John Bodel

John Bodel is the W. Duncan MacMillan II Professor of Classics and Professor of History at Brown University, where he has been on the faculty since 2003. In the History department, he focuses on ancient history as a classicist and ancient historian specializing in the epigraphy, religion, and literature of the Roman Empire. His research encompasses ancient Roman social, economic, and cultural history, Latin literature of the imperial period, Roman religion, slavery, funerals and burial customs, ancient writing systems, and the editing of Latin epigraphic and literary texts. Prior to Brown, Bodel served as Professor of Classics at Rutgers University (1997–2002) and Associate Professor there (1993–1997), as well as Associate Professor of Classics at Harvard University (1989–1992) and Assistant Professor (1984–1989). He also held a Visiting Assistant Professorship in Classics at Brown (1992–1993). Bodel received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1984 with a dissertation on Freedmen in the Satyricon of Petronius directed by John H. D’Arms, an M.A. from Michigan in 1979, and a B.A. from Princeton University in 1978.

Since 1995, Bodel has directed the U.S. Epigraphy Project, overseeing the development of an XML-based search engine, photographic archive, and database of over 3,500 ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions in the United States, while collaborating on EpiDoc guidelines for digital epigraphy. He serves as Co-Director and Concentration Advisor of Brown’s Program in Early Cultures. His publications include authored monographs Roman Brick Stamps in the Kelsey Museum (University of Michigan Press, 1983) and Graveyards and Groves: A Study of the Lex Lucerina (1994), as well as edited volumes such as Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History from Inscriptions (Routledge, 2001), Household and Family Religion in Antiquity: Contextual and Comparative Perspectives with Saul Olyan (Blackwell, 2008), Highways, Byways, and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World with Susan E. Alcock and Richard J. Talbert (2012), Ancient Documents and their Contexts (Brill, 2015), On Human Bondage: After Slavery and Social Death with Walter Scheidel (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017), and The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs: Cryptic Writing and Meaningful Marks with Stephen Houston (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Key articles feature “Dealing with the Dead: Undertakers, Executioners, and Potter’s Fields in Ancient Rome” (2000), “Slave Labour and Roman Society” (2011), and “Latin Epigraphy and the IT Revolution” (2012). Bodel’s honors comprise Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (1983), National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship (1993), Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Ancient Studies at the American Academy in Rome (2006), Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship (2010), and ACLS Fellowship for The Ancient Roman Funeral (2015).

Professional Email: john_bodel@brown.edu