Sex in Ancient Greece is the subject of LJ Trafford’s new book. She found that the Greeks were much stranger, and much smuttier, than we might think, and shares some of her research with us. Back in 2020 I wrote a book called Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome, and tremendous fun it was too, […]
How (not) to become a Roman Emperor
Father-to-son succession wasn’t necessarily the way for Roman Emperors. Far from it, says LJ Trafford, who draws on research for her book Ancient Rome’s Worst Emperors to illustrate how not to become a successful Roman Emperor. Buying the position when you’re drunk? Agreeing because a mob of thugs has a blade to your throat? Probably […]
TV review: I, Claudius
The historian and novelist LJ Trafford, who knows the seedier, scurrilous side of Roman history as well as anyone does, reviews the BBC’s repeat of the 1976 series I, Claudius and finds that it’s still “brilliant”. There’s this thing that happens whenever movies and TV get their hands on ancient Rome: they just can’t resist […]
Sex in Ancient Rome
Sexual activity in Ancient Rome wasn’t the licentious free-for-all we may imagine (especially for women); in fact it was strictly regulated. But author and historian LJ Trafford has unearthed plenty of weird and lurid facts about Ancient Roman sex for her new book, as she tells Historia. When my publisher suggested to me that I […]
Gladiator sweat and leech hair dye; how to survive in Ancient Rome
When Pen & Sword Books approached historian and novelist LJ Trafford about writing a book they described as ‘Horrible Histories for Grownups’, set in Ancient Rome, she accepted with pleasure. As readers of her books – and her Historia pieces – know, she’s an expert in the bizarre, ridiculous and downright disgusting details of Roman […]
Review: Downton Abbey: the film
Does Downton Abbey work as a film? Should you take your non-DA-addict friend or partner to see it? Will there be posh frocks and implausible plots? These and many other important questions are answered in LJ Trafford’s Historia review. The world is neatly divided into those who have never seen Downton Abbey and those who […]
The Wedding by LJ Trafford: part 3
The final part of LJ Trafford’s The Wedding, one of the short stories published in Rubicon, the HWA and Sharpe Books collection of stories by ten leading authors who write about Ancient Rome.
The Wedding by JL Trafford: part 2
The second part of Historia’s serialisation of LJ Trafford’s tongue-in-cheek short story, The Wedding, from the HWA/Sharpe Books Rubicon collection