In the summer or autumn of 38 CE an unprecedented outbreak of anti-Jewish violence erupted in Alexandria, perpetrated by members of the city’s Greek population. This violence was tolerated – indeed endorsed – by the Roman governor, the equestrian prefect Aulus Avillius Flaccus, and this government involvement in the violence is particularly remarkable given Flaccus’ previously unimpeachable conduct as governor and his fair treatment of Alexandria’s well-established and large Jewish community. As...

The 1976 BBC mini-serial, I, Claudius (based on Robert Graves' novel) is often cited as one of the greatest television series of all time. It narrates the life story and family history of Claudius, the fourth Roman emperor, beginning in the reign of Augustus and progressing through the careers of the surly and savage Tiberius and the deranged Caligula. Derek Jacobi won a BAFTA award for his scintillating turn as the title character, and it remains perhaps his career-best performance. Fortunately,...

If you have ever heard of Publius Quinctilius Varus, it will no doubt be in conjunction with the infamous clades Variana of 9 CE, the catastrophic loss of three legions to the German tribes under the command of Arminius in the Teutoberg Forest, near present-day Kalkriese in Lower Saxony, Germany. This celebrated military catastrophe was an event of some consequence - it put an end to the fledgling Roman province across the Rhine, and drastically curtailed Roman hopes of a German imperium. Not only...

Titus Flavius Josephus was born Yosef ben Matityehu in 37 CE, probably in Jerusalem. He was the second son of a leading Jewish priest at the Jerusalem Temple and, through his mother, he was a descendant of the Hasmonaeans, the former royal dynasty of Judaea and the descendants of the Maccabees.

In his youth, Yosef (according to his own account) experminted with a wide variety of forms of Judaism, learning the doctrines of the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Essenes, as well as studying...

The surviving fragments of the Coligny Calendar were discovered in 1897, at a vineyard in the vicinity of Lyons, in the territory of the ancient Ambarri tribe. The fragments apparently formed part of a metal hoard, and were discovered alongside a bronze statue of Mars which has been dated to between 50 and 150 CE. The calendar fragments are bronze plate, inscribed with a Gaulish language text written in Latin characters. The...