Dr Emma Nicholson

I am an Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History, and currently Director of Postgraduate Research in the Department of Classics, Ancient History, Religion and Theology.

My research explores Hellenistic history and historiography, with a particular focus on Polybius of Megalopolis, Macedonian kingship (especially Philip V and the Antigonid dynasty), Rome’s expansion into the Greek East, and ancient leadership. I am especially interested in how political power and leadership are represented in historical narratives, and how those narratives shape reputations, memory, and later scholarship. My work traces how narratives of leadership and legitimacy shaped the changing balance of power as Rome became entangled with the Greek world, bringing Antigonid Macedonia into sharper focus within that wider story.

I am co-director of the Antigonid Network (with Annelies Cazemier, Southampton), an international research community hosted at Exeter promoting the study of the Antigonid kings of ancient Macedonia and their influence across the Mediterranean world, past and present. I also direct Exeter’s Centre for Hellenistic and Later Greek Studies, which supports and promotes research on the Greek world in its Afro-Eurasian context from the death of Alexander the Great to Late Antiquity.

My monograph, Philip V of Macedon in Polybius' Histories: Politics, History, and Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2023), challenges Polybius’ portrait of Philip V and long-standing assumptions about both king and historian. I am also an editor of Stranger-Kingship in Antiquity (Routledge, 2025), which introduces and evaluates “stranger-kingship” as a framework for rethinking kingship as a political, social, and cultural phenomenon, as well as of The Role of Genre in the Literary Depiction of Leadership Values in Antiquity (Bloomsbury 2027) which explores the presentation of leadership values in antiquity and the interaction between different literary genres, authors and texts. 

Current projects include:

• The Antigonid Network: an international research community advancing the study of Antigonid Macedonia, supporting collaborations that generate events, publications, and public engagement (Director).
• Polybius for the New Surveys in the Classics series (Cambridge University Press, under contract).
• A co-authored book on the Antigonid dynasty with Dr Annelies Cazemier (University of Southampton) (Routledge, under contract).

Research supervision
I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students in Hellenistic history and historiography, ancient Macedonia and the Hellenistic dynasties, Rome’s engagement with the Greek East, and leadership/kingship. Applicants are welcome to get in touch informally before applying.

Biography
Emma Nicholson grew up in Taiwan and Berkshire (UK). She studied Ancient History at Royal Holloway, University of London (BA) and completed an MA via the London intercollegiate programme. After an interim period in industry and teaching in China, she undertook her PhD at Newcastle University between 2012 and 2015, funded by an AHRC Doctoral Fellowship, and specialising in Polybius and Philip V of Macedon. In 2015, she received additional AHRC and DAAD funding for research visits to Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, the University of Freiburg, and the University of Bologna. After completing her PhD, she taught at Newcastle (2015-2016) and Edinburgh (2016-2017), before joining the University of Exeter in September 2017. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2022, and Associate Professor in 2026.