Darryl Phillips

Darryl Phillips is a historian of ancient Greece and Rome, with a research focus on the culture and history of Rome in the late Republic and early Principate. His research and teaching interests encompass history, law, religion, art and architecture, and topography.

Recent projects have explored sources for understanding the Augustan age, including Suetonius’ Life of Augustus and buildings in the city of Rome.

Phillips teaches a range of courses on Greek and Roman history and language, including "Roman Political Culture" and the ConnCourses "Ancient Greece" and “The Roman World.”

Recent publications

“Voting Rights as Human Rights in Ancient Rome.” Forthcoming in Mediterranean Studies.

"Reconsidering Public Building in Augustan Rome." Co-authored with Melissa Huber L’Heureux. Latomus 84 (2025) 15-35.

Suetonius’ Life of Augustus.  Oxford University Press, 2023.

"The Civic Function of Agrippa’s Pantheon." Latomus 75 (2016) 650-677.

"Reading the Civic Landscape of Augustan Rome: Aeneid 1.421-429 and the Building Program of Augustus." In A. Kemezis, ed. Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity: Remains and Representations of the Ancient City. Brill (2015) 229-245. 

Other articles have been published in the journals Mediterranean Studies, Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, Phoenix, Historia, Vergilius, Syllecta Classica, Ancient History Bulletin, and Annals of Anatomy.

Selected recent presentations

“Hercules was here. Mythic connections in the Mediterranean world.” Mediterranean Studies Association, 27th Annual International Congress, Gibraltar. May 2025.

“Must Democracies Die? Lessons from Ancient Greece and Rome.” Keynote address, The Bennion Teachers’ Workshop for the Perpetuation of Democratic Principles, The Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at Utah State University. June 2023.

“Caryatids and Their Cultural Meaning: From the Erechtheion’s Maidens to Disney’s Seven Dwarfs.” Classical Association of New England, Summer Institute, Brown University. July 2017.

Phillips was the founding president of the Charleston, South Carolina, chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA).  He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Mediterranean Studies.

Visit the Classics Department website and view "Majoring in Classics."