The Flavian Amphitheatre is undoubtedly one of the most famous buildings in the world, and an extraordinary manifestation of the control exercised by the Roman Empire over the citizenry. As Juvenal spat with disdain: “…for the [Roman] People who once upon a time handed out military command, high...

This is more an illustrated podcast (or a narrated selection of photographs) because there were just too many good images to choose from. In his life of Nero Suetonius tells us: “There was nothing however in which [Nero] was more ruinously prodigal than in building. He made a palace extending all...

The closest point of the Aurelian Wall to my apartment is also one of my absolute favourite parts. It is the Porta Maggiore, literally “the great gate” which is, in fact a misleading name. In fact the Porta Maggiore predates the walls by over two centuries: it was never intended to be a gate at...