Departments

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Roman history

  • 6/12/2022

    As an Island, Britain Became a Stage for Roman Politicians

    by Richard Hingley

    The conquest of Britain mattered to Roman emperors not for the island's strategic significance, but because it signaled a ruler's mastery of the ancient deity Oceanus and thus his worthiness in domestic politics. 

  • 12/5/2021

    What if Hannibal Had Won?

    by Philip Freeman

    Historians' dependence on the accounts of Roman historians has distorted modern understanding of Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and the different possibilities for the world if he had succeeded in defeating Rome.

  • SOURCE: Foreign Policy
    11/1/2021

    Boris Johnson’s Roman Fantasies

    by Mateusz Fafinsky

    Boris Johnson's recent statements that the collapse of Rome was caused by open borders are well out of step with historical understanding of the fragmenting of the Roman empire, but in line with a long legacy of political misappropriation of Rome as an allegory for the danger of immigrants.

  • 2/2/20

    What’s in a Nickname? From Caligula to Sleepy Joe

    by Josiah Osgood

    If Suetonius, who served on the staff of two Roman emperors, were alive today, I think he’d advise Trump to spend less time coming up names for others and think about what he could call himself.

  • 11/10/19

    Who Will Be America's Brutus?

    by Michael A. Genovese

    Have we a Caesar in our midst, imperial and imperious? Who will figuratively kill the beast that is doing such violence to the American system? 

  • SOURCE: Hyperallergic
    7/3/19

    The False Narratives of the Fall of Rome Mapped Onto America

    by Sarah E. Bond

    It is disturbing to see how gravely inaccurate 19th-century depictions of the destruction of Rome are used to illustrate news stories today, particularly those that draw parallels between Rome and the United States.