Eric Rebillard

Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities

120 Goldwin Smith Hall
er97@cornell.edu
607/255-8640

Education

Professor Rebillard received his PhD from the Sorbonne (Paris, France) in 1993 and is a former member of the Ecole française de Rome. He came at Cornell in 2004 after having held a research position in the French CNRS between 1996 and 2003.

Departments and programs

Archaeology Program
Classics
History
Jewish Studies Program
Medieval Studies Program
Religious Studies Program

Affiliated Colleges

College of Arts and Sciences

Academic interests

Latin Literature
Classical Archaeology
Ancient History

Keywords

Roman History

Overview

My work focuses on early Christianity and late antiquity. I published on death and burial, martyr narratives, and the transformations of religious practices in late antiquity. My forthcoming book, The Triumph of Christianity Redescribed, will be published by Cornell University Press, in Spring 2026). I am currently working on Numidia from the kingdom of the Massyli (4th c. BCE) to the Rustamid Imamate (10th c. CE), with a focus on the continuing presence and resilience of Native Northwestern Africans.

Prior to coming to Cornell University, where I now hold the Avalon Foundation Professorship in the Humanities, I was a researcher in the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and a member of the École française de Rome.

I have published four single-authored monographs, including Christians and their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200-450 CE, a collection of martyr narratives in Greek and Latin with translations and commentary, the excavation report of the imperial necropolis of Musarna (Italy), and six edited works. I have been a visiting scholar at the Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton), the Max-Weber Kolleg (Erfurt), and Corpus Christi College (Oxford). I was awarded a Mellon New Directions Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Research Focus

History of Late Antiquity and Early Christianity
Augustine of Hippo
Roman Funerary Archaeology

Publications

Books

The Early Martyr Narratives: Neither Authentic Accounts Nor Forgeries. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020.
Greek and Latin Narratives about the Ancient Martyrs. Oxford Early Christian Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Transformations of Religious Practices in Late Antiquity. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2014.
Christians and their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200-450 CE. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012 (paperback 2016).
The Care of the Dead in Late Antiquity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009 [English translation of Religion et sépulture: l’Église, les vivants et les morts dans l’Antiquité tardive (IIIe-Ve siècles). Civilisations et sociétés 115. Paris: Éd. de l’EHESS, 2003].
Musarna. 3, La nécropole impériale. Collection de l’École française de Rome 415. Rome: École française de Rome, 2009.
In hora mortis: évolution de la pastorale chrétienne de la mort aux IVe et Ve siècles dans l’Occident latin. Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 283. Rome: École française de Rome, 1994.

Edited volumes

Group Identity and Religious Individuality in Late Antiquity. Edited by Éric Rebillard and Jörg Rüpke. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2015.
Les frontières du profane dans l’Antiquité tardive. Edited by Éric Rebillard and Claire Sotinel. Collection de l'École française de Rome 428. Rome: École française de Rome, 2010.
Economie et religion dans l’Antiquité tardive. Edited by Éric Rebillard and Claire Sotinel. Special issue of Antiquité tardive 14 (2006): 15-116.
Hellénisme et christianisme. Edited by Michel Narcy and Éric Rebillard. Lille: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2004.
Orthodoxie, christianisme, histoire = Orthodoxy, christianity, history. Collection de l’École française de Rome 270. Edited by Susanna Elm, Éric Rebillard and Antonella Romano, Rome: École française de Rome, 2000.
L’évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle: image et autorité. Collection de l’École française de Rome 248. Edited by Éric Rebillard and Claire Sotinel. Rome: École française de Rome, 1998.