Draft:Edward Watts

Edward J. Watts (born 1975) is a Roman and Byzantine historian born in Princeton, New Jersey and the inaugural holder of the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair in Byzantine History in the Department of History at the University of California, San Diego.

His early work focused on the cultural and religious changes affecting philosophy and educational life as the Roman Empire embraced Christianity. This included the books City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria which won the CAMWS Outstanding Publication award. Riot in Alexandria: Historical Debate in Pagan and Christian Communities and Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher.

Many of his other works have described social and political change in the Roman world in a fashion that prompted popular reflections about 21^st century society. The Final Pagan Generation offers a generational history of the men born in the 310s that traces the experience of living through the Christianization of the Roman Empire and sparked a series of conversations among conservative thinkers about similar, dramatic shifts quietly taking place in twenty-first century life.  

His books focused on political change in the Roman and Byzantine worlds, The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome and Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny prompted political commentators, financial journalists, and economists to consider the relevance of the economic and political legacies of the Roman world to modern representative democracies. He is also the creator of the YouTube channel Rome's Eternal Decline.