Staff profile

I work on Hellenistic and Roman Greek history, with particular interests in epigraphy and numismatics. I am the chief editor of Attic Inscriptions Online, a website providing commented text of Athenian inscriptions in translation.

My first book, Agathokles of Syracuse: Sicilian Tyrant and Hellenistic King uses literary and numismatic evidence to investigate the relevance of the Classical/Hellenistic transition in Sicily, as pre-existing traditions and long-standing links to the wider Mediterranean world conditioned how innovations of the period, such as kingship, were adopted.

My current work focuses on Athens in the Roman period, principally through epigraphic evidence. I have written a long article on how the ephebate, the system of youth training, shaped Athenian society and norms under the Roman empire and am preparing a monograph on the role of the masses in the Athenian polity in this period. I am at an early stage in the production of a new edition of Inscriptiones Graecae II/III³ presenting all Athenian decrees from 86 BC to AD 267.

I began my studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and completed them at the University of Oxford in 2017. After a stint as a post-doctoral research fellow and stipendiary lecturer in ancient history at University College Oxford, I arrived at Durham in 2021. 

• Hellenistic history
• Attic epigraphy
• Roman Athens
• Numismatics
• Ancient Sicily

Authored book

• de Lisle, C. (2021). Agathokles of Syracuse: Sicilian Tyrant and Hellenistic King. Oxford University Press

Book review

• de Lisle, C. (2024). Ian Worthington, Athens after Empire. A History from Alexander the Great to the Emperor Hadrian, New York – Oxford (Oxford University Press) 2021, 432 S., ISBN 978-0-19-063398-1 (geb.), £ 35,49. Klio, 106(1), 348-355. https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2024-2010
• de Lisle, C. (2022). Review: M. Jonasch (ed.), The Fight for Greek Sicily: Society, Politics, and Landscape

Chapter in book

• Christopher, D. L. (in press). Crystalising Initiation: The ephebic inscriptions of Hellenistic Athens. In J. H. Vennebusch (Ed.), Inscribing Initiation: Written Artefacts in Rites of Passage. Franz Steiner Verlag
• de Lisle, C. (2023). Sicily in the Mediterranean ca. 540-30: Evidence from coin circulation. In D. Rosenbloom, A. Pomery, & J. Armstrong (Eds.), Money, Warfare and Power in the Ancient World: Studies in Honour of Matthew Freeman Trundle. Bloomsbury
• de Lisle, C. (2022). The Autocratic Theatre of Hieron II. In E. Csapo, H. R. Goette, J. R. Green, B. Le Guen, E. Paillard, J. A. A. Stoop, & P. Wilson (Eds.), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World (55-70). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110980356-004
• Trundle, M., & de Lisle, C. (2022). Coinage and the Creation of the Seleukid Kingdom. In E. Anagnostou-Laoutides, & S. Pfeiffer (Eds.), Culture and Ideology under the Seleukids: Unframing a Dynasty (57-76). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110755626-007
• de Lisle, C. (2019). The Punic Wars (264–146 BCE). In B. R. Doak, & C. López-Ruiz (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean (168-180). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190499341.013.13

Journal Article

• de Lisle, C., Liddel, P., & Low, P. (2022). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections: National Museums Scotland. AIO papers, 14,
• de Lisle, C. (2022). ANNA HELLER, L'ÂGE D'OR DES BIENFAITEURS: TITRES HONORIFIQUES ET SOCIÉTÉS CIVIQUES DANS L'ASIE MINEURE D'ÉPOQUE ROMAINE: IER S. AV. J.-C.–IIIE S. APR. J.-C. Geneva: Droz, 2020. Pp. 307, maps. isbn 9782600057462. CHF49.00. The Journal of Roman Studies, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0075435822000028
• de Lisle, C. (2021). Rezension von: Monika Trümper / Gianfranco Adornato / Thomas Lappi (eds.): Cityscapes of Hellenistic Sicily. Sehepunkte (München), 21(2),
• de Lisle, C. (2020). Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections 11: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. AIO papers, 11, 1-133
• de Lisle, C. (2020). The Ephebate in Roman Athens: Outline and Catalogue of Inscriptions. AIO papers, 12, 1-103
• de Lisle, C. (2017). The Coinage of Agathokles of Syracuse: Sicilian and Hellenistic Influences