Portrait of Hypatia (thanks to Wikipedia) Whatever you think about Christianity, the unpalatable fact is it owed its rise to coercion, violence and a huge amount of bloodshed. The scale of persecution of Christians by the pagan empire was tiny compared to the death toll once the Church became established.  The majority of the bloodshed

Beyond the frontiers, his anxious view could discover nothing, except the ocean, inhospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians, of fierce manners and unknown language, or dependent kings, who would gladly purchase the emperor’s protection by the sacrifice of an obnoxious fugitive. “Wherever you are,” said Cicero to the exiled Marcellus, “remember that you are equally

Are man’s activities altering the climate? Despite having an environmental science degree and a deep interest in environmental issues, bizarrely enough I have never really got around to forming an opinion on the matter. It is certainly true that the consensus among scientists is that man made climate change is a fact and that we

I promised a fuller review of this paper at the beginning of the month when I just pulled out the currency data (See http://historybooksreview.blogspot.com/2010/11/quantitative-easing-roman-way.html). Did Rome fall because it was too complicated? But interesting as that was there is rather more to Professor Tainter’s work that is worth looking at.  His paper was published in

Peter Hennessy is having an exciting year.  Not only has one of  his books been reviewed here on the History Books Review, yesterday he also became a member of the House of Lords. Congratulations your Honour, and hopefully this will give you more time to write more books. See the review of The Secret State

So the senate was now resolved to do battle with the upstart Maximin.  Everyone’s hopes were invested in the Gordians, who they felt represented the best of the trhttp://historybooksreview.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/multiethnic-team-using-green-screen-tablet-to-over-MVKF9J9.jpgions of Rome.  Envoys to the rest of Italy had quickly established a high level of support in the heart of the empire.  The problem was Maximin