His teaching and research focus on the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. His particular area of interest is how the change in political regime from a mixed republican constitution to one man rule altered how the Romans viewed themselves and the universe around them. He is the author of The Empire of the Self: Self-Command and Political Speech in Seneca and Petronius (Johns Hopkins University Press 2012). His current project is entitled New Order of the Ages: Golden Age and Apocalypse in Imperial Rome, and considers how the rise of emperors was believed to change the nature of time and the cosmos throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.