I am lecturer in Ancient History at the Department of History of the University of Groningen and teach both Greek and Roman history with an emphasis on cultural and political history.

My research interest focuses on Late Antiquity, particularly the fourth century CE. My main themes of interest are the christianization of the Roman empire, the relation between the Roman and Sasanid empires, Late Roman historiography - in particular Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae-, and travel and geography.

Research projects:

• Since 1991 I am a member of what by some is called the Quadriga Batavorum, the team of Dutch scholars writing philological and historical commentaries on the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus (2nd half of the 4th century). The other members are Jan den Boeft (Professor Emeritus of Latin, Free University of Amsterdam),Daan den Hengst (Professor Emeritus of Latin, University of Amsterdam) and Hans Teitler (Lecturer in Ancient History [retired], University of Utrecht. These commentaries were originally started in the 1930s by the Dutch scholar dr. P. de Jonge and were in the 1980s continued by the above-mentioned. Commentaries up-to-and-including Book 26 have been published thusfar (Publisher: Forsten, Groningen; as from Bk. 24: Brill, Leiden). The commentary on Book 27 will be published in the autumn of 2009 (Brill, Leiden). Together with David Hunt I have edited The Late Roman World and its Historian. Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus, London/New York (Routledge) 1999. and together with Den Boeft, Den Hengst and Teitler I edited a volume of Ammianean studies entitled Ammianus after Julian. The Reign of Valentinian and Valens in Books 26-31 of the Res Gestae , Mnemosyne Supplementa 289 (Leiden 2007).
  For Ammianus see also my Ammianus Marcellinus website.
• I am still very much interested in the topic of Helena Augusta and the legend of the discovery of the True Cross on which I originally wrote my PhD thesis. Occasionally I still publish on this subject. I have in preparation an article entitled "Helena Revisited: Cross and Myth".
• As a member of a group of scholars of the University of Groningen that prepared a new edition of Strabo's Geography, I have been involved in writing a historical commentary on this geographical work.
• A few years ago I wrote a study on Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem (350-387), entitled Cyril of Jerusalem: Bishop and City, published in 2004 by Brill (Leiden) in the Supplements of Vigiliae Christianae, vol. 72.
• In recent years I have developed an interest in the Syriac Julian Romance, a late-antique Christian propaganda narrative directed against the reign of the emperor Julian (361-363).

As a sideline I have developed an interest in the Dutch painter and traveller Cornelis de Bruijn (c.1652-c.1727), who visited inter alia the Near East. In his travel books De Bruijn published some magnificent drawings of the remains of ancient cities and monuments.

Web publications:

• Helena Augusta
• "Ammianus Marcellinus on the Geography of the Pontus Euxinus", Histos. The Electronic Journal of Ancient Historiography at the University of Durham
• "Evelyn Waugh, Helena and the True Cross", Classics Ireland 7 (2000)

• The Ancient World Web: Main Index
• De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors
• Society for Late Antiquity
• Late Antiquity in the Mediterranean. A Guide to Online Resources
• The Center for Late Ancient Studies, Duke University
• Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity
• Ancient World Mapping Center
• Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
• Early Church Fathers
• Bibliographie Spätantike
• Websites Klassieke Oudheid