Julius Caesar
Conrad Black adheres firmly to the ‘great man’ view of history
The movers and shakers of Volume I of his projected history of the world are Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Hannibal rather than any socio-economic forces
What we could learn from the classical courts
This year, in its annual Supreme Court moot trial of a famous ancient figure, the charity Classics for All charged…
Enthralling: BBC4’s Colosseum reviewed
In the year 2023, the Neo-Roman Empire was at the height of its powers. A potentially restive populace was kept…
Newcomers will need to read the play in advance: Julius Caesar, at the Globe, reviewed
Some things are done well in the Globe’s new Julius Caesar. The assassination is a thrilling spectacle. Ketchup pouches concealed…
How to tell your Roman emperors apart
Rising professors do well to be controversial if they wish to be invited to contribute to mainstream media. But the…
Eliminating Qasem Soleimani was Donald Trump’s Middle East farewell letter
In July 55 BC, in the midst of his campaigns to civilize Gaul, Julius Caesar was troubled by the Germans.…
Women’s suffrage was just part of a huge shift in the idea of who should vote
A reader writes: ‘In my last letter, I called you a numbskull. However I should have qualified this with “sometimes you…
It’s impossible to muff the role of Scrooge – yet Rhys Ifans manages: A Christmas Carol reviewed
Maximum Victoriana at the Old Vic for Matthew Warchus’s A Christmas Carol. Even before we reach our seats we’re accosted…
Soap opera
Previously on Giulio Cesare… English Touring Opera’s new season caters cannily to the box-set generation by chopping Handel’s Egyptian power-and-politics…
Mary Beard minds her S, P, Q and R
Having rattled and routed Mark Antony and his bewitching Egyptian at the battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian was…
Rid of their enemies, the Caesars set about murdering family and friends
According to Francis Bacon, the House of York was ‘a race often dipped in its own blood’. That being so,…
Augustus: here was a Caesar! Or at least his great-nephew
It’s strange that tourists rarely visit the most famous site in Roman history. The spot in Pompey’s assembly hall where…
The fall of the Roman republic and the rise of Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond, the ex-first minister who proved incapable of making Scotland independent, has assured the world that he and his…
The sweating, dust-glazed saints at the Hampstead Theatre tells us nothing new about the miners’ strike
Hampstead’s new play about the 1984 miners’ strike was nearly defeated by technical glitches. Centre stage in Ed Hall’s production…
What Julius Caesar would have done about Nigel Farage
Our politicians are desperately keen to turn the toast of the people, Nigel Farage, into toast himself. But is that…
Civilisation’s watery superhighway
The clue is in the title: this is not about the blue-grey-green wet stuff that covers 70 per cent of…
What Emperor Augustus left us
Roderick Conway Morris on the influence and legacy of Augustus
