Marcus Agrippa was Emperor Augustus’ right-hand man. From humble birth, Agrippa rose to become Augustus’ friend and fixer, married his daughter and helped build the Empire. As Agrippa’s biographer, Lindsay Powell, says, the former Octavian would likely neither have triumphed nor held on to power without Agrippa by his side. To rule effectively, a national […]
Marcus Agrippa: The True Story by Lindsay Powell
Marcus Agrippa was a remarkable man in his own day and, 2,000 years later, his achievement is undiminished. As the foremost deputy of Emperor Augustus, for three decades he waged wars, befriended kings and potentates, pacified provinces, and beautified Rome. Most people who recognise his name today likely know it through novels, films, and television. […]
Christmas reading 2025 – historical books to give or to treat yourself to
We asked 12 well-loved authors to each suggest a couple of historical books to give, receive, or treat yourself to for Christmas 2025. There are ideas for history-reading children and teens as well. Newly-published or classics, fiction and non-fiction, their choices range from Ancient Rome to a history of Black British culture, via the Crusades, […]
Tiberius: 2,000 years of slander
The historian Lindsay Powell revisits the ancient sources and comes to a different conclusion about Tiberius Caesar, revealing a 2,000-year-old story of slander against Rome’s second emperor. Something strange happens in the mind of a historian while doing research about long dead people. Printed words evoke feelings, photographs morph into flesh, and unfamiliar names take […]
Tiberius by Lindsay Powell
History has not been kind to the memory of Tiberius Caesar (42BC to AD37), second emperor of the Romans. His reputation for capable generalship and sensible civic leadership are marred by reports of cruelty, treason trials and sexual depravity. Some historians have described him as a ‘tyrant’ or even a ‘monster’. But does he deserve […]
Queen Cleopatra edited by Lindsay Powell
Cleopatra had the rare distinction of connecting three great cultures. She was born of an ancient Greek dynasty that stretched back to the time of Alexander the Great, and as the last Pharaoh of Egypt she ruled before the once mighty kingdom became a vassal state under the all-powerful Roman Empire in the first century […]
Historia exhibition review: Legion: life in the Roman army
Legion: life in the Roman army is the British Museum’s latest big exhibition. The historian Lindsay Powell reviews it for Historia and finds it “has seemingly achieved the remarkable and the impossible.” The Romans knew that their way of war was special. Their legendary legion was different from forms of military unit deployed by other […]
Roman Ancient Origins edited by Lindsay Powell
Ancient Rome began as a village of humble dwellings on the Palatine and grew to be one of the mightiest and most successful empires of human history, before collapsing in the West under invasions of barbarian nations attracted by Rome’s wealth and land, over a thousand years later. The legacy of Rome continues in the […]