Cicero loses his head – and hands – to rome

Around midday, off the coast at Actium in western Greece, two great fleets met in a confrontation that would decide the fate of the Roman world. Octavian, adopted heir of Julius Caesar, led a discipli

Mark Antony’s wife was a political player in her own right

A poet who prospered despite Rome’s bloody civil wars

Strange murder mysterie s from times gone by

In AD 897, Pope Formosus was put on trial for the crimes of perjury, coveting the papacy and violating canon law by holding more than one bishopric at a time. In truth, the whole thing was a spectacle

Long before the Romans came to dominate the ancient world – before Caesar crossed the Rubicon, Claudius invaded Britain and Vesuvius buried Pompeii – another civilisation dominated the Italian peninsu