Born in Friuli, in the Italian North-East, Francesco spent most of his university years at Sapienza University of Rome, where he earned both his B.A. and M.A. (magna cum laude) from the Department of Classics as a member of the Sapienza School for Advanced Studies (SSAS). His primary field of research is Greek and Roman archaeology, with a particular emphasis on the connections between politics, propaganda, religion and artistic expression.
During his years in Rome, he focused on Latin epigraphy and Roman history and archaeology. He wrote extensively on Romanization and epigraphy, Roman urbanism, Greek and Roman art and aesthetics, reception of ancient art in modern scholarship (Aby Warburg). His M.A. thesis addressed the problem of copies, replication, and seriality in Hellenistic and Roman times through the case of the so-called Rhodian school and the Muse cycle of Philiskos. His current dissertation project (Cities and Spaces: Civic culture and the 'politics of space' in Republican Italy, 2nd - 1st BCE) deals with euergetism, élites, and public spaces in municipal realities of Republican Italy.
At Sapienza, he collaborated with various research groups in Latin Epigraphy and Digital Humanities and with the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome to catalogue and assess the excavation archive of Giacomo Boni (1859-1925). His field experience includes excavations in Rome (Palantine Hill), Peltuinum, and Hadrian's Villa. Other research interests comprise the representation of space and narratives in Roman art, imperial ideology, monuments and honors, and the Roman past of his native region, Venetia. Email Francesco Cassini.