[1] The journal is published by Walter de Gruyter and articles are in English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish.

The journal was established in 1901 as Beiträge zur alten Geschichte (English: Contributions to Ancient History).

However, the importance of the pre-war series ensured that the full set was reprinted at the beginning of the 1960s, although not in the same format or at the same quality as the original publication.

Important articles appeared in Klio even after 1959, but the publications of East German scholars at this time were not always up to date or at the level of international research, as a result of the shortage of money and the enforcement of the state's ideological views.

The current editors are Manfred Clauss (Frankfurt am Main), Hans-Joachim Gehrke (Freiburg/Berlin), Peter Funke (Münster) and Christian Mann (Mannheim).