Prof Caillan Davenport

Professor Caillan Davenport is a historian and classicist who studies Ancient Mediterranean politics and government and their legacy in the modern world. 

His most recent book is Behind Caesar's Back: Rumor, Gossip, and the Making of the Roman Emperors (Yale University Press, 2026). 

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Professor Caillan Davenport is Professor of Classics and Head of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University. He studied Latin, Ancient Greek, and Ancient History at the University of Queensland, receiving the University Medal in Latin. With the support of a John Crampton Travelling Scholarship, he undertook a DPhil in Ancient History at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Professor Alan Bowman. He held positions at the University of Queensland (2011-2017) and Macquarie University (2017-2021) before coming to the ANU in January 2022.

In the course of his career, Professor Davenport has received the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize, a Rome Award from the British School at Rome, an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, and an Experienced Researcher Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which he held at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main with the sponsorship of Professor Hartmut Leppin.

He is currently an ARC Future Fellow leading project 'Why Monarchy Endures. Answers from the Ancient Mediterranean World', which will run from June 2025-June 2029. He is also one of the Editors of Antichthon: The Journal of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies.

Professor Davenport has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Professor Davenport is committed to public outreach and engagement. He has written 15 articles for The Conversation; appeared on ABC Radio Nightlife, Richard Glover's 'Self-Improvement Wednesday' & other segments across Australia; given talks at the Queensland Museum, the Australian Museum in Sydney, and the National Museum of Australia in conjunction with major exhibitions on gladiators, Alexander the Great, and Pompeii; and delivered numerous lectures and workshops to school groups on topics ranging from Cicero's speeches to women on ancient coins. He worked for several years with the Queensland History Teachers' Association to deliver their student seminars in Brisbane and regional areas. He is a regular contributor to the Emperors of Rome Podcast, which was named Best Australian History Podcast in 2019 by Apple.

BA (Hons), MPhil (Qld.), DPhil (Oxon.), FAHA, FHEA, FRHistS

• Ancient Mediterranean Monarchy (1200 BC - AD 600)
• Politics and government in the ancient world and their legacy in our contemporary society (including democracy, oligarchy, tyranny, monarchy)
• Roman history from the Archaic period to Late Antiquity
• Roman emperors in Antiquity and their reception in later periods
• Roman imperial court society and ceremonial
• Comparative and global history, especially of monarchy, courts, governments, and empires
• News, rumour, gossip in pre-modern societies
• Archaeological and documentary evidence for Ancient Mediterranean history, especially inscriptions and coins
• Greek and Latin historiography of the Roman empire
• Christianity and imperial politics
• Roman letter writing, especially the correspondence of Marcus Aurelius and Fronto

Professor Caillan Davenport is the author of A History of the Roman Equestrian Order (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which won the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize. The judges' citation described the book as 'a most impressive work of profound scholarship...of great ambition, erudition, and sophistication'. The book has been praised as 'a major work of scholarship and a very readable book' (Classics for All), 'an impressively scholarly but readable study' (Choice), 'an impressive work of scholarship...it is sure to become the new standard work of reference' (Ancient History Bulletin), 'a remarkable success' (Classical Review), 'learned and wide-ranging...an important advance' (Journal of Roman Studies), 'compelling reading' (Classical World) and 'magnificent...Davenport's magnum opus sets the whole subject on a new footing' (American Historical Review).

Professor Davenport is also the co-translator and editor of Fronto: Selected Letters (Bloomsbury, 2014, with J. Manley), the co-editor of Emperors and Political Culture in Cassius Dio's Roman History (Cambridge University Press, 2021, with C. Mallan), the co-editor of The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 2023, with M. McEvoy), and the co-editor of Representing Rome's Emperors. Historical and Cultural Perspectives through Time (Oxford University Press, 2024, with S. Malik). He has published widely on the history and historiography of ancient Rome in journals such as Classical Quarterly, Journal of Late Antiquity, Journal of Roman Studies, Journal of Roman Archaeology, and Papers of the British School at Rome.

His latest book, Behind Caesar's Back: Rumor, Gossip, and the Making of the Roman Emperors, has been published by Yale University Press. The book examines Rome's rulers from the perspective of their subjects. Drawing upon letters, graffiti, fables, plays, sermons, poems, and papyri, he analyses how people discussed the emperors' powers, bodies, sex lives, deaths, and successions across almost seven hundred years of Roman history from Julius Caesar to Heraclius. Behind Caesar's Back was Highly Commended for the General History Prize in the 2026 NSW History Awards.

Professor Davenport is also working on a collection of essays, entitled The Politics and Political Culture of The Roman Imperial Monarchy. The book explores the interactions between the 'republican' and 'monarchical' elements in the imperial state, examining issues such as imperial dynasties, communication, behaviour, and representation.

Together with Dr Meaghan McEvoy (ANU) and Associate Professor Alan Ross (Ohio State), he is editing a special issue of the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies on Dynasty in the Roman Empire: Politics, Rhetoric, and Representation. This examines the cultural construction of dynasty in political discourse, coinage, inscriptions, and everyday media from the first century BCE to the seventh century CE. 

He welcomes enquires from prospective Honours, MPhil and PhD students who wish to work on theses associated with his ARC Future Fellowship Project: 'Why Monarchy Endures. Answers from the Ancient Mediterranean World'.