research overview
- Dr. Elliott's primary research focuses on c. 2 BCE fragmentary Roman literature, currently the history of Rome written by Cato the Elder. Her first major publication focused on Ennius' Annales, an epic poem in 18 books on the Roman past. Today the work survives only via the quotations of later authors (c. 1 BCE - c.8 CE). Its reconstruction is crucial to our accounts of the trajectory of Roman literary history because it is the earliest work of Roman literature to which we have substantial access and because the surviving authors of the tradition (Vergil, Lucretius, Livy, and others) count the poem as foundational to their own work. The areas of interest she has developed in connection with this or other projects include the history and historiography of the Roman republic, the Greco-Roman epic tradition through Vergil, universal histories, ancient scholarship & reception, editorial activity, and the theory and practice of commentaries.
