Dr. Dominic Rathbone

Biography

Dominic Rathbone specializes in Ancient History with a focus on the Roman world and the early Roman Republic. His research interests encompass the Italic peoples, the Samnites, and the political agrarian history of the middle Republic, particularly examining the relationship between landownership and political power. He studies the unification of Italy during the Social War and the establishment of the Principate under Augustus and Nero. His work also explores the effects of Roman rule in Egypt, utilizing evidence from documentary papyri, economic aspects, population data, farm sizes, management practices, prices, and banking systems. Rathbone emphasizes the integration of archaeological evidence and ancient narrative sources in his research. He contributes to teaching at the BA level, particularly in the history of the Roman Republic and the Principate, and offers a course focused on Augustus. His engagement with public scholarship includes directing surface surveys of Graeco-Roman villages in the Fayyum, Egypt, from 1995 to 1998, and holding positions such as Chairman of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Management Committee for the Egypt Exploration Society and Vice-President of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.

Research Interests