Christopher B. Krebs
· Gesue and Helen Spogli Professor in Italian Studies, Professor of Classics and, by courtesy, of German Studies and Comparative Literature, Chair, ClassicsStanford University · Classics
Active 1950–2025
About
Christopher B. Krebs is the Gesue and Helen Spogli Professor in Italian Studies and a Professor of Classics at Stanford University, where he has taught since 2012. He also holds courtesy appointments in German Studies and Comparative Literature. His academic background includes training as a philologist and philosopher, with degrees from Berlin, Kiel, and Oxford. His research focuses on intellectual history, Greek and Roman historiography, and Latin philology. Krebs has authored several monographs, including a literary study of Tacitus’ Germania, a history of its reception into the 20th century, and an edition and commentary on Caesar’s Bellum Gallicum Book VII. He is engaged in ongoing projects such as an intellectual biography of Caesar and a comparative study of cultural criticism. Additionally, he has co-edited volumes on ancient historiography and Caesar’s writings. Krebs has held visiting appointments at prestigious institutions including University College Oxford, Harvard University, the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich, and the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. His work employs a wide range of methods, from textual criticism and lexicography to rhetorical analysis and reception studies. Krebs has also contributed to the academic community through organizing conferences, founding the Historiography Jam, and engaging in public outreach via television, radio, and literary reviews.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Art
- Philosophy
- Theology
Selected publications
The Classical Quarterly · 2025-06-25
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingAbstract In praising Sallust, Tacitus chose the epithet florentissimus in delightful allusion to the former’s apparently innovative (and influential) use of the adverb carptim in his presentation of his novel approach to writing res gestae populi Romani : the adverb and the superlative adjective share an easily discernible etymological connection.
Broad Strokes with a Fine Brush. Pliny Pan. 25 and its Sallustian Intertexts
Histos · 2025-09-29
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingJustifying the lengthy details of his thanksgiving to the emperor (Pan. 25), Pliny alludes to two programmatic statements by Sallust. He first quotes the historian’s explicit choice of narrating history in selection (carptim, Cat. 4.2) in order to reject such a selective approach in his own case; and he justifies his rejection by adapting Sallust’s silence on mighty Carthage (Iug. 19.2). Pliny thus—indirectly and wittily (both in character)—contradicts Sallust with Sallust. In sum, the passage offers further evidence of Pliny’s dialogue with historiography, his ‘combinatorial imitation’ and, more generally, art en miniature, as well as his self-fashioning.
Histos · 2023-12-01
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondinghese are happy days for our cranky Roman historian (or are they?), as he has received rather more than his fair share of attention of late.Limiting myself to most recent monographs dedicated to Sallust specifically and as known to
Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2023-07-27
paratext1st authorCorrespondingA summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2023
1st authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Computer Science
This is the first commentary on Caesar's Bellum Gallicum to approach it as a literary text. It attempts a contextualized reading of the work through the eyes of a contemporary Roman reader, who was trained in rhetoric, versed in Greek and Roman literature, and familiar with the same political and cultural conventions and discourses as its author. In appreciating Caesar as a writer and situating the seventh book of the Bellum Gallicum within its 'horizon of expectations' and especially its historiographical tradition, it reveals much that rewards careful attention, including: a dramatized narrative, sustained intertextual borrowings and allusions (especially from and to Thucydides and Polybius), (in)direct speeches telling of Rome's second-greatest speaker, and word- and sound-play telling of the leading linguist, not to mention artful technical descriptions that lack parallels in the Roman republic. Ultimately, both author and text emerge as quite different from their grossly generalized reputations.
The Journal of Roman Studies · 2023-01-04
article1st authorCorrespondingANDREW FELDHERR, AFTER THE PAST: SALLUST ON HISTORY AND WRITING HISTORY (Blackwell/Bristol lectures on Greece, Rome and the classical tradition). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2021. Pp. x + 318. isbn 9781119076704. £35.99. - Volume 113
2023-07-27
other1st authorCorrespondingThis is the first commentary on Caesar's Bellum Gallicum to approach it as a literary text. It attempts a contextualized reading of the work through the eyes of a contemporary Roman reader, who was trained in rhetoric, versed in Greek and Roman literature, and familiar with the same political and cultural conventions and discourses as its author. In appreciating Caesar as a writer and situating the seventh book of the Bellum Gallicum within its 'horizon of expectations' and especially its historiographical tradition, it reveals much that rewards careful attention, including: a dramatized narrative, sustained intertextual borrowings and allusions (especially from and to Thucydides and Polybius), (in)direct speeches telling of Rome's second-greatest speaker, and word- and sound-play telling of the leading linguist, not to mention artful technical descriptions that lack parallels in the Roman republic. Ultimately, both author and text emerge as quite different from their grossly generalized reputations.
2023-07-27
other1st authorCorrespondingA summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
2023-07-27
other1st authorCorrespondingA summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Caesar: <i>Bellum Gallicum</i> Book VII
Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2023
1st authorCorresponding- Art
- Theology
- Philosophy
This is the first commentary on Caesar's Bellum Gallicum to approach it as a literary text. It attempts a contextualized reading of the work through the eyes of a contemporary Roman reader, who was trained in rhetoric, versed in Greek and Roman literature, and familiar with the same political and cultural conventions and discourses as its author. In appreciating Caesar as a writer and situating the seventh book of the Bellum Gallicum within its 'horizon of expectations' and especially its historiographical tradition, it reveals much that rewards careful attention, including: a dramatized narrative, sustained intertextual borrowings and allusions (especially from and to Thucydides and Polybius), (in)direct speeches telling of Rome's second-greatest speaker, and word- and sound-play telling of the leading linguist, not to mention artful technical descriptions that lack parallels in the Roman republic. Ultimately, both author and text emerge as quite different from their grossly generalized reputations.
Frequent coauthors
- 12 shared
Luca Grillo
University of Fribourg
- 4 shared
Anthony Corbeill
- 4 shared
A. J. Woodman
- 3 shared
Jonas Grethlein
- 2 shared
Luke Pitcher
- 2 shared
Jan Felix Gaertner
University of Cologne
- 2 shared
Andrew M. Riggsby
The University of Texas at Austin
- 2 shared
Henriette van der Blom
Education
Ph.D.
Stanford University
Awards & honors
- Phi Beta Kappa’s 2012 Christian Gauss Award
- 2018 Best Article Prize in the American Journal of Philology
- Fellow of the Cluster of Excellence “Cross-Cultural Philolog…
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