Ancient

Bovver boys in Athens and Rome? Apparently so, according to Robert Garland, who uncovers tales from life and legend to show how high jinks could turn to blows in the classical world.

Charlemagne may have been the first Holy Roman Emperor but what did he do to dispel the 'Dark Ages'? Mary Alberi looks at the work of his leading court intellectual, Alcuin, and how his hopes for a 'New Athens' in the Aachen palace school promoted the Carolingian Renaissance.

Running after foreign gods - Richard Stoneman explains how Rome's Syrian rival, the city of Palmyra, and her formidable queen Zenobia influenced the religion and mores of the later Empire - and brought us in the process Christmas Day.

Frank L. Holt looks at the legends and realities of Alexander's bride from Central Asia, the world she lived in and the power struggles that ensnared her.

Rebel without a cause? Paul Cartledge probes whether the chequered career of one of fifth-century Athens' most famous sons reveals more about conflicting codes of loyalty than just the machinations of a turncoat.

David Braund takes a look over the latest collection of books on the Roman age.

'You are what you eat' was as relevant an observation for the ancients as for more modern thinkers, argues Helen King

'Bread and circuses' - the control and availability of grain was the key to political power and social stability in the ancient world.

As a political thinker Cicero has been all manner of things to all manner of men. In order to understand Cicero's political ideas, however, we need to look at the world of Rome in the first century BC, argues J.B. Morrall.