Richard Saller is Kleinheinz Family Professor of European Studies and Professor of Classics and History and the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. His publications include Personal Patronage under the Early Empire (Cambridge, 1982) and Patriarchy, Property and Death in the Roman Family (Cambridge, 1994) and he is co-author of The Roman Empire: Economy, Society and Culture (1987).