Roman Empire

The Rubicon to the right of Cesena, at Pisciatello

Crossing the Rubicon

C.E. Stevens explains how, by crossing the Rubicon, Julius Caesar challenged the power of the Roman Senate, and opened the way for the foundation of the Roman Empire.

The Decline of Roman Britain

C.E. Stevens searches the elusive world of ancient Britain.

People, Race and Nation in These Islands

Rayner Heppenstall highlights the problems inherent in divisions of British and Irish history along racial lines.

Theodor Mommsen, Historian of Rome, 1817-1903

Michael Grant introduces a nineteenth century historian of Rome whose work is still authoritative and valid.

Aureus of Octavian, circa 30 BC, British Museum

The Problem of Augustus

Michael Grant asks whether Caesar Augustus, sole ruler for forty-five years, was honest and sincere, or a 'hypocrite of genius'?

Historians Reconsidered: Tacitus

A great historian of an age he disliked, Harold Mattingly shows how Tacitus has given posterity an incomparable picture of the early Roman Empire.

’Triumphant Entry of Constantine into Rome’ by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1621. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. The Clowes Collection. Public Domain.

Constantine, Christianity and the Battle of Verona

The Battle of Milvian Bridge is remembered as the moment when Constantine I secured the future of Christianity. The real turning point took place a few months earlier.