Tom Zhuohun Wang, the 2027 Arthur Ross Rome Prize Fellow in Ancient Studies, is a PhD candidate in Classics and History at Yale University. He is currently working on his dissertation, titled Beyond Euergetism and Taxation: Financing Western Roman Cities from the First to Third Centuries CE, which examines how Roman municipalities generated and managed public revenue, with particular attention to civic land management, property administration, and the financial institutions of local government.
In the summer of 2026, he worked as a field archaeologist with the Gabii Project near Rome. Previously, he served as a coin curator for the Mannheimer Collection at the University of Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) in 2021–2022. His research interests extend to Roman monetary history, fiscal policies, and the economic relationship between imperial authorities and local communities. He has published scholarly articles on Roman tax collection in Republican Asia and comparative monetization in ancient China and the Mediterranean.
Beyond academia, he has written extensively on Roman history in public history writing journals and authored a public history monograph on the Roman Principate in Chinese. His research draws on literary sources, legal texts, inscriptions, archaeological evidence, and numismatic material to investigate the economic institutions and administrative practices of the ancient world.
What project will you be embarking upon during your time at the Academy?
During my time at the Academy, I will be working on my doctoral dissertation, which examines how cities in the Roman Empire managed their public finances, particularly through the ownership and administration of public land, buildings, credit networks, and civic labor. Roman cities were responsible for maintaining public buildings, building and renovating roads, organizing festivals, and providing various services to their citizens, all of which required substantial financial resources. My research explores how these cities generated revenue from their own financial portfolios, how they managed leases and collected rents, and how they protected their property from encroachment or disputes.
I am particularly interested in the practical side of Roman civic administration: how local governments made financial decisions, how they balanced public interests with private economic activities, and how these arrangements changed over time. Being in Rome gives me the opportunity to work directly with inscriptions, archaeological evidence, and historical sites that are central to these questions.
What aspects of the city and Academy life are you most interested in exploring?
One of the things I find most exciting about Rome is how closely the ancient city exists alongside the modern one. As an ancient historian, I am naturally interested in visiting archaeological sites, museums, and places that I have previously encountered only through books and articles. I am especially looking forward to exploring lesser-known sites in Italy, where the remains of everyday civic and economic life can sometimes be more revealing than the famous monuments.
At the Academy, I am particularly excited about the interdisciplinary community. My research is primarily historical, but it draws heavily on archaeology, epigraphy, law, and economic history. I look forward to conversations with scholars and artists who approach the ancient world, and Rome more generally, from perspectives very different from my own. I think some of the most interesting ideas often emerge from these unexpected conversations.
What encounters, experiences, or moments in your first days at the Academy have inspired, surprised, or encouraged you thus far?
One of the most memorable aspects of my first days has been the opportunity to meet people working on such a wide range of subjects. It has been encouraging to see how conversations over meals or during informal gatherings can move between ancient history, archaeology, architecture, literature, and contemporary art. That kind of intellectual environment is quite different from the more specialized discussions I am accustomed to.
I have also been struck by how much there is to discover beyond the familiar monuments of Rome. Visiting archaeological sites in the surrounding countryside has been particularly rewarding. Places that might receive only a passing reference in a historical text suddenly become much more tangible when you see their landscapes and physical remains in person. These experiences have reminded me why I became interested in ancient history in the first place.
How did you prepare to move to Rome and the Academy?
A good deal of my preparation was practical: arranging my visa, organizing travel, and figuring out what I would need for an extended stay abroad. I also tried to organize as much of my research material as possible before leaving so that I could make the most of the libraries and other resources available in Rome.