Rita Lizzi Testa studied in Florence, London (King’s College), and Princeton (Institute for Advanced Study). She taught at the University of Turin and is now a professor of Roman history at the University of Perugia. She has published numerous articles, and is an author of several books on the governance of Late Antique towns, and the institutional changes from Constantine to Theoderic the Great, with respect to the role of senatorial aristocracy in Rome. She is the editor and coeditor of many volumes on the conflict and dialogue among pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire, such as Senatori, popolo, papi. Il governo di Roma al tempo dei Valentiniani, Bari 2004; Le trasformazioni delle élites in età tardoantica, Roma 2006; Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire: The Breaking of a Dialogue (IVth-VIth Century A.D.), Münster 2011 (with P. Brown); Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome. Conflict, Competition, and Coexistence in the Fourth Century, Cambridge 2016 (with M. Salzman and M. Saghy). She edited books also on various other topics, such as The Strange Death of Pagan Rome, Turnhout 2013; Late Antiquity in Contemporary debate, Newcastle upon Tyne 2017; The Collectio Avellana and Its Revivals, Newcastle upon Tyne 2019 (with Giulia Marconi).