ARTICLES

Notes on emperors, evidence and the Roman world.

Notes on emperors, evidence and the Roman world.

Essays and research notes will appear here as they are prepared for publication (from October 2026 onwards).

Essays and research notes will appear here as they are prepared for publication (from October 2026 onwards).

The Roman Forum illuminated at dusk

Trajan

What Made an Emperor ‘Optimus’?

A closer look at the political language, military reputation and public image behind Trajan’s most enduring title.

Ancient marble portrait bust in a museum

Material History

Reading Character in Roman Portraiture

Imperial portraits were instruments of rule as well as works of art. What can they reveal—and conceal—about the people they represent?

Stone arches of the Colosseum at night

Roman Society

The Colosseum Beyond the Spectacle

The amphitheatre’s architecture offers a precise record of hierarchy, movement and the organization of public life in imperial Rome.

A view across ancient Jerusalem

Titus

Jerusalem, AD 70: Victory and Ruin

The siege that established Titus’s military reputation also destroyed the city at the centre of the campaign.

Archaeological ruins at Pompeii

Pompeii

Vesuvius and the Buried Cities

What the catastrophe of AD 79 demanded from a new emperor—and what Pompeii reveals about Flavian Italy.

The Colosseum illuminated in Rome

Flavian Rome

The Colosseum and the Flavian Dynasty

Vespasian began the amphitheatre, Titus opened it, and a new dynasty used architecture to define its rule.