Biography
I studied Classics at the Scuola Normale Superiore and completed a second MA in Ancient Near East Studies, with a specialisation in Syriac language and literature, at the University of Pisa. After graduating with a PhD in Ancient History from King’s College, Cambridge (2020), I have been a Research Fellow at Peterhouse and a Teaching Associate in Ancient History at the Cambridge Classics Faculty.
Research
My research interrogates the role that culture (especially Neoplatonism) played in facilitating socio-political transition in the later Roman empire. My first monograph, Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power: Constantine, Julian, and the Bishops on Exegesis and Empire (forthcoming with C.U.P.), explores the rise of what I call a fourth-century politics of interpretation through the lens of Emperor Julian and other imperial and episcopal writings.
I am currently curating a co-edited volume on knowledge communication in the Greco-Roman world with Dr Giulia Maltagliati (Cambridge). I am generally interested in everything that relates to the history of the late antique Mediterranean and Near East, but I am especially fascinated by questions of methodology in late antique exegesis, historiography, and legislation; ancient theories of the thinking self and of human (and divine) reason; the cultural interaction between the Greco-Roman world and the ancient Near East; the history of Neoplatonism and its socio-cultural impact; and the reception of late antiquity in modern and contemporary literature.
Publications
Monographs:
Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power: Constantine, Julian, and the Bishops on Exegesis and Empire. Cambridge University Press (forthcoming)
Edited volumes:
(with G. Maltagliati) The rhetoric of the unknown: communicating the limits of knowledge in Greco-Roman antiquity (in progress)
Articles:
‘Synesius of Cyrene, Sophist-Bishop: Rhetoric and Religion in the Greek East at the Turn of the Fifth Century CE’, Rhetorica 39.2 (2021): 209-33.
‘From Epic to Parable. A Syriac reading of the Fall of Troy’, Le Muséon 132.1-2 (2019): 37-64.
‘The ‘House of Hesychius’ and the religious allegiance of Synesius’ family’, Historia 68.3 (2019): 368-85.
‘Julian, Plutarch, and the dangers of self-praise’, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 57.4 (2017): 1058-84.
“’Avrei potuto punirti, ma ho preferito scriverti’: regole della politica e regole della satira tra Contro Nilo e Misopogon’, Athenaeum 105.2 (2017): 601-20.
‘Fare satira a Babilonia: contributi alla contestualizzazione storico-letteraria della pseudoepigrafa Epistola di Geremia’, Koinonia 38 (2014): 249-70.
Chapters:
‘The space of reason. Cosmography and power in the later Roman empire’, in R. Gagné, A. Kachuck (eds.), Cosmography and the classical tradition. Cambridge (forthcoming)
‘From Constantinople to Edessa: Syriac historians and the Justinianic city’ in E. Turquois, M. Ritter (eds.), Imagery and Aesthetics of Cityscapes in Late Antiquity. Leiden – Boston (forthcoming).
‘Julian the Emperor and the reaction against Christianity: a case study of resistance from the top’, in J. Elsner, D. Jolowicz (eds.), Articulating Resistance under the Roman Empire. Cambridge 2023, 219-38.
‘Malalas the Syrian’, in O. Gengler, M. Meier (eds.), Johannes Malalas, der Chronist als Zeithistoriker (Malalas Studien IV). Stuttgart 2022, 25-55.
‘L’inno omerico a Pan e la fondazione della Lega Arcadica: una proposta di contestualizzazione’, in R. Di Donato (ed.), Comincio a cantare. Contributo allo studio degli inni omerici. Pisa 2016, 65-82.
Reviews:
Review of M. Ugenti, Giuliano imperatore. A Salustio. Autoconsolazione per la partenza dell’ottimo Salustio. a Pisa – Roma 2014, in Athenaeum 106.2 (2018): 841-4.
A. Momigliano, Aspects of Hellenistic Judaism. Lectures delivered in London, Cincinnati, Chicago, Oxford, and Princeton (1977-1982), ed. by L. Niccolai and A. Soldani, Pisa 2016. Electronic resource available on the website of the Laboratorio di Antropologia del Mondo Antico of the University of Pisa (lama.fileli.unipi.it) at the following link:
http://lama.fileli.unipi.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Momigliano_Aspects-of-Hellenistic-Judaism.pdf
Teaching and Supervisions
During the academic year 2022-23 I will be lecturing on Part II, paper C4/7 (‘The transformation of the Roman World, AD 284-476’, Classics/History) and History Part II special paper A (Thucydides). I will also be co-director of Part II, Paper X3 (‘Christianity, Hellenism, and Empire’, Classics/Divinity). The dissertations and coursework I supervised so far focused on the imperial self-image, Christianity and Neoplatonism between the second and fourth century CE, and late Roman history, but I welcome all topics related to my research interests.
