History

My broad area of interest is Roman history, especially of the Republican period from the foundation of Rome to the principate of Augustus, with a particular emphasis on the study of politics and political concepts.

My work focusses on two intertwined lines of investigation: the study of Roman oratory and rhetorical techniques and the analysis of Roman political thought and its relation with the practice of politics. I am currently working on the notion of popular sovereignty (as part of an AHRC funded project, directed by R Bourke and Q Skinner) and am a member of the Academic Board of the ERC funded project to establish a new edition of 'Fragmentary Orators of the Roman Republic' (directed by C Steel). I also worked at the British Museum, Department of Coins and Medals, with whom I maintain close links. I am a member of the Editorial Board of Tulliana.

I teach a survey course,  on the Roman Republic, where political ideas are a central concern  and ‘Roman democracy: myth or reality’?, a more specialist course on the nature of the Roman political system as also interpreted by contemporaries and later thinkers. I also teach a MA field of study entitled ‘Propaganda and Ideology in Rome’, where Roman political values are studied within their Hellenistic context. I also teach on the intercollegiate MA in the History of Political Thought and Intellectual History. I supervise doctoral research students working on a different range of topics in Roman history, such as institutions in Republican Italy, political culture, historiography and political thought. 

Research Supervision: I can offer advice and direction on dissertation and research topics in most areas of the history of the Roman Republic, as well as in the broader area of the history of ancient political thought. I will consider Roman topics for PhD supervision or co-supervision, and would particularly welcome prospective students in the following areas: religious, political and cultural history; research on classical Rhetoric; history of ideas and history of political thought; Cicero.

Theses Currently Supervised:

-Expulsion from the senate of the Roman Republic

-The Morality of Killing in Rome

-Sallust

-Seneca and Libertas