EDUCATION
1984-1988 BA Hons (First Class) Literae Humaniores, Oxford
1988-1992 D.Phil. (Oxford)
CAREER
2009-2017 Director, British School at Rome
2007-2009 Proctor and Vice-Principal
2007-2009 Provost of St Leonard’s College and Dean of Graduate Studies
2002-2006: Dean of Arts.
2002: Promoted Professor of Ancient History.
1998-2001: Pro-Dean of Graduate Studies, Faculties of Arts and Divinity.
1998: Promoted Senior Lecturer.
1995-1998: Chairman of Ancient History.
1994: Promoted Lecturer Grade B.
1992: Appointed Lecturer in Ancient History, University of St Andrews.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Early Rome and Central Italy
My doctoral thesis was written at Oxford and the British School at Rome, and was published as Early Rome and Latium: Economy and Society c. 1000 to 500 BC (Oxford, 1996; 1). My intention was to use the archaeological evidence which had transformed our understanding of central Italy, coupled with comparative studies with other parts of the Mediterranean and a theoretical approach derived primarily from anthropological studies, to offer a model of the emergence of Rome. From this starting point, I continued to work on the development
of the city of Rome and its hinterland (19, 23, 28, 30, 31, 36, 47, 48).
I have been co-director of an archaeological project at Segni (49, 50) which is moving towards publication.
One area of specific interest for me has always been the intersection between manufacture, trade and commerce, and I have written on this myself and supported conferences at the BSR in this area (5, 25, 26, 29).
Another area is the development of Roman religion. I have been especially interested in the way festivals operate to support cohesive communal activity, and to explore different models to understand the functioning of religion in ancient Italy (6, 20, 21, 22, 27, 29, 31, 34, 35, 44, 46, 51).
Moving out from Rome and Latium, I have endeavoured to contextualise my work with reference to developments in the Sabina (17, 48) and Etruria (3, 54). I saw to completion the complex volume arising from Ward-Perkins BSR excavations at Veii (Cascino, Di Giuseppe, Patterson (eds.) Veii. The Historical Topography of the Ancient City. A Restudy of John Ward-Perkins's Survey, 2012) and co-edited a volume which arose from a conference which launched the volume (14).
Finally, I have supported work on Italy more generally, with a synoptic volume of the Cambridge Ancient History on the archaic to middle Republican periods (12), but also Sicily (7) and I am starting to work on the Adriatic. I have forthcoming articles for the Oxford History of pre-Roman Italy on Campania, the Convegno Taranto on Southern Italy, and the journal Aristonothos on northern Italy.
My last year in Rome has been marked by three major international conferences, on the orientalising period in Italy (collaborative with CNR, EFR and DAI) and on the middle
Republic in Rome and in Latium, collaborations with the University of La Sapienza and the relevant superintendencies.
It is my hope that the BSR has during my directorship been a place where the archaeology of Italy has been widely and openly discussed. The BSR has itself through its geophysical team
supported work during this period at many sites including Rome itself, Portus, Isola Sacra, Ostia, Lucus Feroniae, Villa Adriana, Falerii Novi, Internamna Lirenas, Acquarossa,
Tarquinia, Vulci, Pompei, Herculaneum, Pavia as well as outside Italy in Leptis Magna, Utica and Sudan.
Roman Historiography
Alongside an attempt to understand the actual conditions in which Rome developed, I have in parallel explored the ways the Romans described their own history. This interest in historiography has included specific work on traditions on early Rome (32, 33, 37, 40, 41, 42, 43, 51). I was also one of the editors of the major new edition of the Fragments of the Roman Historians (13), and this has produced further work on wider issues of historiography, especially memoirs (8, 38, 39). I am involved in a new edition of the fragments of the Roman orators (9, 40), and also on new editorial work on Varro (56).
My next research project will combine all these themes in a discussion of kingship at Rome (supported by my Leverhulme grant). I am also in negotiation with Cambridge University Press over the general editorship of a six volume History of Italy.
Conservation and heritage management
The BSR, and the Unione more generally, has always taken very seriously its responsibilities in working collectively with Italian authorities on conservation and heritage management. I have been involved in the Ediarche conferences on museology (15, 52, 53; a further volume is forthcoming), and our work at Herculaneum, Segni and Portus, as well as new projects at Rome, S. Giovanni in Laterano and Albano include contributions to heritage management.
PUBLICATIONS
Single Authored books
1. Early Rome and Latium: Economy and Society c. 1000 to 500 B.C. (Oxford 1996).
2. The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology (Cambridge 2006)
3. A Very Short Introduction to the Etruscans (Oxford, 2014) Edited Books
4. M. M. Austin, J. D. Harries, C. J. Smith, (eds) Modus Operandi: Essays in Honour of Professor G. E. Rickman (BICS Supplementary Series 71, 1998)
5. H. Parkins, C. J. Smith, (eds), Trade and Traders in the Ancient World (Routledge 1998)
6. E. Bispham, C. J. Smith, (eds) Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome (Edinburgh University Press 2000)
7. C. J. Smith, J. Serrati (eds) Sicily from Aeneas to Augustus: New Approaches to Archaeology and History (Edinburgh University Press 2000).
8. C. J. Smith, A. Powell (eds) The Lost Memoirs of Augustus (Classical Press of Wales 2009)
9. C. J. Smith, R. J. Covino (eds) Praise and Blame in Roman Oratory (Classical Press of Wales, 2011).
10. C. J. Smith, L. Yarrow (eds) Imperialism, Cultural Politics, and Polybius (Oxford, 2013)
11. Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (area editor for the Roman Republic, 2013)
12. C. J. Smith (ed) Cambridge Ancient History Plates Volume VII.2 and VIII (Cambridge, 2013)
13. T. J. Cornell, J. W. Rich, C. J. Smith, E. H. Bispham (eds) The Fragmentary Roman Historians, (Oxford 2013)
14. R. Cascino, U. Fusco, C. J. Smith (eds) Novità nella ricerca archeologico a Veio. Dagli studi di John Ward-Perkins alle ultime scoperte. Atto della giornata di studi British School at Rome, 18 gennaio 2013 (Rome, 2015)
15. F.Pignatoro, S. Sanchirico (eds) Museum Diá. Convegno internazionale di museologia. Politiche, poetiche e proposte per una narrazione museale (Rome, 2015).
16. P. Lulof. C. Smith (eds) The Age of Tarquinius Superbus (BABESCH Supplements, 2017)
Forthcoming:
17. D. Maras, L. Michetti, C. Smith, E. Tassi Scandone (eds), Fontes Antiquorum Sabinorum (Rome, 2017)
18. K. Sandberg, C. Smith (eds) Omnium Annalium Monumenta: Annals, Epic and Drama in Republican Rome, Historiography of Rome and Its Empire, vol 2, Brill: Leiden.
Selected Articles
19. 'A Review of Archaeological Studies on Iron-Age and Archaic Latium,' Journal of Roman Archaeology 7 (1994), 285-302.
20. 'Archaeology and Ritual in Early Rome,' in Proceedings of TRAC (Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference) (1994), 57-64.
21. 'Dead Dogs and Rattles: Time, Space and Ritual Sacrifice in Iron Age Latium,' in J. B. Wilkins (ed) Approaches to the Study of Ritual: Italy and the Ancient Mediterranean (Accordia Specialist Studies on the Mediterranean Volume 2) (London 1996) 73-89.
22. 'Ritual, Time and Power in Ancient Rome,' Accordia Research Papers 6 1995-6, 133-52 (co-authored with Dr. R. Laurence)
23. 'The Development of the City-State at Rome,' in L. Mitchell, P.J. Rhodes (eds) The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece (Routledge, London 1997), 208-16.
24. 'Onasander on How to be a General,' in M. M. Austin, J. D. Harries, C. J. Smith, (eds) Modus Operandi: Essays in Honour of Professor G. E. Rickman (BICS Supplementary Series 71, 1997), 151-66
25. 'Traders and Artisans in Early Rome,' in H., Parkins, C. J. Smith, (eds) Trade and Traders in the Ancient World (Routledge 1998), 31-51.
26. 'Medea in Italy: Trade and Contact between Greece and Italy in the Archaic Period,' in G. Tsetskhladze (ed) Ancient Greeks West and East (Brill 1999), 179-206.
27. 'Worshipping Mater Matuta: Ritual and Context,' in E. Bispham, C. J. Smith, (eds) Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome (EUP 2000), 136-55.
28. 'The Archaeology of Early Rome,' in H. Dodge and J.C.N. Coulston (eds) The City of Rome (Oxbow, Oxford 2000), 16-41.
29. 'Ritualising the Economy,' in Caeculus 4 (2001), 17-23.
30. ‘The beginnings of urbanization at Rome,’ in B. W. Cunliffe, R. G. Osborne, (eds) Mediterranean Urbanization 800-600 BC (Oxford 2005), 91-111
31. ‘Festivals of community in Rome and Latium,’ in P. A. J. Attema et al. (ed.) Sixth Conference on Italian Archaeology 1: 76-83
32. ‘Adfectatio Regni in the Roman Republic,’ in S.Lewis (ed) Ancient Tyranny (Edinburgh 2006): 49-64.
33. ‘The Origo Gentis Romanae: Facts and Fictions,’ BICS 2006, 97-136.
34. ‘Cult and Ritual: The Roman World,’ in R. G. Osborne, S. Alcock (eds) Classical Archaeology (Blackwell Companions to Global Archaeology, London, 2007, second edition, 2011), 263-85 35. ‘The Religion of Archaic Rome,’ in J. Rüpke (ed) A Companion to Roman Religion
(London, 2007), 31-42.
36. ‘The Hinterland of Rome,’ in G. Bradley, E. Isayev, C. Riva (eds) The Tribes of Italy (Exeter University Press, 2007), 161-78
37. ‘Pliny the Elder on Early Rome,’ in E. Bispham (ed) Pliny the Elder: Essays in Honour of B. M. Levick (BICS Suppl. 100, 2007), 147-70
38. ‘The Memoirs of Augustus: testimonia and fragments,’ in C. Smith and A. Powell (eds.) The Lost Memoirs of Augustus and the Development of Roman Autobiography (Classical Press of Wales, 2009), 1-13.
39. ‘Sulla’s memoirs,’ in C. Smith and A.Powell (eds.) The Lost Memoirs of Augustus and the Development of Roman Autobiography (Classical Press of Wales, 2009), 65-85.
40. ‘Rhetorical history: the struggle of the orders in Livy,’ in D. H. Berry and A. Erskine (eds.) Form and function in Roman oratory (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 264-280.
41. ‘Caesar and the Early History of Rome,’ in G. Urso (ed.) Cesare: Precursore o Visionario?: Atti del convegno internazionale Cividale del Friuli, 17-19 settembre 2009.
(Edizione ETS, 2010): 249-264.
42. ‘The magistrates of the early Republic,’ in H. Beck, A. Duplá, M. Jehne, F. Pina Polo (eds) Consuls and Res Publica: Holding High Office in the Roman Republic (Cambridge
University Press, 2011) 19-40
43. ‘Thinking about Kings,’ BICS 54.2 (2011), 21-42 44. ‘The Feriae Latinae’ in J. R. Brandt, J. Iddeng (eds) What is a Festival? (Oxford
University Press, 2012), 267-88
45. ‘A Hundred Years of Roman History: Historiography and Intellectual Culture,’ Papers of the British School at Rome 80 (2012), 295-323
46. ‘Diritto augurale romano e concezione giuridico religiosa delle mura,’in G. Bartoloni and L. M. Michetti (eds.) Mura di legno, mura di terra, mura di pietra: fortificazioni nel Mediterraneo antico, Sc.Ant. 19 (2013), 455-73 (co-authored with Dr. E. Tassi Scandone).
47. ‘The Latins: Historical Perspective,’ in M. Aberson, M. C. Biella, M. di Fazio, M. Wullschleger (eds) Entre archéologie et histoire: dialogues sur divers peoples de l’Italie préromaine (Berne, 2014), 21-30.
48. ‘The Sabines: Historical Perspective,’ in M. Aberson, M. C. Biella, M. di Fazio, M. Wullschleger (eds) Entre archéologie et histoire: dialogues sur divers peoples de l’Italie préromaine (Berne, 2014), 127-36.
49. ‘Archaeological research activity at Segni in 2013 (commune di Segni, provincial di Roma, regione Lazio),’ PBSR 82 (2014), p. 346-52 (co-authored with F. M. Cifarelli, F. Colaiacomo, S.Kay, L. Ceccarelli, C. Panzieri, and D. Kosmopoulos).
50. ‘Il Segni Project: risultati della seconda campagna di ricerche,’ in E. Calandra, G. Ghini, Z. Mari (eds.) Lazio e Sabina XI (Rome, 2015), 177-85 (co-authored with F. M. Cifarelli, F. Colaiacomo, S.Kay, L. Ceccarelli, C. Panzieri, D. Kosmopoulos and A. James)
51. ‘Gai 2.8 e la classificazione elle res sanctae. Un’ipotesi interpretativa,’ Bullettino dell’Istituto di Diritto Romano ‘Vittorio Scialoja (fourth series, 3, 2013), 253-86.
52. ‘Portus’ in F.Pignatoro, S. Sanchirico (eds) Museum Diá. Convegno internazionale di museologia. Politiche, poetiche e proposte per una narrazione museale (Rome, 2015), 406-13 (co-authored with S.Keay and R. Sebastiani).
53. ‘Telling a Story,’ in F.Pignatoro, S. Sanchirico (eds) Museum Diá. Convegno internazionale di museologia. Politiche, poetiche e proposte per una narrazione museale (Rome, 2015), 443-6.
54. ‘The Pyrgi Tablets: A Historical Perspective,’ in V. Bellelli, P. Xella (eds.) Le lamine di Pyrgi: Nuovi studi sulle iscrizioni in etrusco e in fenicio nel cinquantenario della scoperta. Studi epigrafici e lingustici sul Vicino Oriente antico 32-33 (2016) 203-21.
55. ‘Beyond Metaphor: Archaeology as a social and artistic practice,’ Journal of Visual Art Practice 15 (2017) 270-85.
56. « Servius, Cato the Elder and Virgil », Mélanges de l'École française de Rome - Antiquité [En ligne], 129-1 | 2017, mis en ligne le 26 septembre 2017.