Max Lykins is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy and a Lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. His primary research interests include ancient political thought, with an emphasis on the Romans, republicanism and the republican tradition, and the politics of emotion, especially cruelty and compassion. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Political Research Quarterly, Polis, and The Michigan Journal of Law and Society. He earned his PhD at the University of Michigan.