Isabel Köster (Ph.D. Harvard 2011) studies the history and literature of the Roman Republic and early Empire. She is particularly interested in the intersections between rhetoric, historiography, and religion. Her first book, Stealing from the Gods: Temple Robbery in the Roman Imagination (forthcoming with University of Michigan Press), investigates how authors writing between the first century BCE and second century CE addressed the issue of temple robbery or sacrilegium. She has written articles and chapters on topics such as Ciceronian invective, nymph worship, and sacrifices of flamingos associated with the emperor Caligula. Her current major project is a book on divine punishment in the Roman world.
keywords
Roman history, Greek and Roman religion, Latin prose literature, Latin historiography and rhetoric, Roman imperialism, Roman crime and punishment
