Confabulating with Prof. Clifford Ando

Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1996
Research Interests: Roman history; Roman religion; legal history; contemporary social theory; the history of political thought; metaphor and cognition

Clifford Ando’s research focuses on the histories of religion, law and government in the ancient world. His first book centered on the history of political culture in the provinces of the Roman empire, and he continues to write and advise on topics related to the provincial administration, the relationship between imperial power and local cultural change, and the form and structure of ancient empires. He has also written extensively on ancient religion. Significant themes were the connection of religion to empire and imperial government, especially in relation to pluralism and tolerance; and problems of representation in the use of objects in ritual. His current projects include a study of Latin as a language of the law and a study of legal theory in contexts of weak state power.

He is also general editor of Roman Statutes: Renewing Roman Law, a collaborative project that will produce a new edition, translation and commentary on all epigraphically-preserved Roman laws. The project is supported by grants from the The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Neubauer Collegium, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Recent Publications

"Local citizenship and civic participation in the Western provinces of the Roman Empire." In Cédric Brélaz and H.G.E. Rose, eds., Civic Identity and Civic Partipation in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. 39-63.
"Performing justice in republican empire." In Katell Berthelot, Natalie B. Dohrmann, and Capucine Nemo-Pekelman, eds., Legal Engagement: The Reception of Roman Law and Tribunals by Jews and Other Inhabitants of the Empire (Rome: École française de Rome, 2021), 69-85
"The ambitions of government: sovereignty and control in the ancient countryside." In Harriet I. Flower, ed., Empire and Religion in the Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 71-93
Editor, with Myles Lavan, Roman and Local Citizenship in the Long Second Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021
"Religious affiliation and political belonging from Cicero to Theodosius." Acta Classica 64 (2021) 9-28
Editor, with Marco Formisano, The New Late Antiquity: Intellectual Profiles. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2021
"The children of Cain." In Rubina Raja, Jörg Rüpke, Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli, and Asuman Lätzer-Lasar, eds., Urban Religion in Late Antiquity (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020), 51-67
"Disbelief and cognate concepts in Roman antiquity." Babett Edelmann-Singer, Tobias Nicklas, Janet Spittler, and Luigi Walt, eds. Sceptic and Believer in Ancient Mediterranean Religions. Wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020. 1-19
Editor, with William P. Sullivan, The Discovery of the Fact. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020.
"Hannibal's Legacy. Sovereignty and territoriality in republican Rome." In K.-J. Hölkeskamp, Sema Karataş, and R. Roth, eds. Empire, Hegemony or Anarchy? Rome and Italy, 201-31 BC. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2019. 55-81