Willamette University

Classical Studies

Mehran Nickbakht

Mehran Nickbakht

Mehran Nickbakht replaced Prof. Ortwin Knorr during his sabbatical in 2007-2008.

Dr. Nickbakht is an ancient historian with strong training in classical philology. He is especially interested in Roman history, Latin epigraphy, and Latin literature, in particular historiography, Augustan poetry, and epistolography.

He studied at the universities of Cologne and Göttingen in Germany, but also spent one year at the Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium) and three years at the University of California, Berkeley.

While working at the University of Bern in Switzerland, Mehran Nickbakht received his Ph.D. from Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf (Germany) with a study on Tacitus and the SC de Cn. Pisone patre: Tacitus’ Working Methods in the Annals (in German). He has published several scholarly articles, e.g., on Vergil's Aeneid, Tacitus' Annals, Ovid's Ars Amatoria, and Augustus' adoption of Tiberius. Currently, he is working on Pliny's Epistles.

Mehran Nickbakht previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of Bern (Switzerland). He spent 2006-2007 doing research at the Swiss Institute in Rome. After his return to Germany, he first worked at the University of Düsseldorf. Currently, he is teaching Ancient History at the University of Giessen.

Education

  • M.A., Ancient History & Latin Philology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Germany)
  • Ph.D., Ancient History, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf (Germany)

Publications

Fighting for Liberty, Embracing Slavery: Tacitus, Annals 1.7.1, Museum Helveticum 63 (2006) 39-43

Closure and Continuation: The Poetics of Aeneid 6.900-1, Philologus 150 (2006) 95-101

Further Evidence of the Original Outline of Ovid's Ars Amatoria (1.771-2), Mnemosyne 58 (2005) 284-286

Zur ovatio des jüngeren Drusus in den Fasti Ostienses und Fasti Amiternini, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 153 (2005) 264-266

Tiberius' Adoption durch Augustus: rei publicae causa? (Vell. Pat. 2.104.1), Göttinger Forum für Altertumswissenschaft 1 (1998) 112-116