Prof Myles Lavan
Director of Research
Professor
- Phone
- +44 (0)1334 46 2610
- mpl2@st-andrews.ac.uk
- Office
- C22
- Location
- Craigard
Biography
My first degree was a BA in Classics from Trinity College Dublin (1995-9). I then went astray for five years – studying international politics and economics at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service (1999-2001) and working as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co (2001-4) – before eventually seeing the error of my ways. I returned to Classics and completed an MPhil and PhD at Cambridge (2004-8). I was a Research Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (2008-10) and came to St Andrews in September 2010. I am currently the Editor of the Journal of Roman Studies.
Teaching
- My Honours modules include Ancient Empires, The Culture of Roman Imperialism, Roman Slavery and Death in Roman Culture. I also contribute to Honours Latin modules on Latin Letters and Latin Historical Writing.
- I also teach across the team-taught sub-Honours programmes in Ancient History and Latin Literature.
Research areas
My main focus is a new study of the scale of manumission in the Roman world, drawing on quantitative and comparative methods. The work was funded by a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2019-21). A preliminary study is forthcoming in Chiron 2022, showing that we need a new way to interpret data on the prevalence of Greek names, which represent some of the most important evidence for manumission in Roman Italy,
I continue to work on Quantifying Enfranchisement, a project to quantify the spread of Roman citizenship from Augustus to Caracalla. The project centres on a novel, probabilistic approach to uncertainty in historical estimation. The initial phase was supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2014-15). I have published the methodology and the preliminary results in an article in P&P 2016, a more detailed study of the army in JRS 2019 and a case study of the province of Asia in Chiron 2020. I have also collaborated with Clifford Ando on a British Academy/Leverhulme-funded project (2016-18) to investigate the significance of Roman citizenship in the century before Caracalla’s universal of citizenship in 212 CE; the project has produced an edited volume just out from Oxford University Press.
Another ongoing project, Probabilistic approaches to uncertainty in pre-modern history (funded by an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, 2017-2019), has led to an edited volume showcasing the wide range of application of probabilistic approaches in ancient history. Co-edited with Daniel Jew and Bart Danon, The Uncertain Past: Probability in Ancient History is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, hopefully later this year.
I am also working on edited volumes on the Roman discourse of unrest, with Lisa Eberle, and on the history of the term Romanus, with Olivia Elder.
Research interests
- Political, social and cultural history of the Roman empire
- Roman citizenship
- Slavery and manumission
- Ideology and language of empire
- Quantitative methods in ancient history
- Comparative history of ancient empires
Research students
I would be very happy to supervise research projects in any of these areas. I have supervised PhD dissertations on:
- Roman law in Tacitus
- The imperial salutatio
- Modelling the distribution of wealth in the Roman empire
- The significance of civitates in the Roman West
- Images of foreign peoples and place in Roman art
- Writing the lives of Roman emperors
- Roman land division
- Actor Network Theory approaches to Early Roman Iberia
- The Triumviral aristocracy
PhD supervision
- Connor Hickey
- Sarah Prince
- Jana Mauri Marlborough
- Reise Watson
- Kiara De Vore
Selected publications
-
Open access
Greek names and freed status in Roman Italy: why ancient historians can’t ignore statistics
Lavan, M. P., 1 Jan 2023, In: Chiron: Mitteilungen der Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. 52, p. 1-30 30 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
The uncertain past: probability in ancient history
Lavan, M. P., Jew, D. & Danon, B., 1 Dec 2022, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 307 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
-
Roman and local citizenship in the long second century CE
Lavan, M. (Editor) & Ando, C. (Editor), 24 Mar 2022, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 368 p. (Oxford studies in early empires)Research output: Book/Report › Book
-
Open access
The spread of Roman citizenship, 14-212 CE: quantification in the face of high uncertainty
Lavan, M. P., Feb 2016, In: Past & Present. 230, 1, p. 3-46Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Cosmopolitanism and empire: universal rulers, local elites, and cultural integration in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean
Lavan, M. P. (Editor), Payne, R. (Editor) & Weisweiler, J. (Editor), 3 Nov 2016, New York: Oxford University Press. 296 p. (Oxford studies in early empires)Research output: Book/Report › Book
-
Slaves to Rome: Paradigms of Empire in Roman Culture
Lavan, M. P., 2013, Cambridge University Press. (Cambridge Classical Studies)Research output: Book/Report › Book