Size was Everything to Him

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

Why do we never talk about Heliogabalus? For those who enjoy stories of depraved Roman emperors, he knocks the sandals off Caligula and Nero. The nicknames he acquired after a reign of just four years (AD 218–22) bear witness to his reputation. These include Gynnis (‘womanish-man’), Koryphos (either ‘virgin-rapist’ or ‘catamite’) and

Top of the Roman Rich List

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

In this slim book aimed at the general reader, Peter Stothard successfully pulls off the challenge of making a compelling subject out of surely one of the most unattractive personalities thrown up by the death agonies of the Roman Republic in the first century BC. Marcus Licinius Crassus (115–53 BC) was a Roman aristocrat born […]

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