Phone
Office Location
309 Conklin Hall
175 University Ave.
Newark, NJ 07102
Research Interests:
Roman history (esp. Republican political culture, ethnic identity & other group identity)
Roman material culture (esp. topography of Rome, the archaeology of Italy & Roman villas)
Roman numismatics (esp. iconography of the Republic)
Roman historians (esp. Sallust, Livy & the fragmentary Republican historians)
Gary D. Farney received his BA from Indiana University (double majoring in Classics and History) in 1991. While doing his graduate training at Bryn Mawr College (PhD 1999), he was a Rome Prize Winner in 1997 at the American Academy in Rome, and an Oscar Broneer Fellow at the American School for Classical Studies in Athens in 1998. He also received training at the American Numismatic Society in New York City (Summer Fellow 1994) and participated in three seasons of archaeological excavations at the Italian sites of Fregellae, Cosa and Fabrateria Nova.
Before coming to Rutgers, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Hollins University (1999-2000) and Assistant Professor of Classics at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome (2000-2001). From 2005-2010, he directed the Rutgers Study Abroad Summer in Greece Program. Prof. Farney also received the Henry J. Browne Award for Teaching Excellence from Rutgers-Newark’s University College in 2006. He served as Chairperson for the Rutgers’ side of the Department of History (2010-2012, Spring 2014), and is currently the Director of the Program in Ancient and Medieval Civilizations (since 2008). In Spring 2013, he was a Senior Resident Fellow at the Research Center for Anatolian Civlizations in Istanbul, Turkey.
Prof. Farney’s research and publishing interests have been in the areas of Roman Republican and early Imperial political culture, ancient ethnic identity and other group identity, and the material culture of ancient Italy. In addition to a number of articles, his first book project was Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in the Roman Republic published by Cambridge University Press in 2007 (for a review of this book, see http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2008/2008-04-25.html).
His current book-project is tentatively entitled Communicating Identity in Republican and Early Imperial Rome. In this he argues that each noble Roman family carried its own specific identity that it used while competing with other families in Rome’s highly competitive political culture. Families expressed this identity via symbols or emblems they wore on their person or put on coins they minted for the Roman state, in the physical appearance of individual family members through evocative costume, hair-styles and jewelry, and in public spectacles like games and funerals.
Prof. Farney is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Ancient History. Moreover, he recently published a co-edited volume entitled The Peoples of Ancient Italy (De Gruyter Press, 2017) with Guy Bradley of Cardiff University.
Since 2012, Prof. Farney is co-director of an archaeological field project in central Italy, the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project. Rutgers and non-Rutgers students (both undergraduate and graduate) may apply to participate in the field school in Italy that serves this project. The field school is currently one of the largest Rutgers faculty-led study abroad program in the university. He has also helped establish The Mediterranean Displacements Project, an interdisciplinary working group of faculty across the university whose work centers on questions of migration, displacement, refugees and climate change in the Mediterranean, both historically and in the present. Since July 1, 2021, he has also become the Director for the Division of Global Affairs at Newark.
Courses Taught
Ancient Greek Civilization
Roman Civilization
Ancient Sports: From Olympians to Gladiators
The Greek and Roman City
Alexander the Great
Greek History Through Dramatic Writings
Sparta
Roman Emperors
Latin and Ancient Greek Language Courses
Late Roman Republic (Graduate-Newark)
Greek and Roman Historians and Historiography (Graduate-Newark)
Ancient Democracies (Graduate-Newark)
Athenian Democracy (Graduate-Newark)
Roman Republican Historians (Graduate-New Brunswick)
Latin Epigraphy and Numismatics (Graduate-New Brunswick)
Research Initiatives
Awards
Loeb Classical Library Foundation Grant (for the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project), Spring, 2019
Senior Resident Fellowship—Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations in Istanbul (Koç University), Spring, 2013
Henry J. Browne Teaching Excellence Award—Rutgers University, September, 2006
Oscar Broneer Fellow—American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1997-1998
Rome Prize Winner—American Academy in Rome, 1996-1997
Program in Italian Archaeology Participant and Grant Recipient—American Academy in Rome, Summer, 1995
Seminar Fellow—American Numismatic Society, Summer, 1994
Education
Ph.D. (Latin), Bryn Mawr College, 1999
M.A. (Latin), Bryn Mawr College, 1993
B.A. (Classical Studies and History), Indiana University, 1991
Expertise
(1) Roman history (esp. Republican political culture, ethnic identity & other group identity)
(2) Roman material culture (esp. topography of Rome & the archaeology of Italy)
(3) Roman numismatics (esp. iconography of the Republic)
(4) Roman historians (esp. Sallust, Livy & the fragmentary Republican historians)
Publications
PUBLICATIONS:
3). Communicating Aristocratic Identity: Personal Display in Republican Rome [in preparation]
2). The Peoples of Ancient Italy, Co-edited with Guy Bradley (Walter de Gruyter Press, 2017)
1). Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in the Roman Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2007; paperback edition, 2010)
Academic Articles and Book Chapters:
24). “Aristocratic Family Identities in the Roman Republic,” in V. Manolopoulou, J. Skinner & C. Tsouparopoulou (Edd.) Identities in Antiquity. Rewriting Antiquity Series (Routledge) [draft submitted; forthcoming]
23). “Times and Ways of Romanization,” in D. Maras (Ed.) Oxford Handbook of the Etruscans (Oxford University Press) [draft submitted; forthcoming]
22). “Digital Vacone: the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project’s Transition from 2B Pencils to 3D Mesh,” co-authored with Matthew Notarian, Gabriella Carpentiero, Lucia Michilien, Tyler Franconi, Candace Rice and Dylan Bloy, in Studies in Digital Heritage 4.2 (2020) Pp. 108-133 [draft submitted; forthcoming]
21). “Italian Identity and the Western Provinces: Roman Emperors and Italian Origins,” in Aberson, M., et al. (Edd.) Nos sumus Romani qui fuimus ante ... Memory of Ancient Italy. Études genevoises sur l’Antiquité (EGeA; Peter Lang, 2020) Pp. 200-214
20). “Forum Novum and the Limits of Roman Colonization in Italy,” in A. De Giorgi (Ed.) Cosa and the Colonial Landscape of Republican Italy (Third and Second Centuries BCE) (University of Michigan Press, 2019) Pp. 159-181
19). “Excavations at the Roman Villa of Vacone (RI), Lazio by the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project, 2012-2018,” co-authored with Tyler Franconi, Candace Rice and Dylan Bloy, in C. Sfameni & M. Volpi (Edd.) Oltre la Villa: ricerche nei siti archeologici del territorio di Cottanello, Montasola, Configni e Vacone (Arbor Sapientiae, 2019) Pp. 109-136
18). “Villa Romana di Vacone (RI): nuovi mosaici dal settore urbano della villa,” co-authored with Federica Pollari, Candace Rice and Tyler Franconi, Atti del XXIII Colloquio dell’Associazione Italiana per lo Studio e la Conservazione del Mosaico (Edizioni Quasar, 2018) Pp. 401-404
17). “Introduction,” co-authored with Guy Bradley, in G. D. Farney & G. Bradley (Edd.) The Peoples of Ancient Italy (Walter de Gruyter Press, 2017) Pp. 1-5
16). “The Sabines,” co-authored with Giulia Masci, in G. D. Farney & G. Bradley (Edd.) The Peoples of Ancient Italy (Walter de Gruyter Press, 2017) Pp. 543-557
15). “I mosaici imperiali della villa romana di Vacone (RI),” co-authored with Candace Rice and Federica Pollari, in Atti del XXII Colloquio dell’Associazione Italiana per lo Studio e la Conservazione del Mosaico (Scripta Manent Edizioni, 2017) Pp. 303-312
14). “The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project. I risultati della seconda campagna di scavo at Vacone (Rieti),” co-authored with Dylan Bloy, Giulia Masci, Candace Rice, Tyler Franconi and Matt Notarian, Lazio e Sabina 11 (2016) Pp. 57-63
13). “Forgery and the Antiquarian Tradition: the Identification of Horace’s Sabine Villa at Vacone,” co-authored with Matthew Notarian and Dylan Bloy, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 61 (2016) Pp. 40-58
12). “Romans and Italians,” in J. McInerney (Ed.) A Companion to Ethnicity in Ancient Mediterranean (Wiley-Blackwell 2014) Pp. 437- 454
11). “The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project: prima campagna di scavo a Vacone (2012),” co-authored with Dylan Bloy, Giulia Masci and Matthew Notarian, Lazio e Sabina 10 (2014) Pp. 13-18
10). “Latins, Latium,” article for Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell 2013) Pp. 3925-3926 [updated, Mar. 2018]
9). “Fabii, family of,” article and family tree for Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell 2013) Pp. 2611-2616
8). “Gens,” article for Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell 2013) Pp. 2884-2886
7). “The Trojan Genealogy of the Julii before Caesar the Dictator,” Ancient History Bulletin 26 (2012) Pp. 1-7
6). “Aspects of the Emergence of Italian Identity in the early Roman Empire,” in M. Gleba & H. Horsnaes (Edd.) Communicating Identity in Italic Iron Age Communities. (Oxbow Books, 2011) Pp. 221-230
5). “The Name-Changes of Legendary Romans and the Etruscan-Latin Bilingual Inscriptions: Strategies for Romanization,” Etruscan Studies 13 (2010) Pp. 149-157
4). “The Roman gens,” review article of C. J. Smith, The Roman Clan (Cambridge U.P., 2006), Journal of Roman Archaeology 21 (2008) Pp. 379-386
3). “The Mamilii, Mercury and the limites: Aristocratic Genealogy and Political Conflict in the Roman Republic,” Athenaeum 96 (2008) Pp. 249-258
2). “Some More Roman Republican ‘Also-Rans,’” Historia 53 (2004) Pp. 246-250
1). “The Fall of the Priest Gaius Sulpicius Galba and the First Consulship of Marius,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 42 (1997) Pp. 23-37
Popular Media Articles:
3).
co-authored with Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, Oct. 12, 2008, “Weekend in Review,” Pp. 11
1). “Death and Glory in the Ancient Olympic games,” The Athens News, August 23, 2004 (Article code C13087A171)
Book reviews:
7). Review of R. MacMullen, The Earliest Romans in Classical Journal (CJ-Online, 2012.08.08)
6). Review of J. McInerney, The Cattle of the Sun in Journal of World History 23 (2012) Pp. 152-155
5). Review of T. P. Wiseman, Unwritten Rome in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2009.06.10)
4). Review of G. Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome in New England Classical Journal 32 (2005) Pp. 368-370
3). Review of N. Rosenstein, Rome at War in The Historian 67 (2005) Pp. 805-806
2). Review of C. Jones, Kinship Diplomacy in the Ancient World in The Historian 63 (2000) Pp. 679-680
1). Review of G. Forsythe, L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi and the Roman Annalistic Tradition in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 7.8 (1996) Pp. 673-677 (now 1996.10.09)
Associated Programs
Director, Division of Global Affairs (Rutgers-Newark)
Director, Program in Ancient and Medieval Civilizations (Rutgers-Newark)
Affiliated Faculty (Member of the Graduate Faculty), Department of Classics (Rutgers-New Brunswick)
Member of the International Advisory Committee (Rutgers-wide)