Prof. Dr. Michael Sommer is Professor of Ancient History at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. He was born on 29 April 1970 in Bonn.

He studied ancient history, classical philology, science policy and Near Eastern archaeology in Freiburg, Basel, Bremen and Perugia, before obtaining his doctorate in 2000 in Freiburg. He then worked as a research assistant at the Oriental Seminar at the Albert-Ludwig University in Freiburg and as a visiting research fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. After that he worked as a lecturer at the Seminar on Ancient History at the Albert-Ludwig University in Freiburg im Breisgau. Following his habilitation in 2005, he was Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Liverpool for seven years.

Sommer's main research interests are the economic, institutional and mental history of antiquity and the history of Levant across the ages. His publications repeatedly appeal to a wide audience. Most recently in 2022 (in German), 'All roads lead to Rome. The shortest history of antiquity"; "Dark Rome. The secret life of the Romans".