Roman Empire

When Roman forces burned the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, the Flavian dynasty thought it had defeated the Jewish god in the name of Jupiter. It was mistaken. 

Tall tales of Pompeii’s lost Roman lives form part of a long history of sensationalism. 

An unprecedented force of 86,000 men fought against Hannibal’s Carthaginian army on 2 August 216 BC.

The image of Roman Bath was the creation of 18th- and 19th-century archaeologists. Only now are new perspectives revealing a more complex and accurate history of the city. 

The distinction between centre and periphery was vital to the Roman Empire’s conception of itself. For centuries a rugged frontier, the land north of the Danube would produce one of Rome’s greatest foes.

Contradictions in Roman law left incurable headaches for its judges.

Was Nero the Antichrist? The bestial image of the Roman emperor as the enemy of Christians persists, but the truth is more complex.

In the ancient world, statues were not symbols of virtue and could take revenge on those who attacked them.

As human populations expand and their exploitation of the globe increases, so does their vulnerability to certain diseases.

The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, Class, and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society by Sarah Levin-Richardson lays bare the largest of Pompeii's legalised Lupanars.