Nicola Barbagli is a Postdoctoral Fellow at NINO (2026–2028). He is trained in Egyptology and Classical Studies.
Nicola’s main line of research concerns the written and visual representations of Roman emperors in Egypt. His PhD dissertation Faraoni romani: rappresentazioni del potere imperiale in Egitto da Augusto a Domiziano was devoted to the analysis of the titularies (in Latin, Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphic Egyptian) as well as the sculptured images of the first emperors (30 BC–AD 96). Subsequently, during his postdoctoral positions in Rome and Trier, he focused on the Roman hieroglyphic titularies as a source on the role, networks, and culture of their authors, the Egyptian priests.
In the framework of his NINO project, Nicola will explore the dynamics of imperial involvement and local agency in the negotiation of power through the analysis of the representations of Hadrian (AD 117–138). His reign constitutes a crucial moment in relations between Egypt and Rome, particularly because of the emperor’s extended stay in the land of the Nile in AD 130–131 and the subsequent emergence of a new Egyptian deity closely associated with him, Osiris-Antinous. Drawing on a diverse, multilingual body of evidence comprising inscriptions and papyri in hieroglyphic Egyptian, Demotic, Greek, and Latin, as well as statues, temple reliefs, and coins, and analysing them through a context-sensitive approach, the project seeks to shed light especially on local participation in the presentation of imperial power. It thereby aims to contribute to a new appraisal of the multicultural society of Egypt and its place in the wider, globalised Roman world.
The international conference that Nicola will organise as part of his duties as NINO Fellow directly stems from this research: it will be dedicated to the relations between Roman emperors and Egypt and will bring together specialists from a variety of fields. The meeting will offer a forum for cross-disciplinary dialogue between Egyptologists, Classicists, and scholars working in related specialisms, with the aim of bridging traditional gaps between the fields and further our understanding of Roman-Egyptian relations.
Broadly connected to Nicola’s research on Roman emperors in Egypt is the R(es)MA course he is going to teach within the OIKOS programme. The course will examine how power was conceptualised, materialised, and communicated through the analysis of written and visual representations of rulers in the ancient world.
Graeco-Roman Egypt – Roman emperors – Egyptian kingship – Egyptian royal sculpture – Roman imperial portraits – Egyptian priests – Roman provincial archaeology – Iconography – Epigraphy – Papyrology – Numismatics
2026 Adjunct lecturer in Egyptology at University of Trier
2024–2026 Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Trier
2023 Franco Zeffirelli Italian Fellow at the American Academy in Rome
2023 Editorial collaborator of the Fondazione del Museo delle Antichità Egizie di Torino
2020–2022 Research fellow at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici in Naples
2016–2022 Ph.D. in Classics (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)
2012–2015 ‘Diploma’ in Archaeology and History of Art (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)
2012–2015 MA in Oriental Studies: Egypt, Near and Middle East (University of Pisa)
2008–2012 BA in History and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (Universiy of Florence)
2025 ‘Nero in Egypt: insights from coinage into the local representations of the Roman emperor’, Quaderni Ticinesi di Numismatica e Antichità Classiche 54, pp. 45–81.
2025: (with L. Lazzarini), ‘A Roman emperor made of Egyptian white marble: a multidisciplinary study of the statue of Domitian in the Museum MACA – Mantova Collezioni Antiche’, Marmora 21, pp. 53–79.
2025: ‘Dishonoured pharaohs: alteration, removal, and destruction of imperial inscriptions and images in Roman Egypt’, in V.E. Allen, S. Connor (eds), Altering images: iconoclasm in Egypt, Liège: Presses Universitaires de Liège, pp. 369–428.
2024: ‘Un nome d’Horo di Caracalla’, in C. Alù, P. Del Vesco, Ch. Greco, M. Mancini, G. Miniaci (eds), Ancient Egypt and the surrounding world: contact, trade, and influence: Studies presented to Marilina Betrò, Pisa: Pisa University Press, pp. 187–198.
2023: ‘The last pharaohs: the Egyptian reception of late Roman emperors’, in F. Carlà-Uhink, Ch. Rollinger (eds), The Tetrarchy as ideology: reconfigurations and representations of an imperial power, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, pp. 221–246.
2021: ‘Una statua inedita di imperatore come faraone’, in A. Anguissola, M. Castiglione, F. Guidetti (eds), Munera Musarum: studi per Lucia Faedo = Studi Classici e Orientali 67.2, Pisa: Pisa University Press, pp. 183–197.
2020: ‘The emperors in the province: a study of the Tetrarchic images from the imperial cult chamber in Luxor’, in F. Guidetti, K. Meinecke (eds), A globalised visual culture? Towards a geography of Late Antique art, Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 91–131.
For further contributions and digital copies of his publications, see Nicola’s Academia.edu profile.