Ancient

Under the far-sighted rule of the Five Good Emperors, writes Anthony Birley, the Roman world enjoyed a period of unexampled prosperity and peace.

Popular suspicion rather than imperial policy, writes Bruce S. Eastwood, was responsible for Christian persecution in the Roman Empire.

Unlike Alexander of Macedon, Julius Caesar had to deal with rivals as ambitious and influential as himself; and S. Usher finds that he has left a lucid account of his rise to greatness.

Not until three years after the fall of Jerusalem did Zealot resistance come to a bloody end. S.G.F. Brandon reviews the history of this fanatical sect, whose exemplary devotion and fortitude modern Israelis seek to emulate.

David Francis Jones describes how, among primitive peoples encountered by the Romans, the fair-haired, blue-eyed Celts made a particularly deep impression.

In dealing with her often refractory Jewish subjects, writes E. Mary Smallwood, Rome followed a policy of toleration and protection but insisted that the Jews must “repay toleration with toleration.”

S.G.F. Brandon shows how the idea of a posthumous moral judgment, when the sheep will be divided from the goats, is deeply rooted in our cultural history.

According to the ancient religions of the Near East, every man possessed a double nature, compounded of physical and psychical elements, each an essential adjunct of his life.

John Cohen traces the ancestry of modern automation back through the curious mechanical inventions of past centuries to the twilight figures of remote mythology.

S.G.F. Brandon suggests the influence of the idea of the Devil in Christian culture has been profound, inspiring both noble works of art and the most degrading superstitions.