Barbarians were undisciplined, unreliable, passionate and bestial - everything the Romans were not.

Mar 4, 2011 – Jane Owen

The Romans regarded their empire as the pinnacle of civilization and were intolerant of uncivilized society.

Mar 2, 2011 – Jane Owen

The mausoleum of Ateban in Thugga, fifty miles to the south-west of Carthage in what was Numidia, stands an impressive 69 ft/21 metres high.

Feb 25, 2011 – Jane Owen

Many cultures interacted in the Roman province of Africa, centred upon the region known as Africa Proconsularis (i.e. modern Tunisia and northern Libya).

Feb 24, 2011 – Jane Owen

Octavian's victory in 31 B.C.E. shifted Roman power to the West and resulted in the incorporation of Egypt into the empire, vastly increasing wealth.

Feb 17, 2011 – Michael Streich

Sulla marched on Rome twice and the second time became dictator, carrying out slaughter and terror not seen before in the ancient city

Feb 10, 2011 – Keith Sellick

Mithridates VI of Pontus was one of the ancient world's most famous kings; as a poisoner, moreover, he is the subject of The Poison King by Adrienne Mayor

Feb 5, 2011 – Marcus Chin

What do we really know about figures from the past? About, for example, Romulus Augustulus, last Emperor of Rome? Not much. It's a novelist's boon.

Jan 31, 2011 – Roger Boylan

The three Punic Wars (264-146 BC) between Rome and Carthage were epochal conflicts with resonance for the history of the ancient world.

Jan 20, 2011 – Marcus Chin

Valentine's Day is an annual celebration, held on February 14th, of love and affection between couples. Learn about the history and legends behind the day.

Jan 17, 2011 – Mark Tibbits

428 AD is an innovative approach to the study of the last years of the Roman empire, focussed on the events of a single year in the later Roman world.

Jan 10, 2011 – Marcus Chin

Gaius Marius came from humble family but was consul a record seven times and created a professional army that began the era of the military dictators

Jan 10, 2011 – Keith Sellick

The act of suicide in ancient Rome, Seppuku in Japan, was considered a means of regaining some honor or reputation in the face of shame and failure.

Jan 4, 2011 – Arash Farzaneh

The Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-17 AD) was exiled by the emperor Augustus in 8 AD to remote Tomis in the Black Sea, where he wrote the melancholic Tristia

Dec 28, 2010 – Marcus Chin

The Roman scandal of 62 BCE that gave rise to the phrase 'Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.'

Dec 15, 2010 – Sarah Maguire

In 166 AD merchants from the Mediterranean world made the first recorded contact between Rome and China.

Dec 8, 2010 – Marcus Chin

The Roman Republic was destroyed by a 100 years of civil war that began in 133BC with a struggle for land reform by brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus

Nov 28, 2010 – Keith Sellick

Although shrouded in an undocumented past, the calendar has developed to a point of being a relatively accurate reflection of the solar year.

Oct 26, 2010 – Tony De Vita

When Julius Caesar dreamed of raping his mother it was said he would conquer the world, the Universal Mother.

Oct 18, 2010 – Domina Smith

Poems of passion and desire, although not new to Latin poetry, found in Horace, 65-8 BC, one of their greatest and most endearing interpreters.

Oct 17, 2010 – Michel Amyot