ancient rome

To quote the great Terry Pratchett, people always seem to have a “little blank spot in their heads where someone had written: Kings. What a good idea.” Even in modern times, when we fool ourselves into thinking we’ve moved on from this, you…

Roslyn Fuller joins Conor and I on this week's episode, and we have Jonathan Victory on co-hosting duties. Roslyn Fuller is a columnist, lecturer in democracy and international law, author of the book Beasts and Gods: How Democracy Changed…

Marcus Licinius Crassus was, by any standard, one of the richest men who has ever lived. Given that when he lived was over two thousand years ago, it’s hard to translate his wealth into modern terms, and estimates vary by orders of…

The Reith Lecture by CP Snow, in 1959, introduced the idea of the Two Cultures, those of science and humanities, and warned that this divide was damaging to the advancement of knowledge and understanding. More than half a century on and it…

Imperator Gaius Julius Divi Filius Caesar Octavianus The future emperor is born. The first emperor, commonly known as Augustus, was born Gaius Octavius in the year of the consulship of Hibrida and Cicero (63 BC or 691 Ab Urbe Condita).  He…