Because of his connection with Rowling, Wiseman attracted brief pop-culture notoriety when media speculated that he was a model for the character of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series of books and movies.
Wiseman" was held at Exeter in March 2000 and was the basis for the book Myth, History, and Culture in Republican Rome: Studies in Honour of T.P.
[10] In a review of Remembering the Roman People (2009), Mary Beard commented on Wiseman's methodology in trying to tease out a view of Roman populist politics from elite-dominated sources: To find what he is looking for, Wiseman must read the sources against the grain, searching out hints of a different view of events, and looking for the cracks in the conservative story through which a glimpse of a popular tradition might be seen.
In doing this, he not only depends on a rare familiarity with Roman literature, from the mainstream to its remotest byways, but also on a capacity for bold historical speculation that takes him right to the edge of (and in some cases beyond) what the surviving evidence can reliably tell us.
Media, including daily newspapers and blogs, have speculated that Wiseman inspired the creation of the character Albus Dumbledore.
The Scotsman published a protracted comparison of the real-life professor and the fictional wizard, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Whether or not this comparison was meant to be tongue-in-cheek (Wiseman debunked the last point by declaring that he has "a rather dry taste; bitter beer, dry white wine"[13]), it has been picked up not only in fan blogs and other websites,[14] but by newspapers such as The Independent[15] and by the BBC.
"[17] Wiseman again demurred at the identification in a letter to the editor: My beard makes no pretensions to splendour – and it was black (Snape's colouring, not Dumbledore's) when JKR was a student at Exeter.