Noel Lenski

Professor of Classics and of History

+1 (203) 432-0982

Field of Interest:

Ancient Christianity

Address:

344 College St, New Haven, CT 06511-6629

Website

Curriculum Vitae:

lenski_noel.pdf

Noel Lenski studied Classics at The Colorado College (BA 1989) and Classics and Ancient History at Princeton (MA, PhD 1995). He returned to his home state to teach at the University of Colorado at Boulder for nearly two decades before joining the faculty of Yale.

Lenski focuses on Roman history and particularly the history of the later Roman Empire. He is interested in power relations as these played themselves out at all levels of society, from emperors to slaves. His research ranges broadly across Late Antiquity and includes studies in political, military, social, economic, religious, cultural and art history. His two monographs, on the emperors Valens and Constantine, explore the limits of imperial power in light of reader response theory and life-worlds theory. He has also published extensively on the history of slavery in antiquity and is currently working on a monograph on slave law in the later Empire. Lenski is managing editor of the Journal of Late Antiquity.

Recent Articles

“The Sun and the Senate: The Inspiration for the Arch of Constantine,” in E. Dal Covolo and G. Gasparro Sfameni, eds. Costantino il Grande alle radici dell’Europa. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studio in occasione del 1700 anniversario della Battaglia di Ponte Milvio e della conversione di Costantino (Libreria Editrice Vaticana: Vatican City, 2014) 153–93
“Harnessing Violence: Armed Force as Manpower in the Late Roman Countryside,” Journal of Late Antiquity 6 (2013) 233–50
“Working Models: Functional Art and Roman Conceptions of Slavery” in M. George, ed. Roman Slavery and Roman Material Culture (Toronto, 2013) 129–57 with figures 5.1–14
“Captivity and Slavery among the Saracens in Late Antiquity (ca. 250–630 CE),” Antiquité Tardive 19 (2011) 237–66

Books Authored or Co-Authored

Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State In the Fourth Century AD (University of California Press 2002; paper 2014)
The Romans: From Village to Empire, second edition (Oxford University Press, 2011) (with M.T. Boatwright, D. Gargola, and R. Talbert)
A Brief History of the Romans, second edition (Oxford University Press, 2013) (with M.T. Boatwright, D. Gargola, and R. Talbert)
Constantine and the Cities (University of Pennsylvania Press 2015) forthcoming

Books Edited

Constantine and the Cities: Imperial Ideology and Civic Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press 2016)
The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine (Cambridge University Press 2006; revised edition 2011)
The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity (Ashgate Press, 2009) (with Andrew Cain)
Costantino prima e dopo Costantino — Constantine before and after Constantine (Edipuglia, 2012) (with G. Bonamente and R. Lizzi Testa)

Publications