Christopher Kelly (historian)

Christopher Kelly (b. 1964) is a classicist and historian who specializes in the Roman Empire and the classical tradition.^[1]

Kelly's first major work was Ruling the Later Roman Empire (2006). In The End of Empire (2009), characterized as a "semi-popular work",^[2] he took a revisionist view of Attila the Hun as a "thoughtful and effective political and military leader."^[3]

Kelly is a reader in ancient history and fellow and director of classical studies at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.^[1] From 2006 to 2008, he held a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship.^[1] He was educated as an undergraduate in classics and law at the University of Sydney in Australia, and earned a doctorate at Trinity College, Cambridge.^[4]

Kelly was editor of the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society and Cambridge Classical Journal from 2000 to 2006.^[1] He serves on the editorial committee of the Journal of Roman Studies.^[1]

Kelly contributed to The Cambridge Ancient History and to Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World, edited by G.W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, and Oleg Grabar.^[5] He is an occasional reviewer for publications such as London Review of Books,^[6] Literary Review, and History Today.

Books

• Ruling the Later Roman Empire (Harvard University Press, 2004)
• The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2006), from the Very Short Introductions series
• The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome (Norton, New York, 2009)
• Editor, Unclassical Traditions I (Alternatives to the Classical Past in late Antiquity) and II (Perspectives from East and West in late Antiquity) (Cambridge University Press, 2010 and 2011)

References