DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS

Taco Terpstra is a socioeconomic historian of ancient Rome. His core research focuses on Roman economic development, imperial state formation, and imperial state governance. In addition, he has an active interest in Roman material culture, having worked as an archaeologist and field director in Pompeii and Stabiae. His research has further centered on the archaeological and papyrological evidence from Roman Egypt. He is the author of Rome and the Rise of the West: How the Roman Empire Shaped the Modern Economy (Princeton UP 2026); Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean: Private Order and Public Institutions (Princeton UP 2019); and Trading Communities in the Roman World: A Micro-Economic and Institutional Perspective (Brill 2013). His teaching includes courses on Roman sociopolitical and economic history, methodologies of historical inquiry, and the archaeology of Roman Campania.

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