Category: Roman Empire

By the end of the second century AD, Rome held political sway over much of the civilized world. In some places, such as northern Britain or eastern Europe, the limits of the empire were clearly demarcated by defensive walls or natural boundaries like rivers. In most places, however, Roman authority simply stretched on amorphously into…

How did a small, fringe sect of perhaps twenty illiterate, Aramaic-speaking Jews in early first-century Palestine come to dominate the entire Roman Empire just four centuries later? That’s the central question posed by renowned religious scholar Bart Ehrman in “The Triumph of Christianity” — a deeply engaging and thought-provoking book. The astonishing rise of Christianity,…

France in 1939 was preoccupied by the menacing actions of neighboring Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, French classist Jerome Carcopino was preoccupied with putting the finishing touches on “Daily Life in Ancient Rome: The People and the City at the Height of the Empire” (1939). It was considered a valuable and influential work when it was first…

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (~1 BC – 65 AD) was once one of the most celebrated and richest men in Rome. Tutor and then senior advisor to Emperor Nero, Seneca lived a life of luxury and influence highly unusual for a dramatist and Stoic philosopher. According to author Emily Wilson, “Seneca is a Socrates without a…