Constantine died in Nicomedia in 337 after a short illness.  He had lived to 64, a good age for the time. The death of Constantine ended one of the longest reigns in the history of the empire.  His death came just after he had celebrated his thirtieth year as emperor, something only Augustus had previously

If it weren’t for Constantine it is quite likely that very few of us would have ever been inside a Christian Church.  The city he founded bore his name up until the lifetime of my Grandfather.  It is still the largest one in Europe.   Ten more emperors were to bear the name Constantine, and when

With the defeat of  Licinius, Constantine was left as the sole leader of the entire Roman world.  But that didn’t stop him from dreaming.  In one dream he saw the spirit of the city of Byzantium as a tired and frail old matron.  But then she was transformed before his eyes into a beautiful young

Why does anyone get this into their head to do this?  At some point Emile Zola decided that it would be a good idea to write a huge series of novels based around the interlinked tales of one family. The whole series would take him over twenty years and finish up comprising twenty separate full

America is and always has been a highly expansionist entity.  It has used diplomacy, commerce and outright military force to expand its influence over the globe and to promote its own interests.  It has been markedly successful in this project and is now the most powerful nation the world has ever seen.

Rubbish First Edition of Paper that was Rubbish from beginning to end I like history, but I try not to be sentimental about historical things.  The News of the World has been a British institution for 168 years.  When I did a paper round as a boy half the Sunday papers we delivered to the