Research
Christopher Kelly is a classicist and historian with a wide range of interests in the ancient world: these include government and power, its use and abuse, the society, religion and culture of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Justinian, the rise of Christianity, and Edward Gibbon and the Grand Tour. He was an editor of the Cambridge Classical Journal from 2000 to 2006; is currently editor of the Journal of Roman Studies; and immediate past President of the Cambridge Philological Society.
Publications
Professor Kelly's books include Ruling the Later Roman Empire (Harvard UP, 2004), The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2006), The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome (Norton, New York, 2009) and four edited volumes: Unclassical Traditions I: Alternatives to the Classical Past in late Antiquity; Unclassical Traditions II: Perspectives from East and West in late Antiquity; Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in late Antiquity; and Keith Hopkins: Sociological Studies in Roman History (Cambridge, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017). Current projects include a monograph, Confronting the Classical: The Making of the Past in late Antiquity.