Individual Scholar Page

Personal Info

Photo

About Me

Professor of Classics at the University of Florida, Victoria Emma Pagán is the 2024-2025 University of Florida Teacher/Scholar of the Year and recipient of the SEC Academic Consortium Faculty Achievement Award. She was a University of Florida Term Professor for 2017-2020. She was also a University of Florida Research Foundation Professor for 2014-2016  and a recipient of a Teaching Award in 2010 in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

With over two dozen articles on Latin literature, her research focuses on the historians and post-Augustan writers. She has written twin studies on conspiracy for the University of Texas Press: Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History (2004) and Conspiracy Theory in Latin Literature (2012). She is the author of Rome and the Literature of Gardens (London 2006); A Sallust Reader (Wauconda 2009);  Tacitus (London 2017) and she is the editor of the Blackwell Companion to Tacitus (2012). With Judith W. Page and Brigitte Weltman-Aron she co-edited Disciples of Flora: Gardens in History and Culture (2015), and with James McNamara she co-edited Tacitus’ Wonders: Empire and Paradox in Ancient Rome. She is the sole editor of the two-volume Tacitus Encyclopedia published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2023 (see the CLAS feature article). Her most recent book is Women and the Collaborative Art of Gardens: From Antiquity to the Present, co-edited with Judith W. Page.

She is co-chair of the Women’s Classical Caucus; is a founding member of the Mountaintop Coalition; president of The Classical Association of the Middle West and South; and president-elect of the Society for Classical Studies. She is co-chair of the University of Florida Intercollegiate Athletic Committee.

Born and raised in Ravenna, Ohio, Victoria spent a year at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island before she earned her B.A. in Latin at Kent State University, her M.A. in Classical Studies at the University of Michigan, and her Ph.D. in Classical Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. She resides in Gainesville with her husband, Andrew Wolpert.

Recent Publications

BOOKS

1. Pagán, V. E. and McNamara, James, editors. Under contract. Early Modern Receptions of Tacitus: High Tacitism. Bloomsbury USA Academic.

2. Pagán, V. E. and Page, Judith W., editors. (2024). Women and the Collaborative Art of Gardens: From Antiquity to the Present. Routledge.

3. Pagán, V. E., editor. (2023). The Tacitus Encyclopedia, 2 vols. Blackwell Pub.

4. Pagán, V. E. and McNamara, James, editors. (2022). Tacitus’ Wonders: Empire and Paradox in Ancient Rome. Bloomsbury USA Academic.

5. Pagán, V. E. (2017). Tacitus. Tauris Academic Studies.

6. Pagán, V. E., Page, Judith W., and Weltman-Aron, Brigitte, editors. (2015). Disciples of Flora: Gardens in History and Culture. Cambridge Scholars Pub.

7. Pagán, V. E. (2012). Conspiracy Theory in Latin Literature. Univ of Texas Press.

8. Pagán, V. E., editor. (2012). A Companion to Tacitus. Blackwell Pub.

9. Pagán, V. E. (2009). A Sallust Reader: Selections from Bellum Catilinae and Bellum Iugurthinum, and Historiae. Bolchazy Carducci Pub.

10. Pagán, V. E. (2006). Rome And the Literature of Gardens. Bristol Classical Press.

11. Pagán, V. E. (2004). Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History. Univ of Texas Press.

CHAPTERS

1. Pagán, V. E. (copyediting stage). Augustus in the Annals. In P. Christoforou, B. ten Berge (Eds), Tacitus and the Incomplete (pp. forthcoming). University of Michigan Press.

2. Pagán, V. E. (proof stage). Traces of the De Clementia in Tacitus, Annals 14. In T. Ricchieri, B. Del Giovane, S. Briguglio (Eds.), Seneca dopo Seneca (pp. 75-91). Pàtron Editore.

3. Pagán, V. E. (2025). Annals 1. In S. Bartera, K. Shannon-Henderson (Eds), Oxford Critical Guide to Tacitus (pp. 112-123). Oxford University Press.

4. Pagán, V. E. (2025). Les Annales de Tacite à contre-courant. Translated into Frency by Flora Iff-Noël. In L. Autin, R. Millot (Eds), Derrière le Voile du Pouvoir: Études d’Histoire, de Littérature et de Réception sur le Monde Romain (pp. 131-151). Université Grenoble Alpes Éditions.

5. Pagán, V. E. (2024). Introduction. In V. E. Pagán, J. W. Page (Eds), Women and the Collaborative Art of Gardens: From Antiquity to the Present (pp. 1-9). Routledge.

6. Pagán, V. E. (2023). Marginality and Philo of Alexandria. In K. Arampapaslis, A. Augoustakis, S. Froedge, C. Schroer (Eds), Dynamics of Marginality: Liminal Characters and Marginal Groups in Neronian and Flavian Literature (pp. 9-24). De Gruyter.

7. Pagán, V. E. (2023). The Bacchanalian Conspiracy: From the Paranoid Style to Conspirituality. In E. Asprem, M. Pasi, F. Piraino (Eds.), Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories (pp. 15-30). Routledge.

8. McNamara, J., & Pagán, V. E. (2022). Introduction. In J. McNamara and V.E. Pagán (Eds), Tacitus’ Wonders: Empire and Paradox in Ancient Rome (pp. 1-14). Bloomsbury Academic.

9. Pagán, V. E. (2022). Tacitus’ Ordinary Wonders. In J. McNamara and V.E. Pagán (Eds), Tacitus’ Wonders: Empire and Paradox in Ancient Rome (pp. 245-265). Bloomsbury Academic.

10. Pagán, V. E. (2021). Tacitus and the Massacre at Tarracina (Hist., 3.76-77). In O. Devillers, B.B. Sebastiani (Eds), Sources et modèles des historiens anciens, volume 2 (pp. 284-291). Ausonius.

11. Pagán, V. E. (2021). Tacitean Inflections of Sincerity. In C. W. Marshall (Ed.), Latin Poetry and its Reception: Essays for Susanna Braund (pp. 124-134). Routledge.

12. Pagán, V. E. (2020). Conspiracy theories in the Roman Empire. In M. Butter & P. Knight (Eds), Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories (pp. 531-541). Routledge.

13. Pagán, V. E. (2020). The Obituary of Augustus in Tacitus, Annals 1.9-10. In C. Pimentel, R. Furtado, N. Rodrigues, A. Lóio (Eds), Saeculum Augustum: New Approaches to the Age of Augustus on the bimillenium of his death (pp. 375-393). Georg Olms.

14. Pagán, V. E. (2016). Horticulture and the Roman Shaping of Nature. In Oxford Topics in Classical Studies (online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Apr. 2014), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935390.013.78, accessed 2 Oct. 2025

15. Pagán, V. E. (2015). The Afterlife of Little Sparta. In V. E. Pagán, J. W. Page, B. Weltman-Aron (Eds), Disciples of Flora: Gardens in History and Culture (pp. 145-165). Cambridge Scholars Pub.

16. Pagán, V. E. (2015). Georgics 2.497 and Thebaid 1.19–20: Allusion and Inspiration. In W. J. Dominik, C. E. Newlands, K. Gervais (Eds), Brill’s Companion to Statius (pp. 362-376). Brill Academic Pub.

17. Pagán, V. E. (2014). Fear in the Agricola. In O. Devillers (Ed.), Les opera minora et le développement de l’historiographie tacitéenne (pp. 73-86). Ausonius.

18. Pagán, V. E. (2013). Aufidius Bassus. In K. Brodersen, C. B. Champion, A. Erskine, S. R. Huebner (Eds), The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Blackwell Pub.

19. Pagán, V. E. (2013). Velleius Paterculus. In K. Brodersen, C. B. Champion, A. Erskine, S. R. Huebner (Eds), The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Blackwell Pub.

20. Pagán, V. E. (2012). Introduction. In V.E. Pagán (Ed.), A Companion to Tacitus (pp. 1-12). Blackwell Pub.

21. Pagán, V. E. (2011). Velleius 2.30.6 and Tacitus, Histories 4.81.2: Accomplishing Allusion. In E. Cowan, A. Powell (Eds), Velleius Paterculus: Making History (pp. 141-156). Classical Press of Wales.

22. Pagán, V. E. (2004). Speaking Before Superiors: Orpheus in Vergil and Ovid. In I. Sluiter, R. M. Rosen (Eds), Free Speech in Classical Antiquity. Brill Academic Pub.

23. Pagán, V. E. (2002). Actium and Teutoburg: Augustan Victory and Defeat in Vergil and Tacitus. In D. Levene, D.P. Nelis (Eds), Clio and the Poets: Augustan Poetry and the Traditions of Ancient Historiography (pp. 45-59). Brill.

REFEREED ARTICLES

1. Pagán, V. E. (2025). State of Play: Conspiracy Theory. American Journal of Philology 146.3, 383-395.

2. Pagán, V. E. (2023). Tacitus’s Omnipresent Vespasian. Illinois Classical Studies, 48(1-2), 71-82. https://doi.org/10.5406/23285265.48.1.2.06

3. Pagán, V. E. (2022). Translating a Pun on Proscription. Delos: A Journal of Translation and World Literature, 37(2). https://doi.org/10.5744/DELOS.2022.2007

Page 12 of 214. Pagán, V. E. (2022). Gentle Touches to the Tiller: Gradual Paradigm Shifts in the Latin Classroom. Classical Outlook, 97, 16-18.

5. Pagán, V. E. (2010). The Power of the Epistolary Preface from Statius to Pliny. Classical Quarterly, 60(1), 194-201. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000983880999053X

6. Pagán, V. E. (2010). Forestalling Violence in Sallust and Vergil. Mouseion, 10(1), 23-44. https://doi.org/10.1353/mou.2010.0023

7. Pagán, V. E. (2009). Latin Secondary Education: Costs and Benefits. Classical World, 102(3), 316-322. https://doi.org/10.1353/clw.0.0095

8. Pagán, V. E. (2008). Toward a Model of Conspiracy Theory for Ancient Rome. New German Critique, 35(1), 27-49. https://doi.org/10.1215/0094033X-2007-017

9. Pagán, V. E. (2007). Teaching Torture in Seneca Controversiae 2.5. Classical Journal, 103(2), 165-182. https://doi.org/10.1353/TCJ.2007.0022

10. Pagán, V. E. (2006). Shadows and Assassinations: Forms of Time in Tacitus and Appian. Arethusa, 39(2), 193-218. https://doi.org/10.1353/are.2006.0017

11. Pagán, V. E. (2005). Magno Itinere: Caesar in the Fifth Semester. Classical Outlook, 82, 133-137.

12. Pagán, V. E. (2005). The Pannonian Revolt in the Annals of Tacitus. Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, 12, 414-422.

13. Pagán, V. E. (2000). The Mourning After: Statius Thebaid 12. American Journal of Philology, 121, 423-452.

14. Pagán, V. E. (2000). Distant Voices of Freedom in the Annales of Tacitus. Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, 10, 358-369.

15. Pagán, V. E. (1999). Beyond Teutoburg: Transgression and Transformation in Tacitus, Annales 1.61-62. Classical Philology, 94, 302-320.

16. Koenen, L., Luppe, W., & Pagán, V. E. (1991). Explanations of Callimachean aitia. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 88, 157-164.

NON REFEREED ARTICLES

1. Pagán, V. E. (2015). Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl: The Power of Pretense. Amphora, 12(1), 10, 11-21.

2. Pagán, V. E. (2023). “How have conspiracy theories changed the course of history?” History Today 73.8: 8-10.

3. Pagán, V. E. (2018). “What Greek Tragedy Illuminates about James Comey,” The Conversation, April 20, 2018.

4. Pagán, V. E. (2018). “You are Using that Word All Wrong: A Primer from Professor Victoria Pagán,” Ytori: The Magazine of the University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, April 2018.

BOOK REVIEWS

1. Pagán, V. E. (2023). P. Duchêne, Comment écrire sur les empereurs? Les procédés historiographiques de Tacite et Suétone (Bordeaux 2020). Gnomon 95.5: 468-469.

2. Pagán, V. E. (2020). W. F. Jashemski, K. L. Gleason, K. J. Hartswick, et al., eds. Gardens of the Roman Empire (Cambridge 2018). Sehepunkte 20.2.

3. Pagán, V. E. (2019). A. König, C. Whitton, eds. Roman Literature under Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian: Literary Interactions, AD 96-138 (Cambridge 2018). Gnomon 92.3: 277-278.

4. Pagán, V. E. (2018). B. Biesinger, Römische Dekadenzdiskurse: Untersuchungen zur römischen Geschichtsschreibung und ihren Kontexten (2. Jahrhundert v. Chr. bis 2 Jarhundert n. Chr.) (Stuttgart 2016). H-Soz-Kult 02.26.2018.

5. Pagán, V. E. (2017). A. Ganter, Was die römische Welt zusammenhält: Patron-Klient-Verhältnisse zwischen Cicero und Cyprian (Berlin 2015). H-Soz-Kult 07.08.2017.

6. Pagán, V. E. (2016). K. Coleman, ed., Le jardin dans l’antiquité (Fondation Hardt 2014). Classical World 109.1: 135-7.

7. Pagán, V. E. (2015). C. van den Berg, The World of Tacitus’ Dialogus de Oratoribus (Cambridge 2014). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.05.43.

8. Pagán, V. E. (2014). M. Dewar, Leisured Resistance: Villas, Literature, and Politics in the Roman World (London 2014). Phoenix 68.1-2: 189-191.

9. Pagán, V. E. (2014). C. Damon (trans.), Tacitus: Annals. Penguin Classics (London 2012). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.05.56.

10. Pagán, V. E. (2012). Co-authored with Andrew Wolpert, Review of J. Marincola, ed., Greek and Roman Historiography (Oxford 2011). New England Classical Journal: 39: 221-225.

11. Pagán, V. E. (2011). L. Kronenberg, Allegories of Farming from Greece and Rome (Cambridge 2009). Classical Journal Online 2011.09.01.

12. Pagán, V. E. (2008) [2010]. R. Rosen and I. Sluiter, City, Countryside and the Spatial Organization of Value in Classical Antiquity (Leiden 2006). Ancient History Bulletin 22: 173-175.

13. Pagán, V. E. (2010). D. Sailor, Writing and Empire in Tacitus (Cambridge 2008). New England Classical Journal 37.2: 145-147.

14. Pagán, V. E. (2007). N. Shumate, Nation, Empire, Decline: Studies in Rhetorical Continuity from the Romans to the Modern Era (London 2006). New England Classical Journal 34.3: 273-275.

15. Pagán, V. E. (2007). Co-authored with Andrew Wolpert, Review of J. Roisman, The Rhetoric of Conspiracy in Ancient Athens (Berkeley 2006). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.03.14

16. Pagán, V. E. (2006). P. Bowe, Gardens of the Roman World (Los Angeles 2004). Classical Outlook 83: 89.

17. Pagán, V. E. (2005). H. Haynes, The History of Make Believe: Tacitus on Imperial Rome (Berkeley 2003). Hermathena 179: 224-226.

18. Pagán, V. E. (2004). E. Gunderson, Declamation, Paternity, and Roman Identity: Authority and the Rhetorical Self (Cambridge 2003). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.02.29

19. Pagán, V. E. (2004). C. Damon, Tacitus Histories I (Cambridge 2003). Classical Review 54: 111-112.

20. Pagán, V. E. (2002). D. Hurley, Suetonius Divus Claudius (Cambridge 2001). Journal of Roman Studies 92: 252-253.

21. Pagán, V. E. (2001). R. Ash, Ordering Anarchy: Armies and Leaders in Tacitus’ Histories (Ann Arbor 1999) and E. O’Gorman, Irony and Misreading in the Annals of Tacitus (Cambridge 2000). Journal of Roman Studies 91: 252-253.

OTHER

1. Buongiovanni, C., Renda, Ch., and Pagán, V. E., co-editors. (2024) Political Crisis and Transitions in Roman Historiography of the Imperial Age. Illinois Classical Studies 48.1-2 (Spring/Fall 2023). https://muse.jhu.edu/article/936458.

Media Coverage

Social Media

Country Focus

Italy

Expertise by Geography

Expertise by Chronology

Ancient

Expertise by Topic

Literary History