Full Professor in Roman History, Dept. of History and Culture, University of Bologna, Via Zamboni 38, 40135, Bologna
Education: B.A. in Litterae Humaniores (1990); PhD in Roman History (1994), University of Rome «La Sapienza».
Academic Positions: 1996-98: PostDoc at the Dept. of Historical, Archaeological, Anthropological Studies of Antiquity of the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy of the University of Rome «La Sapienza»; 1999: PostDoc at the University of Bologna on the subject: Local cultures and transformation of political structures in the region from the Red Sea to Iran in Late Antiquity; 2001: Associate Professor in Roman history at the Univesity of Bologna; 2012: suitable for full Professor; 2018: Full Professor in Roman History.
Awards: Senior Saxl Fellow at the Warburg Institute (London University), September 2009; Clare Hall-Bologna Fellow (Cambridge UK), May-September 2010.
Research subjects:
1. The study of the oriental provinces of the Roman empire until the Late Antiquity, with a wide perspective (administrative and military history, religion, economy, societies etc.), with special attention to the administrative structures and military units in the provinces Osrhoene, Mesopotamia, Syria (Coele and Phoenice), Arabia.
2. Late antique historiography, with focus on the Historia-Augusta-Forschung.
3. History and historical geography of the eastern Mediterranean world, and of the Near and Middle East, reaching to the Upper Satrapies of the Seleucid kingdom from the Hellenistic era until the Julio-Claudian age. Strabo, Isidorus of Charax, and Plinius the Elder are the core subjects.
4. Roman religion, as far as the concept of ‘Oriental’ cults is concerned. Particular attention has been paid to the mysteric cult of Mithras and Imperial cult in Rome and in the West.
5. Economic and administrative conditions of the Regio VIII.
6. Roman fleet, during the Republic and the Principate, with focus on the Punic wars and the praetorian fleet of Ravenna.
He authored 5 monographs, edited 5 books, and wrote more than 70 articles, many encyclopaedic entries and book reviews (March 2021).
Keywords: Roman Near East; Late Antiquity; Roman Warfare; Latin and Greek Epigraphy; Papyrology; Roman Religion; Mithras; Palmyra; Syria; Ravenna; Historia Augusta; Imperial Cult.
