Edward Jay Watts is the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair in Byzantine History at UC San Diego. He writes about political and religious change in the Roman Republic, Roman Empire, and Byzantine Empire. His work has been featured in the Economist, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Time, Smithsonian, and NPR. He also maintains a YouTube channel, Rome's Eternal Decline, featuring videos devoted to Roman and Byzantine history.