UNRV Ancient Roman Empire History

In the days when Stalinism ruled Albania it was not uncommon to see official photographs in public buildings with faces scratched out. If you asked who the person was Albanians knew to respond ‘who? I don’t see anyone there’. So it was in Roman times. In this important study Harriet L. Flower explores the ways [...]

The origins of Rome have never really caught the public imagination in the same way as the our preconceptions of the imperial period. Not without reason have the ideas of decadent excesses and crumbling empire inspired a century of Hollywood feature films. You might suspect this was purely out of ignorance, since the founding of [...]

In preparing this new translation Matthew Fox has been ably assisted by his collaborator Ethan Adams. Together they have taken one of the classics of Roman literature and given it both a modern translation and extensive supplementary material which complement and expand on that available through existing works. It should also interest anyone wishing to [...]

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena diverts from its titular lead character, and instead charts the social rise and moral fall of the House of Batiatus several years prior to the first season. Contained within six episodes are enough gore, sex and slow-motion special effects to assault the senses into submission. Despite what might be perceived [...]

Two of the most famous names in English history are Hengist and Horsa, the brothers who, according to Bede, were amongst the first of the “Anglo-Saxon” invaders of England to make a settlement in Kent: “The first commanders are said to have been the two brothers Hengist and Horsa. Of these Horsa was afterwards slain [...]

Ancient Rome shines with tales of intrigue, wealth, power, and avarice in the John Maddox Roberts mystery series SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus or Senate and the People of Rome). The first book, The King’s Gambit, is set in 70 B.C., the time of the Republic. Pompey and Crassus are the ruling Consuls and the victorious [...]

In the long history of the Roman Empire there are few, if any, women whose lives can compare with the drama, intrigue, romance and success of Galla Placidia (GP). Daughter of Theodosius I and sister of the Western emperor Honorius, she spent most of her early years in the household of her sister-by-adoption Serena and [...]

Have you noticed that a drink tastes better when it matches what you are drinking it from? Instant coffee seems natural enough in a plastic disposable cup, but its practically sacrilege to drink Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee that way. Likewise, to be fully appreciated, fine whisky and wines need a correspondingly fine drinking vessel. In [...]

One of the largest questions in European history has always been: “Why did Rome fall?” But surely right behind that question is another one: “What if Rome hadn’t fallen?” Usually the second question is explored only in fiction (there was, for instance, a Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk visited an alternate earth where Rome [...]

I have the privilege of reviewing this short but delightfully informative book, The Frome Hoard. The Frome coin hoard was found by detectorist Dave Crisp in a field near Frome in Somerset, England in April 2010. Two days before finding the Frome Hoard, Crisp had discovered some scattered fourth century silver coins (silaquae) in the [...]

One of the main factors which have restricted study of the Late Roman Empire has been the nature of the sources. Fragmented, confused, brief, and often in languages – in this case Syriac – known only to a few specialists, the sources have either lacked reliable translations, or the translations themselves were produced a long [...]

I have oft walked the streets of Rome, admiring the numerous monuments of the Eternal city; most are far grander than anything any other place can boast. Great as they are, it is however still quite natural that our attention has not been evenly spread. Some ancient remains have received far less attention than other. [...]

Drusus the Elder is a shadowy figure. He is either remembered as the good looking Ian Ogilvy in the 1976 BBC television series of Robert Graves’ I Claudius, horsing around in the baths with his brother, George Baker’s Tiberius; or he is associated with the Drususstein, the haphazard-looking commemorative monument in the German city of [...]