Dr Consuelo Martino (BA, MA, PhD)

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow; Roman History & Latin Literature

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 working on my first monograph "Becoming Caesar. Suetonius and the Politics of Memory in the Roman Empire".

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)

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:

- History and Narratives of Civil war (from antiquity to nowadays)

- Genocide Studies

- Leadership representation and leadership theory

- War trauma and cultural trauma

- Cultural memory of the Late Roman Republic in the Roman Empire

- Reception of Roman antiquity in the age of Totalitarianism and beyond

 

 

 

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)

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.

Submitted:

  • 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.

In preparation:

  • Martino, C. "Becoming Caesar. Suetonius and the Politics of Memory in the Roman Empire". Under preparation for Cambridge University Press.
  • Martino, C. “Authoritarian language and the Roman past in Fascist Latin poetry” in Damtoft Poulsen A., Hjort-Lang C. and Gerschewski J. "Languages of Autocracy: Ancient and Modern" (forthcoming 2025)
  • 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).
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