[1] He studied at the universities of Venice and Rome, where he received his doctorate in 1992 with a thesis on archaic tyrannies.
From 1995 to 1997 he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Freiburg, and continued until 1999 as a research assistant.
Concurrently he was assistant professor of ancient history at the University of Parma from 1997 to 1999.
[2] In 2008 he moved to Princeton University where in 2009 he became David Magie '97 Class of 1897 Professor of Classics.
[3] In 2018 Oxford University appointed him to the Wykeham Professorship of Ancient History.