The debt to Ancient Greece owed by our own society has long been recognised. However, there is another side to the culture that bequeathed us such gifts as democracy, medicine, art and sports, one that does not glitter so much. Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Greece plunges headfirst into a society that holds very different […]
Sex in Ancient Greece
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, […]
Ancient Rome’s Worst Emperors by LJ Trafford
Between 27BC and AD476 a series of men became Roman Emperor, ruling a domain that stretched across Europe, North Africa and the Near East. Some of them did this rather well, expanding Rome’s territories further, installing just laws and maintaining order within the city. Others, however, were distinctly less successful at the job. Ancient Rome’s […]
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 […]
Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome by LJ Trafford
From emperors and empresses, poets and prostitutes, slaves and plebs, Ancient Rome was a wealth of different experiences and expectations. None more so than around the subject of sex and sexuality. The image of Ancient Rome that has come down to us is one of sexual excess: emperors gripped by perversion partaking in pleasure with […]
How to Survive in Ancient Rome by LJ Trafford
Imagine you were transported back in time to Ancient Rome and you had to start a new life there. How would you fit in? Where would you live? What would you eat? Where would you go to have your hair done? Who would you go to if you got ill, or if you were mugged […]