Rome’s most-hated tyrant? nero

The most intriguing aspect of this book is that it’s written as a sort of ‘life in the day’ of the Colosseum, that vast edifice begun in Rome by the emperor Vespasian (AD 69–79) to entertain the masse

Carthage burned for six days. After three long years of siege, in the spring of 146 BC Roman soldiers finally broke through the city’s defences and began to slaughter the population. But still the Car

As frequently, this column is inspired by Britain’s Queen of Classics, Mary Beard. This time, her ‘History of food tasters from Nero to now,’ appearing (25 May 2025) in the TLS weekly Newsletter. Does

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The cut-throat politics of Syracuse informed Plato’s thinking

When Luciano Pavarotti died in in 2007, he was one of the most famous men in the world, his celebrity extending far beyond the opera stage. This year, as we prepare to celebrate what would have been t