Research

I have recently finished a history of the imperial elite of the Roman Empire: From Empire to Universal State: Emperors, Senators and Local Élites in Early Imperial and Late-Antique Rome (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, in press). This book examines how the emergence of a strong state in Late Antiquity changed the role senators played in the power structure of the Roman Empire. It also traces the differences between Roman office-holding elite that the hereditary aristocracies of other pre-modern societies.

Another project I am conducting with Myles Lavan (St Andrews) and Bart Danon (Groningen) examines the history of economic inequality in the Roman Empire from a new angle. It explores the extent to which contemporary economic theories can be usefully applied to the largest and longest-lived ancient empire. We are developing a computer simulation to assess the influence of different factors (such as euergetism,  inheritance systems, and mortality rates) on the development of Roman wealth distribution. By doing so, we hope to gain a more nuanced understanding of how ancient property regimes differed from those of capitalist modernity.

Finally, I am interested in comparative history. Together with Myles Lavan and Richard Payne, I have edited a volume on the relationship between local and imperial elites in various ancient empires: Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal Rulers, Local Élites and Cultural Integration in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East (Oxford University Press, New York 2016). I have recently finished editing an anthology on ancient debt that explores the implications of David Graeber's ethnological oeuvre for ancient economic history: Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East: Credit, Money and Social Obligation (Oxford University Press, New York, 2022).