Dr Timothy Smith

My research focuses on three aspects of the ancient world: popular participation in politics in Rome; how popular processes were used and abused by authoritarian regimes; and the consequences of war and violence. I am working on two books: the first on the aedileship in Rome; the second on survivors of war in the Roman world. I also have a few side projects on literary translation: I have published on Dante and Seamus Heaney’s reception of Italian poetry, and I am working on translating an extensive collection of selected poems by the Italian poet Claudio Pasi.

Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Roman Historiography, Elections

I teach all topics on Roman history and on Cicero.

Full Publications: Dr Tim Smith Publications 2025

Selected Publications:

Smith, T. (2025) ‘Reluctant Candidates and Spontaneous Elections in Republican Rome’, Classical Antiquity 44.2, 315–51.

Smith, T. (2024) ‘Sulla and Electoral Authoritarianism’, Phoenix 78.3–4, 87–114.

Smith, T. (2024) ‘Authoritarian elections in imperial Rome’, Omnibus 88, 1–3.

Smith, T. (2024) ‘Where’s Vestorius? Locating Rome’s Aediles’, in A. López García (ed.) Running the Empire: The Places of Roman Governance (London), 99–119.

Smith, T. (2023) ‘State Terrorism in the Late Roman Republic’, in G. Wrightson (ed.) Terrorism through the Ages (Leiden and Boston), 72–83.

Smith, T. (2021) ‘Elections in the Time of Cinna’, Historia 70.1, 29–54.