Douglas Boin

Roman Capriccio, by Giovanni Paolo Pannini, 18th century.

Rome, Zombie City

Surveying history’s various attempts to rehydrate Rome’s ‘desiccated corpse’.

Roman warrior holding the head of an enemy between his teeth, cast from Trajan’s Column, 1862.

The Goths Take Rome

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.