A study of Rome through the human machinery of power, the bodies, desires, fears, and rituals that made an empire. The Roman world through reflections on power, masculinity, belief, and the landscapes of an ancient empire. It sets out the themes that shaped Roman society, from political authority and public identity to religion, ritual, and the physical spaces that held the empire together. By examining how Romans understood themselves and the world they built, this page offers a clear entry point into the cultural, social, and intellectual foundations of Roman civilisation.
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The Roman World
Essays on emperors, succession, governance, civil wars, and the machinery of Roman authority.
- Lucius Pedanius Secundus: How Rome Used Law and Tradition to Protect the Master’s Life
- Lucius Pedanius Secundus: How Rome Used Law and Tradition
- Power, Silence and the Edge of Control: The Deaths of Hostius Quadra and Lucius Pedanius Secundus
- The Emperor Becames a God: Belief, Pretence, and the Psychology of Power
- The Emperor’s Body and the Bodies Beneath Him
- Why Did Romans Hate Elagabalus?
- Galba: Rise to Power, Sexual Reputation and Masculinity in Ancient Rome
- Which Roman emperor had a male lover?
- Cassius Dio and Historical Reliability: the Politics of Trauma
Masculinity, Identity, and the Performance of Power
Essays exploring Roman ideals of manhood, honour, status, violence, citizenship, and the ways power was embodied, displayed, and contested.
- Romulus and Remus and Roman dominance
- Domestic Servitude in Ancient Rome: the Boundaries of Male Intimacy
- Did Romans treat their slaves well?
- The Price of a Slave: Cost, Skill, and Geography in the Roman World
- Slavery and the Roman Economy: Labour, Power, and the Machinery of Empire
- Sex, Sexuality, and Roman Confusion
- Did Romans treat their slaves well?
- Sexual Health in Ancient Rome: Disease, Desire, and the Fragility of the Body
- Male Prostitution in Ancient Rome: What We Really Know from the Sources
- Male Prostitution in Ancient Rome: the Human Cost
- Euphemism: How Roman Writers Hid Sexual Violence against Men
- Roman Life: Rome’s Engines of Desensitisation
- Naked Power: Stripping and Punishment, inside Roman Slavery
- Brutality in the Home: Violence Normalised
- The Imperial Cult in the Later Roman Empire
- Roman Slave Auctions: A Historical Account
- How did Romans capture slaves?
- Gay Men in the Imperial Roman World -Coming Soon
- Polyamory in Imperial Rome: What Men Really Did Behind Closed Doors
- The Price of a Slave in Ancient Rome: Costs, Labour and Control
- Sexual Conduct in Ancient Rome: What Defined a “Proper” Man
- The Master’s Gaze: Male Slavery, Power, and the Quiet Brutality of the Roman Home
- Did Roman Men Have Sex With Slaves and Prostitutes?
- Did Roman Men Shave Their Pubic Hair?
- Slavery in the Roman Empire: the Vulnerability of Male Slaves
- How Did Romans Behave When Everyone Was Naked in the Baths?
- What Made a Roman Man Effeminate?
Life Across the Provinces
Essays on daily life, towns, farms, trade, cultural blending, and the lived experience of Rome far from the capital.
- How Roman Medicine Developed and the Key Physicians
- How hygienic were the Roman baths
- How Did Romans Behave When Everyone Was Naked in the Baths?
- Roman Baths: Sweat, Steam and the Ordinary Man
- How to Survive a Day in the Roman Arena
- How to Behave at a Roman Dinner Party
- Disability in the Roman Empire: Social Attitudes, Law, Religion and Everyday Life
- Romanisation: Cornwall and Wales
- How to Behave at a Roman Dinner Party
- How to Survive a Day in the Roman Arena
- Abandinus: A Brittonic God in the Religious Landscape of Rome
- Why Did Romans Have So Many Gods
- AELIUS CASSIANUS AND THE LIVING STATUES
- How to Buy a Slave in Ancient Rome
- How common was homosexuality in ancient Rome?
- Private Balnea in Roman Britain: Heat, Scent and Quiet Luxury
- Inside the Roman Baths: How Ordinary Men Socialised and Survived
- How did Romans wash their clothes
- How Did Roman Boys Come of Age?
Frontiers, Forts, and the Edges of Empire
Essays on borderlands, military life, frontier communities, and the landscapes where Rome met the outside world.
Belief, Ritual, and the Uncanny
Essays on gods, cults, superstition, omens, ancestor practices, and the meeting of Roman and local beliefs.
- Limentinus: the Quiet God of Thresholds
- Roman Domestic Religion
- Limentinus: Roman God of Thresholds and Transition
- The Pomerium: Rome’s Sacred Boundary
- Vertumnus and Pomona: Love, Deception, and the Untrustworthy Gods of Rome
- The Nature of Roman Religion: An Exploration
- The Imperial Cult in the Later Roman Empire
- Commodus: The Emperor Behind the Mask
- Narcissus II: The Strangling of Commodus
- Commodus: The Emperor killed by Narcissus
- Commodus: Imperial Cruelty and the Shadow of Narcissus
- AELIUS CASSIANUS: COMMODUS AND THE LIVING STATUES
- Priapus and the Priapea: Roman Male Sexuality, Power and Rural Masculinity
- Priapus: A Rustic God of Fertility in the Roman World
- Rome: Tribal Micro‑Deities – The role of slaves in ritual
- Pregnant Slaves and Reproductive Control in Ancient Rome
- How Did Romans Worship Gods at Home?
- Priapus: A Rustic God of Fertility in the Roman World – Coming Soon
- Ambient Priapism: How Slavery and Sex Shaped the Roman Male Mind -coming Soon
Movement, Roads, and the Shape of the Empire
Essays on travel, sea routes, mapping, communication, and the physical experience of moving through Roman space.
War, Crisis, and Transformation
Essays on invasions, gore, rebellions, plagues, economic shocks, reforms, and the slow unravelling of imperial power.
- Damnatio ad Bestias: the Roman Appetite for Gore
- Narcissus: The Wrestler Who Killed Commodus
- The Story of Caesar, Slavery and the Pirates of the Mediterranean
Art, Writing, and the Roman Imagination
Essays on literature, portraiture, inscriptions, public art, and the stories Rome told about itself.
- The Satyricon: Sex, Slavery and Everyday Life in Rome
- Encolpius: A Study in Power, Vulnerability, and Roman Identity
- Encolpius and the Politics of Sex: A Roman Man on the Edge
- Juvenal, Hypocrisy, and Male Prostitution in Imperial Rome
- Euphemism: How Roman Writers Hid Sexual Violence against Men
- Scribonius Largus: The Compassionate Physician of Claudius’ Court
- Thessalus of Tralles: Celebrity physician
- How Roman Medicine Developed and the Key Physicians
- Companions in Arms: Nisus and Euryalus
- Roman Medicine: Gaius Marcius Lento Treats an Injured Slave
- What Pliny and Juvenal Reveal About Roman Slavery
- Scribonius Largus: The Compassionate Physician of Claudius’ Court
- Why Did Romans Throw Criminals to the Lions
Rome and the Wider World
Essays on diplomacy, trade beyond the frontiers, encounters with other cultures, and Rome’s shifting place in global history.
- Romanitas: The Spirit
- Roman Male Beauty Standards: The Ancient Grooming Secrets That Modern Men Wouldn’t Believe
- Romanisation: Cornwall and Wales
- Roman Britain: Isle of Wight. Trade, Contact and Archaeology
- Rome: Daily Life and The Limentinus Hub
- Roman Religion: A Meta Hub For Provincial Cults and Syncretic Belief
- What Does Homosocial Life Mean in Ancient Rome?
- How to keep a Friend:The Rules of Roman Hospitality
- Slave Meta Hub
- What We Search for When We Search for Rome
- August Roman Publishing
- Roman Sexuality: What People Actually Search For
- Roman Sex and Sexuality: Meta Hub
About the images
The images on this page mainly relate to the Emperor Commodus and his wrestler‑executioner Narcissus, highlighting a sequence of new stories recently added to the Roman World. Together they explore the spectacle, danger, and intimacy of imperial power at the end of the second century, drawing readers deeper into the world of Roman violence, performance, and the men whose bodies shaped history. The emperor Galba appears with Roma on a coin emphasising attempts by emperors to link themselves to the City of Rome and the future of the City