Rome
From Octavian To Augustus
Jochen Bleichen’s biography of the Emperor is monumental but highly readable
Cento Ground
The cento is a sophisticated and demanding poetic form — and best suited to schoolboyish ends
Overrated: Marcus Brutus
How much truth is there in the myth of the “noblest Roman”?
The Decline and Fall Industry
Could anxiety over the future of the West be behind the publication of so many books on the fall of the Roman Empire?
Majority rule; minority rights
It is folly to treat UK race relations as totally divorced from the rest of human experience. We need to look at the larger global picture
American revolutions: Rewriting the language of the unheard
‘Dissenting viewpoints — for example, the belief that America is not an intrinsically racist country—are shunned as further proof of racist pathologies’
The favourites
From Piers Gaveston onwards, controversial courtiers have a long history in British politics.How unusual is Dominic Cummings?