Lecturer
Contact
Office 5N11, Arts Building
Email davide.morassi@otago.ac.nz
Academic qualifications
2022: DPhil, University of Oxford
2016: MSc, University of Edinburgh
2014: MA, Università degli Studi di Udine (Italy)
2011: BA, Università degli Studi di Udine (Italy)
Background and research interests
Davide reads ancient Greek history, with a particular emphasis on the Classical Period (5th and 4th centuries BCE). His research primarily focuses on ancient warfare, studying its impact on individuals, communities, and institutions.
Davide has worked on reassessing the institutional role of the Classical Athenian strategoi, with particular attention to the influence of individual skills and attitudes in administering the office. He is also interested in how leadership was framed, theorised, and transmitted in antiquity, focusing especially on Xenophon’s work.
More recently, Davide’s research focuses on the history of emotions. He is currently mapping the emotional dimensions of Classical Greek warfare and exploring how these dynamics were recognised and conceptualised in antiquity. The relevance of emotional management, its awareness and strategies are at the core of this project.
His other interests include masculinities and gender in Classical Athens, the acquisition and transmission of specialist knowledge and its overlap with empirical experience, and the sensorial (primarily visual) dimensions of wars and warfare.
Teaching
2025
- CLAS 241 Alexander the Great
- GREK 212 Intermediate Greek Authors
- GREK 328 Advanced Greek Authors 1
- GREK 464 A Topic in Greek Literature
Areas of research supervision
- Greek History
- Ancient Warfare
- Ancient Leadership
- Athenian Institutions and Social Constructs
- Research area
- Emotions and Greek Warfare
Publications
Morassi, D. (2026). Emotions and warfare through the ages [Review of the book Emotionen im Krieg; Krieg der Emotionen]. Classical Review. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1017/S0009840X2510214X Journal - Research Other
Morassi, D. (2023). Manliness as motive for action: A discussion of (toxic) masculinity in the Antigone and the Lysistrata. In M. Racette-Campbell & A. McMaster (Eds.), Toxic masculinity in the ancient world. (pp. 52-63). Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. doi: 10.1515/9781399520553-009 Chapter in Book - Research
Morassi, D. (2022). Shepherds of men: A reassessment of the Athenian strategoi in the classical period (DPhil). University of Oxford. Retrieved from https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:61e35ab6-f056-4226-99a5-40f0dbfd0363 Awarded Doctoral Degree
Morassi, D. (2022). Roman republican cavalry shock tactics: The case study of detrahere frenum. L'Antiquité Classique, 91, 97-109. Journal - Research Article
Morassi, D. (2022). War mandates in the Peloponnesian War: The agency of Athenian strategoi. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 62, 1-17. Journal - Research Article