
The third volume of this trilogy won the 2013 PROSE award in Language & Linguistics of the Association of American Publishers, Inc.[9] He also studied ancient veterinary medicine and newly uncovered non-literary Latin texts.