Michael Taylor

Michael J. Taylor is a historian of the Ancient Mediterranean, focusing on the Middle Roman Republic during the third and second centuries BC. His first book, Soldiers and Silver: Mobilizing Resources in the Age of Roman Conquest (Austin 2020) examined the link between resource extraction and military success across the great powers of the Hellenistic Mediterranean, arguing that Rome's idiosyncratic republican structures allowed it to raise large armies despite a relatively small revenue base. His current book project explores the citizen army of the Middle Republic, an amateur militia commanded by elected officers. He is also the author of numerous articles and chapters on various topics such as infantry tactics, military discipline, panoply, commemoration, taxation, temple pillaging, and sexuality. 

Prof. Taylor teaches a four-course undergraduate sequence on the history of the ancient Mediterranean: Archaic and Classical Greece (AHST 361), Hellenistic World (AHST 362), Roman Republic (AHST 363) and Roman Empire (AHST 364). He also occasionally teaches War and Society in Europe to 1789 (AHIS 365). He offers independent studies on various topics in ancient history, as well as intermediate Greek and Latin reading.