Ph.D., Ancient History, University of Pennsylvania, 2001
B.A., History, University of California, Berkeley, 1993
My research focuses on the history of the Roman empire, especially in the first three centuries AD. My first book, Imperial Ideals in the Roman West, examined the figure of the Roman emperor as a unifying symbol for the western empire, and argued that the widespread circulation and replication of a particular set of imperial ideals, and the particular form of ideological unification that this brought about, not only reinforced the power of the Roman imperial state, but also increased the authority of local aristocrats throughout the western provinces, thereby facilitating a general convergence of social power that defined the high Roman empire.
I have also written on and maintain interests in the material and visual culture of the Roman empire; the topography and urban history of the city of Rome; textual production and aristocratic self-representation in the early empire; political thought in the Roman world; and comparative empires.
Current projects include An Atlas of Urbanization in the Roman Empire, a collaborative project that aims to produce a series of maps on urbanism, urban networks, and urban connectivity in the Roman world, and a short book for Princeton University Press on the Roman empire as a particular configuration of power (Anatomy of the Roman Empire: An Interpretive Introduction). I am also in the early stages of a larger project exploring the relationship between ecology, state power, culture, and social order in the Roman empire.
Imperial Ideals in the Roman West: Representation, Circulation, Power (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
The Emperor and Rome: Space, Representation, and Ritual. Yale Classical Studies vol. 35, co-ed. B. Ewald (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
“Locating the Ustrinum of Augustus,” forthcoming in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome (2013).
"The Sociospatial Embeddedness of Roman Law," review article on F. de Angelis (ed.), Spaces of Justice in the Roman World (Leiden: Brill, 2010), forthcoming in Journal of Roman Archaeology 26 (2013).
“Urban Systems in the Han and Roman Empires: State Power and Social Control,” forthcoming in W. Scheidel (ed.), State Power in the Han and Roman Empires (Oxford University Press, 2013).
"Western Han Chang'an and Early Imperial Rome: Structural Parallels and the Logics of Urban Form," forthcoming in M. Nylan and G. Vankeerberghen (eds.), Chang'an 26 BCE: From Drains to Dreams (University of Washington Press, 2013).
"Self-fashioning in the Panegyricus," in P. Roche (ed.), Pliny's Praise: The Panegyricus in the Roman World (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 29-44.
"Coins and Communication," in M. Peachin (ed.),The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World (Oxford University Press, 2011), 248-68.
"Introduction," with B. Ewald, in B. Ewald and C. Noreña (eds.), The Emperor and Rome: Space, Representation, and Ritual. Yale Classical Studies vol. 35 (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 1-43.
"The Early Imperial Monarchy," in A. Barchiesi and W. Scheidel (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Studies (Oxford University Press, 2010), 533-46.
"The Ethics of Autocracy in the Roman World," in R. Balot (ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought (Blackwell, 2009), 266-79.
"Hadrian's Chastity," Phoenix 61.3-4 (2007), 296-317.
"The Social Economy of Pliny's Correspondence with Trajan," American Journal of Philology 128.2 (2007), 239-77.
"Water Distribution and the Residential Topography of Augustan Rome," in L. Haselberger and J. Humphrey (eds.), Imaging Ancient Rome: Documentation-Visualization-Imagination, Journal of Roman Archaeology supplement 61 (Portsmouth, RI, 2006), 91-105.
"Medium and Message in Vespasian's Templum Pacis," Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 48 (2003), 25-43.
"The Communication of the Emperor's Virtues,"Journal of Roman Studies 91 (2001), 146-68.
E. Mayer, The Ancient Middle Classes: Urban Life and Aesthetics in the Roman Empire, 100 BCE-250 CE (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), forthcoming in American Historical Review (2013).
S. Benoist (ed.), Rome, a City and its Empire in Perspective: The Impact of the Roman World through Fergus Millar's Research (Leiden: Brill, 2012), forthcoming in sehepunkte (2013).
L. de Arrizabalaga y Prado, The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction? (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Classical Review 62.1 (2012), 275-77.
Z. Várhelhyi, The Religion of Senators in the Roman Empire: Power and the Beyond (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011.04.40.
P. Rehak, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), Journal of Roman Studies 98 (2008), 257-58.
C. Maier, Among Empires: American Ascendancy and its Predecessors (Harvard University Press, 2006), Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 8:2 (2007).
G. Sumi,Ceremony and Power: Performing Politics in Rome between Republic and Empire (University of Michigan Press, 2005), Classical Review 57.1 (2007), 178-79.
O. Hekster and R. Fowler (eds.), Imaginary Kings: Royal Images in the Ancient Near East, Greece and Rome. Oriens et Occidens 11 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2005), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.07.06.
G. Woolf (ed.), Cambridge Illustrated History of the Roman World (Cambridge University Press, 2003), Classical Review 55 (2005), 614-15.
J. B. Lott, The Neighborhoods of Augustan Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2004), Classical Bulletin 81 (2005), 85-86.
A. S. Hobley, An Examination of Roman Bronze Coin Distribution in the Western Empire A.D. 81-192. BAR International Series 688 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 1998), American Journal of Numismatics 11 (1999), 160-64.
P. Southern, Augustus (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1999.05.16.
"Augustan Ideology, " forthcoming in R. Thomas and J. Ziolkowski (eds.), The Virgil Encyclopedia (Oxford: Blackwell).
"Elagabalus;" "Propaganda: Roman;" and "Septimius Severus, " for M. Gagarin (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, 2010).
Catalogue and map entries in L. Haselberger (ed.), Mapping Augustan Rome. Journal of Roman Archaeology supplement 50 (Portsmouth, RI, 2002): Anio Vetus; Aqua Alsietina; Aqua Appia; Aqua Iulia; Aqua Marcia; Aqua Tepula; Aqua Virgo; Aqueducts, Water Supply and Population Density; "Arcus Augusti"; Atria Licinia; Basilica Iulia; Basilica Paulli; Castor, Aedes (Forum); Cloaca Maxima; Cloacina, Sacrum; Concordia Augusta, Aedes; Corneta; Curia Iulia; Divus Iulius, Aedes; "Felicitas"(Forum); Fornix Fabianus; Forum/Forum Romanum; Horrea Agrippiana; Ianus Quirinus, Sacellum; Lacus Curtius; Lacus Iuturnae; Miliarium Aureum; Porticus Gai et Luci; Puteal Libonis/Scribonianum; Regia; Regiones Quattuordecim; Rostra: Augustus; Saturnus, Aedes; Saturnus, Ara; Spes Vetus; Vesta, Aedes.
| Semester | Course | Title | Syllabus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2013 | 280A/285A.001 | The City of Rome: Topography and Urban History | |
| Fall 2013 | 4A | The Ancient Mediterranean World. | |
| Spring 2013 | 106B | The Roman Empire |
 106BS13 syllabus.docx |
| Fall 2012 | 4A | The Ancient Mediterranean World | |
| Fall 2012 | 300 | Teaching History at the University |
