Empire

The great trading companies that originated in early modern Europe are often seen as pioneers of western imperialism. The Levant Company was different, argues James Mather.

Richard Cavendish marks the anniversary of this great emperor's accession, on March 7th, AD 161.

The death-obsessed and inward-looking Aztec civilisation sowed the seeds of its own destruction, argues Tim Stanley.

Hugh Thomas tells Paul Lay about his unparalleled research into the lives of the extraordinary generation of men who conquered the New World for Golden Age Spain.

Caligula was assassinated on January 24th, AD 41. He reputedly slept with his sisters and wanted to appoint his horse a consul. But was Tiberius' successor really insane or did he simply struggle to deal with the unlimited power that he received at such a young age?

David Mattingly revisits an article by Graham Webster, first published in History Today in 1980, offering a surprisingly sympathetic account of Roman imperialism.

Rowena Hammal examines the fears and insecurities, as well as the bombast and jingoism, in British thinking.

A cremation ghat built in Brighton for Indian soldiers who fought in the First World War has recently been inscribed with their names, writes Rosie Llewellyn-Jones.

Little remains of the great North African empire that was Rome's most formidable enemy, because, as Richard Miles explains, only its complete annihilation could satisfy its younger rival.