Kieren Johns

When the Cimbri invaded Italy, it was the gravest threat to Rome since Hannibal, but it also allowed the ambitious general Marius to make his mark.

In 196 CE, two rivals for imperial power, Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus, clashed at the Battle of Lugdunum, the largest battle in Roman history.

Octavia the Younger, the sister of Augustus and wife of Mark Antony, was one of the most important women in the establishment of Rome’s first imperial dynasty.

An orator and statesman, Demosthenes dominated Athenian politics in the mid-4th century BCE as it battled the rising power of Macedonia.

The Battle of Strasbourg was a decisive Roman victory over the Alamanni to secure the northern frontiers and Julian’s rise as the last pagan emperor.

Prophesied to be the wife of a king, Julia Domna came from Rome’s eastern frontier to become the matriarch of the Severan dynasty.

A daughter of the Titans, Selene was the Greek goddess of the moon. She appears throughout Greek mythology in divine wars and torrid love affairs.

Built by one of Rome’s most reviled emperors, the Baths of Caracalla are an architectural masterpiece that influenced architecture in Rome and beyond.