Isabel Köster

Isabel Köster (Ph.D. Harvard) specializes in the history and literature of the Roman Republic and early Empire. She is particularly interested in how texts (especially works of literary prose and inscriptions) mediate questions of Roman identity, religious practice, and criminal behavior. Her first book, Stealing from the Gods: Temple Robbery in the Roman Imagination (forthcoming with University of Michigan Press, January 2026), investigates how authors portray temple robbers as isolated and irredeemably greedy individuals and why these grotesque invective creations are so common in a diverse range of texts. She has also written articles and chapters on topics including the use of mythological motifs in Roman political invective, flamingo sacrifice in Roman religion, nymph worship in Roman Britain, and the rhetoric of Roman imperial expansion. She is currently working on two book-length projects, one on the goddess Nemesis and one on appeals to divine justice in Roman inscriptions and oratorical texts. Her work has been supported by the Fondation Hardt in Vandœuvres, Switzerland, and the Margo Tytus Summer Residency program at the University of Cincinnati. In Spring 2026, she will be a Faculty Fellow at CU’s Center for Humanities and the Arts.