Chris Erdman's research examines the state institutions and political culture of the Roman Republic in the post-Gracchan period, especially the political role of the Roman people.
He takes an interdisciplinary approach to Roman political history, and maintains interests in Greek and Latin epigraphy, comparative history, and ancient historiography. He has recently published (Historia 2024) on how information about proposed laws was communicated to voters in the assembly, and has forthcoming articles on voting procedure during late Republican legislative assemblies (Klio 2026) and Cicero's allegations in the Pro Milone that P. Clodius had intended to propose legislation on freedperson's rights if he had been elected praetor for 52 BC. He is currently working on a monograph on the voting culture of Roman legislative assemblies.
Prior to arriving at Wash. U, Erdman completed a Ph.D in Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2024) and was also the Jacobi Student at the Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik in Munich. During the 2023-2024 academic year he was the Arthur Ross Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome.