Roman Empire

Not the Eternal City

Alex Butterworth looks at the parallels between the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans recently, and the devastation suffered by Pompeii in the first century AD.

Childhood in the Roman Empire

Ray Laurence considers how children were seen in ancient Rome and looks at some of the harsher aspects of childhood – sickness, violence and endless work.

Heads or Tails?

A late-Roman coin unearthed in an Oxfordshire field and on show in the Ashmolean Museum leads Llewelyn Morgan to ponder the misleading messages on the faces of coins.