A fresh reassessment of one of the most controversial figures of the her time, this book examines key questions in the study of Domna, her power, her travels and her life.

She employs Julia Domna as a case study to explore the creation of ideology between the emperor and its subjects.

The first comprehensive study of the education of upper-class Roman women, and of their participation in the intellectual life of their times.

Severus follows the amazing true story of a rebellious boy who grew up in an African province and became the first Black Caesar of the Roman Empire, the head of a dynasty that would lead Rome through bloody civil wars and rapidly changing times. As a young man, Severus hates the Romans and conspires to humiliate them. What begins as a childish prank unfurls into a bloodbath that sends Severus careering into his future. Through a tragic love affair, dangerously close battles and threats both internal and external, Severus accrues power -- and enemies -- in his unlikely rise to become the most powerful man in the ancient world.

A lively and engaging account of the leading ladies of imperial Rome from the foundation of the Empire to the third century AD (and a postscript on the fourth century). It is illustrated by 416 Coin Photographs as well as a dozen striking portraits by the author, and will thus be an indispensable resource for historians, art historians and numismatists in addition to its wider appeal.

The Severans analyses the colourful decline of the Roman Empire during the reign of the Severans, the first non-Italian dynasty. In his learned and exciting style, Michael Grant describes the foreign wars waged against the Alemanni and the Persians, and the remarkable personalities of the imperial family. Thus the reader encounters Julia Domna's alleged literary circle, or Elagabalus' curious private life - which included dancing in the streets, marrying a vestal virgin and smothering his enemies with rose petals. With its beautifully selected plate section, maps and extensive bibliography, this book will appeal to the student of ancient history as well as to the general reader. Michael Grant is one of the world's greatest writers on ancient history. His previous publications include: Art in the Roman Empire, Greek and Roman Historians and Who's Who in Classical Mythology all published by Routledge.

Studying references and writings in over 900 personal letters, an unparalleled source, this book presents a rounded and intriguing account of the three women who, until now, have only survived as secondary figures to Cicero. In a field where little is really known about Cicero’s family, Susan Treggiari creates a history for these figures who, through history, have not had voices of their own, and a vivid impression of the everyday life upper-class Roman women in Italy had during the heyday of Roman power. Artfully assembling a rounded picture of their personalities and experiences, Treggiari reconstructs the lives of these three important women: Cicero’s first wife Terentia: a strong, tempestuous woman of status and fortune, with an implacable desire to retain control of both his second wife Publilia: shadowy and mysterious, the young submissive who Cicero wedded to compensate for her predecessor’s steely resolve and fiery temper his daughter Tullia. Including illustrations, chronological charts, maps and glossaries, this book is essential reading for students wishing to get better acquainted with the women of ancient Rome.

Bestselling classical historian Barry Strauss delivers “an exceptionally accessible history of the Roman Empire…much of Ten Caesars reads like a script for Game of Thrones” (The Wall Street Journal)—a summation of three and a half centuries of the Roman Empire as seen through the lives of ten of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine. In this essential and “enlightening” (The New York Times Book Review) work, Barry Strauss tells the story of the Roman Empire from rise to reinvention, from Augustus, who founded the empire, to Constantine, who made it Christian and moved the capital east to Constantinople. During these centuries Rome gained in splendor and territory, then lost both. By the fourth century, the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire had changed so dramatically in geography, ethnicity, religion, and culture that it would have been virtually unrecognizable to Augustus. Rome’s legacy remains today in so many ways, from language, law, and architecture to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Strauss examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian, and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business—the government of an empire—by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost. Ten Caesars is a “captivating narrative that breathes new life into a host of transformative figures” (Publishers Weekly). This “superb summation of four centuries of Roman history, a masterpiece of compression, confirms Barry Strauss as the foremost academic classicist writing for the general reader today” (The Wall Street Journal).

A captivating popular history that shines a light on the notorious Julio-Claudian women who forged an empire​ Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero--these are the names history associates with the early Roman Empire. Yet, not a single one of these emperors was the blood son of his predecessor. In this captivating history, a prominent scholar of the era documents the Julio-Claudian women whose bloodline, ambition, and ruthlessness made it possible for the emperors' line to continue. Eminent scholar Guy de la Bédoyère, author of Praetorian, asserts that the women behind the scenes--including Livia, Octavia, and the elder and younger Agrippina--were the true backbone of the dynasty. De la Bédoyère draws on the accounts of ancient Roman historians to revisit a familiar time from a completely fresh vantage point. Anyone who enjoys I, Claudius will be fascinated by this study of dynastic power and gender interplay in ancient Rome.

The condemnation of memory inexorably altered the visual landscape of imperial Rome. This volume catalogues and interprets the sculptural, glyptic, numismatic and epigraphic evidence for "damnatio memoriae" and ultimately reveals its praxis to be at the core of Roman cultural identity.