The city of Palmyra originated as a simple settlement around an oasis in the middle of the desert.  The name comes from the same root as our name for Palm tree.  Its wealth and fame came about as a result of the silk trade making it a vital stopping point. Being equidistant between the Roman

Aurelian became emperor with only some very limited opposition.  The brother of Claudius made a claim, but it lasted only 17 days before he committed suicide rather than face the undoubted skill at arms of Aurelian.  This averted a civil war which could easily have undone all of the good work of Claudius. Like Claudius, 

I agonised for ages about whether or not to get a Kindle. I had a couple of pretty serious misgivings about it.  For a start I wasn’t keen on the way Amazon seemed to be locking the content.  I didn’t want to spend money on a book that relied on a particular bit of electronic

Its easy to be condescending about the past.  We look back with the benefit of hindsight, scholarship and having watched well made documentaries, and assume that we know better what was going on than the people actually involved.  But I doubt we are justified.  People usually know exactly what is going wrong. As the crisis

Why was the empire’s response to the barbarian invasions of the middle of the third century so feeble?   It was largely a question of priorities.  The biggest threat was perceived to come from the Persians.  Put yourself in the position of Valerian it isn’t hard to see what he was thinking.  Troublesome as the

The battered remains of the army acclaimed Gallus, a senior officer, as the new emperor.  It fell to him to negotiate with Cniva and to be the man who would have to actually agree to let the Goths leave with their loot and their prisoners.  If that wasn’t bad enough, he also had to agree