Phd in PHILOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT
WORLD

email: roberto.nicolai@uniroma1.it
phone: 0655389626

Born in Rome on July 6, 1959, he graduated in Ancient Literature from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” with honors, discussing - on March 18, 1983 - a thesis in Greek Literature entitled "Periegesi e Periodos gês. Research on Greek geographical literature" (supervisor: Prof. Luigi Enrico Rossi; co-supervisor: Prof. Domenico Musti).
On November 15, 1984, and November 30, 1984, he obtained his teaching qualification in Greek, Latin, and literature for classical high schools and his teaching qualification
in literature and Latin for high schools and teacher training colleges.
On September 12, 1985, he was appointed to a permanent position and assigned to the Liceo Ginnasio Statale “Anco Marzio” in Rome; he was later transferred to the Liceo “Eugenio Montale” in Rome.
On February 26, 1986, he graduated with honors and distinction with a diploma in “Manuscript Conservation” from the Special School for Archivists and Librarians at the University of Rome “La Sapienza.”
During the academic years 1986/87-1988/89, he took leave from the school to attend the Department of Classical Philology at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” for a PhD in “Greek and Latin Philology.”
On September 10, 1990, at the conclusion of his PhD in Greek and Latin Philology, Cycle II, he defended a thesis entitled “Historiography in Ancient Education” and was awarded the title of PhD.
During the academic years 1992/93 - 1993/94, he received a two-year post-doctoral scholarship at the University of Rome “La Sapienza.” For the academic years 1994/95 and 1995/96, he was appointed adjunct professor of History of the Greek Language at the University of Cassino.
On December 23, 1995, he began working as a researcher at La Sapienza University in Rome.
On November 1, 1998, he began working as an associate professor of Greek literature at the University of Sassari; and from the 2000/01 academic year, he was also assigned to teach Greek Philology. From the same year, he served as a substitute teacher of Greek Didactics at the School of Specialization for Secondary School Teachers in Sassari. On November 1, 2001, he took up the post of extraordinary professor of Greek Literature at the University of Sassari.
In the academic year 2001/2002, he was president of the Course of Studies in Ancient Sciences at the University of Sassari; from November 1, 2002, to October 31, 2005, he was president of the Course of Studies in Literature at the same university.
He was a member of the management committee of the Humanities Library and the University Commission for Libraries.
In July 2003, he was elected to the Council of the University of Greek Studies, where he served as secretary until December 2010.
On November 1, 2004, he completed his three-year term as an extraordinary professor and, having received a positive evaluation from the commission, became a full professor.
On November 1, 2006, he was transferred to the Faculty of Humanities at La Sapienza University in Rome. From October 1, 2007, to the end of 2008, he chaired the Evaluation Unit of the of the Faculty of Humanities. From November 27, 2008, to October 31, 2010, he was Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.
From November 1, 2010, to October 31, 2012, he was Vice Dean of the combined Faculty of Philosophy, Literature, Humanities, and Oriental Studies.
From November 1, 2012, to November 30, 2015, he was Dean of the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy.
From May 2010 to the end of 2013, he was a member of Sapienza's Steering and Coordination Committee for the evaluation of research products. From September 2011 to June 2015, he was chairman of the Editorial Board of Sapienza Università Editrice.
He was a member of the University Commission for Doctoral Programs.
On December 7, 2013, he was elected to the Council of the University of Greco, which in turn appointed him vice president.
For the three-year period 2015-2018, he was appointed member of the Evaluation Committee of the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio. This appointment was also confirmed for the three-year period 2018-2021.
From November 1, 2016, to October 31, 2022, he was coordinator of the PhD program in Philology and History of the Ancient World. Since March 9, 2021, he has been coordinator of the Doctoral School in Interpretation and Cultural Production Sciences.
For the period 2021-2023, he is president of the National Scientific Qualification Commission for SC 10/D2 Greek Language and Literature.
He has coordinated local units (at the Universities of Sassari and Rome “La Sapienza”) in research projects of interest one of which ended in February 2016.
He has coordinated numerous university research projects. The last project he coordinated as PI was “Diaspora” (2018-2022), dedicated to the theme of migration and population movements in the ancient world.
In February 2022, he was a visiting professor at Sorbonne Université Paris.
He has been called to serve on committees for the awarding of doctoral degrees in Italy at the universities of Basilicata, Rome “La Sapienza,” Cassino, Pisa (June 14, 2005), Rome “Tor Vergata” (May 28, 2007; October 7, 2014), abroad at the universities of Neuchâtel (Alexandra Trachsel, April 15, 2005), Salamanca (Mariangela Bellu, July 15, 2005), Zaragoza (Irene Vallejo, February 21, 2. 2007), Extremadura (David Carmona Centeno, 17. 3. 2009), Bordeaux (Mario Pinna, Recherches sur le culte d’Apollon en Asie Mineure, Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux 3, October 30, 2010), Madrid, Complutense University (Manuel Caballero González, El personaje mítico Atamante en las literaturas griega y latina, July 1, 2011); Zaragoza (Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Horrillo, El proemio historiográfico grecolatino, November 4, 2011); Extremadura (Luis Miguel Ferreira Henriques, The Military Harangue in Historiography, Epic Poetry, and Military Treatises in Portuguese and Latin in the 16th Century, February 25, 2013); Paris Sorbonne (Matthieu Fernandez, Images in the Harangues and Political Pleas of Demosthenes, November 28, 2015); Genoa (Simone Podestà, History and historiography of Lycia/Histoire et historiographie de la Lycie ancienne, December 5, 2016, in co-supervision with Paris Sorbonne); Cassino (Nicoletta Canzio, The “love story” of Polyxena and Achilles in literary and iconographic sources, December 9, 2016, in co-supervision with Paris Sorbonne); 2016, in joint supervision with Paris Sorbonne); Cassino (Nicoletta Canzio, The ‘love story’ of Polissena and Achilles in literary and iconographic sources, 9. 5. 2017); Bordeaux (Aur di Bordeaux (Aurélien Pulice, Thucydides rhetoricus. The Reception of the Historian in his Lives and Ancient Commentaries, October 22, 2019); Sorbonne University (Philipp Seubert, From the Tigris to the Nile, Syria and Arabia according to Strabo: Edition, Translation, and Commentary on Book XVI of Geography, November 20, 2020); University of Florence (Francesca Grasso, Aristotle's Meteorology: the genesis of γῆς περίοδος and the geography of the East, October 26, 2021); University of Pisa (Simone Corvasce, Even though we resemble each other in some ways. Pindaro e la teoria antica sul paradigma, May 16, 2022); dell'Ateneo Salesiano di Roma (Marco Trizzino, Sicelides Musae.
Animadversiones de litteris Graecis in Sicilia, December 16, 2022); from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (Jesús Salvador García Ortiz, Old Greek Deuteronomy and Jewish Politics in Ptolemaic Egypt. The Socio-Political Implications of the Greek Translation
of Deuteronomy, June 10, 2025); Sorbonne University (Federica Mancuso, Circulation, Interpretations, Reception of Pindar in Classical Athenian Culture, 7. 11. 2025). On December 9, 2021, he was a member of the committee for the qualification as director of
research (HDR) of Dr. David-Artur Daix (University of Bordeaux).
Starting in the 1982-1983 academic year, he regularly gave lectures in the Greek Literature seminar at the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” founded and directed by Luigi Enrico Rossi.
He participated in national and international conferences and gave numerous lectures and seminars at various institutions.