Dr Consuelo Martino (BA, MA, PhD)

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow; Roman History & Latin Literature

Contact details

Address

Street

William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School

City
Post code

Availability

  • Term 2

    Weeks 1-5: online only via appointment (email me to arrange one)
    Weeks 6-10: Mondays and Thursdays 2-3 pm Room:1.26 - NB: on 13/03 and 20/03 meetings will be in Room 02M.24
    Week 11 (starting 31/03): online only via appointment (email me to arrange one)

Biography

Background

I joined the School of History, Classics and Archaeology as Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in May 2023 after holding positions at the University of Durham (2022-23) and the University of Warwick (2021-22). I completed both my BA and MA in Italy at the University of Padova, where I specialised in Roman History and Latin Literature. I received my Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews in 2021 with a thesis that explored how key figures and events of the Late Roman Republic have informed Suetonius’ narrative of the Julio-Claudian emperors in the Lives of the Caesars. I am currently finalising my first monograph "Becoming Caesar. Suetonius and the Politics of Memory in the Roman Empire". See further details about my research publications below.

I am Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Member of the Social History Society

Undergraduate teaching

War, Trauma and Survival: from Antiquity to the Present (ANHI10103; 2023-2024)

The Rise and Fall of a Star: Julius Caesar in Politics and War (ANHI10107; 2024-2025)

Latin 1D (2024-2025), Julius Caesar "Bellum Gallium 7"

Research summary

Themes: 

  • Ancient Civilisations
  • Comparative & Global History
  • Imperialism
  • Material Culture
  • Politics
  • Society
  • War

Periods: 

  • Antiquity
  • Twentieth Century & After

Research interests

I am a cultural historian of the Roman empire, specialising in historiography and biography. At the core of my research is the representation of Roman and non-Roman leadership in Roman cultural memory and the development of literary and non-literary narratives of war and trauma. I work with literary texts as well as material culture, such as coinage, statuary and inscriptions, resulting in my methodology to be very interdisciplinary.

My main research focuses are:

- Cultural History of Autocracy 

- Cultural History of Civil War and War-related Trauma

- Political Discourse in the Age of Trajan 

- Roman Historiography and Biography (Livy, Tacitus, Suetonius)

- Authoritarian use of the Roman past (in texts and material culture)

 

 

 

Current research activities

PI on Leverhulme ECF Project "Civil War and Cultural Trauma: Rethinking the Beginning of the Roman Empire"

Research projects

Research Fellow on the project “Autocracy: Leadership Ancient and Modern”, working with Principal Investigator Dr Emma Buckley (University of St Andrews, 2021)

Knowledge exchange

PI of the project "ConTra:  Confronting Trauma: A Journey of War, Survival and Artistic Response from Antiquity to the Present."  

Current project grants

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2023-2026)

Organiser

16th Celtic Conference in Classics (15-18 July 2025, Coimbra) – Panel “Unveiling the Optimus Princeps: new trends and approaches in discussing the age of Trajan” – Co-organiser (with Dr Panayiotis Christoforou, Oxford) and speaker

 Classical Association Conference 2024 – Co-organiser (with Dr Elaine Sanderson, Liverpool) and speaker of the Panels “Looking Beyond the ‘Other’: Narratives of War and Violence in North Africa and Egypt” and “The Production and Manipulation of Memory: (Re)Writing the Republican Civil Wars”

                         

Papers delivered

(** Invited speaker)

  • “Who’s the Greatest of Them All? Memory of Leadership in the Trajanic political discourse”, 16th CCC (Coimbra). Panel “Unveiling the Optimus Princeps: new trends and approaches in discussing the age of Trajan”. 16/07/2025
  • “The Poetic of Autocracy: Fascism and the Roman Past in Anacleto Trazzi’s Augustalia”, Classical Association Conference 2025. Panel: “A Declaration of Classics: Classical Reception under Fascism”. 11-13 July 2025.
  • “Soldiers, emperors and power in Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars”, New Perspectives on Suetonius, Paris-Nanterre 17-18 June 2025
  • ** “Simul filius, simul Caesar: Debating Leadership in the Age of Trajan”, Classical Association of Scotland Seminar Series, Edinburgh 23/10/2024.
  • ** “Nota scilicet tunc Augustarum potestate: Livia, Antonia and Agrippina the Younger in Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars”, Workshop Women in Historiography, Oxford 02-03 September 2024.
  • “The Anxiety of Violence: The Horrorism of Civil War at the End of the Roman Republic”, 05/06/2024, JLU Gießen, Internationale Konferenz Angst und Furcht in der antiken Welt 3.–6. Juni 2024.
  • “Non minus nummatus quam capillatus: Juba I and his Army at the End of the Roman Republic”, Classical Association Conference 2024. Panel: “Looking Beyond the ‘Other’: Narratives of War and Violence in North Africa and Egypt” (Co-Organiser and Panel Chair). 23/03/2024.
  • “The Paradox of Concordia: Remembering Civil War in Tiberian Rome”. Classical Association Conference 2024. Panel: “The Production and Manipulation of Memory: (Re)Writing the Republican Civil Wars” (Co-organiser). 23/03/2024.
  • ** “Surviving the Trauma of Civil War”: Propertius and the Memory of Perusia”, University of Edinburgh, Classics Research Seminars, 02/11/2023
  • ** “«The Utmost Height of Human Greatness»: Use and Misuse of the Roman Past in the American political discourse on Democracy”, Durham University, Democracy after Athens, 21/09/2023
  • “‘Now let’s talk about the monster’: Suetonius’ rhetorical biography of Caligula”, Leipzig 54. Deutscher Historikertag, Panel: “Fictionalization – Manipulation – Instrumentalization. How to Deal with Historical Facts in the Sources of the Roman Principate”, 19/09/2023
  • ** “(Re)writing the End of the Republican resistance: Augustus and the Autocracy of Civil War” University of Aalborg (Denmark), The Language of Autocracy: Ancient and Modern, 09/06/2023
  • ** “Biografia Latina e Potere imperiale: Svetonio e la Fondazione del Principato Augusteo”, Università degli Studi di Trento, Biografia e Storia: Sguardi sul Mondo Antico, 19/01/2023
  • ** “‘The Die has been cast - or has it? The Memory of Julius Caesar and the Literary Tradition(s) on the Crossing of the Rubicon’” University of Oxford, Corpus Christi College, The Invention of Tradition(s) in Roman Cultural History, 09/11/2022
  • “Marches on Rome: Julius Caesar and the Dynamics of the Coup d’État”, Postgraduate Lecture Series Politics: Past, Present and Future, St Leonard’s Postgraduate College, St Andrews, 04/02/2020
  • ** “L’arte di narrare la vita. Le vitae Caesarum di Svetonio tra verità storica e invettiva politica”, Problemi di verità: le narrazioni del fatto storico tra manipolazioni e racconti canonici, dall’antichità a oggi, Pisa 28/11/2019
  • “The Literary Self: from Antiquity to the Digital Age”. Co-organiser (with Caitlan Smith, Miles Beard, Matthew Tibble) and Panel Chair. https://sgsahblog.com/2018/07/11/the-literary-self-from-antiquity-to-the-digital-age/. Edinburgh, 4-5/06/2018
  • “Livio, Lucrezia e la nascita della res publica: echi tardo-repubblicani”, International conference Livio Ad Urbem Condendam: Riletture del Passato in Età Augustea, Bologna 02/02/2018

Published:

  • Martino, C. (2024) “You Shall Not Dance! Suetonius' Life of Gaius between Invective and Historical Truth” in Alù, C., Bracaglia, I., Iannuzzi, L., Morelli, E., Nieddu, C. & Reali, F. (eds.) Problemi di verità. Il fatto storico tra manipolazioni e racconti canonici. Pisa: Pisa University Press, pp.61-78.
  • Martino, C. (2021) “The Present and the Past: Echoes of the Late Republic and Augustan Rome in ab Urbe condita1” in Roncaglia, A. (ed.) Livio ad urbem condendam. Riletture del passato in età augustea. Zermeghedo: Edizioni Saecula, pp. 414-446.
  • Martino, C. (2020) Review of van Dijk, W. “The Successor. Tiberius and the Triumph of the Roman Empire. Translated by Kathleen Brandt-Carey”, Classical Review 70.2, pp. 453-455.
  • Martino, C. (2015) “Richiami alla pro Cluentio nei ‘Baccanali’ di Tito Livio”, Rivista Storica dell’Antichità 45, pp. 31-45.

Accepted/In press:

  • Fezzi, L. & Martino, C. (Accepted/In Press), Commentary on five senatus consulta regarding the scandal of the Bona Dea in 61 B.C.: “SC de crimine Clodii”, “SC de rogatione Pupia Valeria”, “SC de rogatione Fufia”, “SC de praesidio iudicum”, “SC de iudiciis”. In Buongiorno, P., Carsana, C., Fezzi, L. (eds.) Acta Senatus / A, vol. 3, Stuttgart: Steiner.
  • Martino, C. (accepted; Classical Quarterly) “The Die Has Been Cast!’: Suetonius’ Caesar and the (G)looming Fate of Rome”

In progress:

  • Martino, C. "Becoming Caesar. Suetonius and the Politics of Memory in the Roman Empire".
  • Martino, C. “Rewriting the Past: Autocracy and the Memory of Civil Violence in Augustan and Fascist Rome” in Damtoft Poulsen A. and Gerschewski J. (Eds.) "Languages of Autocracy: Ancient and Modern" (CUP).
  • Martino, C. and Wiater N. (Eds.) "Anacleto Trazzi: Augustalia. Introduction, Translation and Commentary"
  • Martino, C. and Sanderson, E. (Eds.) "Narratives of War and Violence in Africa and Egypt" (Special Issue).

  • Martino, C. (2027) “Memory and Political Power in Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars”. In Power, T. (Ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Suetonius, CUP (under contact).

  • Martino, C. “Juba I and his Soldiers: Representing the Numidians at the end of the Roman Republic”, in Martino, C. and Sanderson, E. (Eds.).

  • Martino, C. “Nota scilicet tunc Augustarum potestate: female power and the creation of the Domus Augusta”  in Webb L. and Elder O. (Eds.) Women in Roman Historiography .
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