Penn State Penn State: College of the Liberal Arts

Department ofClassics and Ancient
Mediterranean Studies

Jake Nabel

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Jake Nabel
Tombros Early Career Professor of Classical Studies and Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies
Director of Undergraduate Studies
322 Weaver Building University Park, PA 16802
jnabel@psu.edu
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Interests: Roman History; Pre-Islamic Iranian history; Ancient interstate relations
Accepting grad students

Biography:

I’m a historian of ancient Rome and its relations with the empires of pre-Islamic Iran. My research centers on interstate affairs between the early Principate and the Parthian empire, Rome’s imperial peer on the Iranian plateau, but I also maintain active interests in Latin literature, the Hellenistic East, and Sasanian history. In all my work, I draw on both Greco-Roman literary texts and Near Eastern sources to promote the fuller integration of ancient Persia into the study of the classical Mediterranean. In the classroom, I help students put Roman and Near Eastern history in dialogue with one another and with the historiographic mainstream, combining close readings of primary sources with comparative treatments of topics like political institutions, trade, and slavery. I also enjoy teaching the Greek and Latin texts at the heart of the classical tradition, especially historians like Thucydides and Tacitus.

My first book, The Arsacids of Rome: Misunderstanding in Roman-Parthian Relations, was published by the University of California Press in 2025. The digital version is open access and can be downloaded for free here.

My other publications below can be downloaded on my homepage or my Academia.edu page.

Education Details:

Ph.D. in Classics, Cornell University (2017)
Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania (2010)
B.A., Bard College (2007)

Publications:

2026. “Fake Prostration in Late Antique Literature and the Ambiguities of Domination.” Studies in Late Antiquity 10 (3), 265–93.

2025. The Arsacids of Rome: Misunderstanding in Roman-Parthian Relations. Oakland: University of California Press.

2025. “The Verb empoliteuo and Greek Citizenship under Arsacid Rule.” Classical Journal 120 (3), 249–76.

2024. “Parthia, Rome, and the Horizons of Ancient Diplomacy.” In John Hyland and Khodadad Rezakhani (eds), Brill’s Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires, 400–34. Leiden: Brill.

2022. “The Parthian Empire.” In Jeffrey Spier, Tim Potts, and Sara E. Cole (eds), Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World, 157–64. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust.

2022. “Hydration, Ancient Persian-Style.” In Touraj Daryaee and Shervin Farridnejad (eds), Food for Gods, Food for Mortals: Culinary and Dining Practices in the Greater Iranian World, 161–8. Irvine, CA: Jordan Center for Persian Studies.

2020. “The Arsacids of Rome and Parthia’s ‘Iranian Revival’ in the First Century CE.” In Kai Ruffing, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Sebastian Fink, and Robert Rollinger (eds), Societies at War: Proceedings of the 10th Symposium of the Melammu Project held in Kassel September 26-28 2016 and Proceedings of the 8th Symposium of the Melammu Project held in Kiel November 11-15 2014, 475–94. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

2020. “Exemplary History and Arsacid Genealogy in Tacitus, Annals 6.31.” Dabir 7, 175–91.

2019. “Tiridates in the Forum, Peroz on his Knees: Religion and Reputation in Ancient Iranian Diplomacy.” Anabasis: Studia Classica et Orientalia 10, 214–36.

2019. “Arsacid Beverages in Lucan.” Classical Quarterly 69 (2), 776–82.

2019. “Lucan’s Parthians in Nero’s Rome.” Classical Philology 114 (4), 604–25.

2019. “Remembering Intervention: Parthia in Rome’s Civil Wars.” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 68 (3), 327–52.

2018. “Alexander between Rome and Persia: Politics, Ideology, and History.” In K. Moore (ed.), Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great, 197–232. Leiden: Brill.

2017. “The Seleucids Imprisoned: Arsacid-Roman Hostage Submission and its Hellenistic Precedents.” In J. Schlude and B. Rubin (eds), Arsacids, Romans, and Local Elites: Cross-Cultural Interactions of the Parthian Empire, 25–50. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

2015. “Horace and the Tiridates Episode.” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 158 (3/4), 304–25.

2015. “Venus’ Boots and the Shadow of Caesar in Book 1 of Virgil’s Aeneid.” Classical Quarterly 65 (2), 689–92.

Courses

CAMS/PLSC

Spr 27

Diplomacy and Interstate Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean

Instructor:
Jake Nabel
Instructor: Jake Nabel

CAMS 415

Fall 26

The Roman Empire and Its Frontiers

Instructor:
Jake Nabel
Instructor: Jake Nabel