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Personal Summary

Scott Lawin Arcenas is a historian and classicist who specializes in the history of democracy and political violence in ancient Greece. His first book, Political Violence in Ancient Greece: Quanitative and Qualitative Approaches to Stasis, 500-301 BCE (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press) examines the nature, frequency, and intensity of political violence in fifth- and fourth-century Greek city-states. It also introduces new methods and new tools to overcome three of the most significant obstacles that confront attempts to study Greek history on a panhellenic scale: the scarcity, ambiguity, and deep biases of the evidentiary record. In recent years, Professor Arcenas has published articles on travel and transportation in the ancient world, digital history, Roman numismatics, Thucydides, and digital pedagogy. At the moment, he is working on three research projects: a monograph on epistemic uncertainty in narrative histories of Greek city-states, a series of articles on the relationship between political violence and the Greek economy, and a public-facing book on the many births of democracy in archaic and classical Greece.

At the ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú, Professor Arcenas teaches courses on Greek history, Roman history, Latin, Greek, the history of democracy, and citizenship in both the ancient and the modern world. He is a passionate advocate of civic education and General Education curricula--both at the ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú and elsewhere. Before arriving at UM, he taught at Stanford University, Dartmouth College, and George Mason University. 

Education

PhD, Classics, Stanford University, 2018
MPhil, Classics, University of Cambridge, 2011
AB, Classics, Princeton University, 2009

Teaching Experience

ÁÔÆæÖØ¿Ú, assistant professor, 2020-present
George Mason University, assistant professor, 2019-20
Dartmouth College, lecturer, 2018-19
Stanford University, teaching assistant and graduate instructor, 2013-16

Field of Study

European History; Political, Economic, and Social History of the Ancient Mediterranean; Digital History; Ancient Historiography; Greek and Latin Literature

Selected Publications

2023   “Establishing a dynasty in ideology and practice: The aedes Vestae aurei of Vespasian,” Papers of the British School at Rome 91: 35-92. Co-authored with George C. Watson. 

2021   “Mare ORBIS: A Network Model for Maritime Transportation in the Roman World,” Mediterranean Historical Review 36.2: 1-30.

2020  “The Silence of Thucydides,” TAPA 150.2: 299-332.

2019  “Teaching Ancient Geography with Modern Tools,” in B. Natoli and S. Hunt (eds.)Teaching Classics with Technology. Bloomsbury Academic, New York: 165-180.