Ancient

Michael Grant describes how, when Etruscan civilization burst into flower, among its most characteristic products was a wealth of splendid jewels.

Stephen Usher looks back at the life of a leading Athenian orator and Idealist during the city’s long war with Macedonia and its Greek allies.

In the New Testament layers of tradition overlay accounts of John the Baptist. J.K. Elliott describes how these accounts were imposed by writers who altered historical details to suit their own doctrinal ends.

In AD 79, Vesuvius erupted and destroyed Pompeii. Were the giants imprisoned in the earth by Hercules breaking out to take terrible vengeance on gods and men?

Michael Grant describes how the most essential single fact in the whole history of the Etruscans was their division into separate city states.

Sarah Searight introduces the fifth century ascetic whose long life on top of a pillar attracted thousands of worshippers.

The temples of Paestum have long been admired. Only recently, writes Neil Ritchie, have archaeologists unearthed a wealth of associated works of art.

‘The Acts of the Apostles’ was written in the first century A. D. and describes a vital thirty years in the expansion of Christianity. J.K. Elliott studies its production and influence.

At a time when the Turkish rulers of Greece were conducting a profitable trade in ancient statues, Charles Fellows, an enlightened English tourist, rescued a precious hoard from Asia Minor. By Sarah Searight.

After Hannibal’s defeat by Scipio Africanus, writes Zvi Yavetz, Carthage tried for some fifty years to live in peace with Rome.