Painting of a European marketplace

Europe

A relief on Trajan's Column shows Roman troops crossing the Danube during the war against the Dacians. Victory was the framework upon which Pax Romana was built (Photo by akg-images/Erich Lessing)

The Pax Romana: how the Romans maintained peace at the point of a sword. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

History's Greatest Cities Season 2

General History

History’s greatest cities: Warsaw. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

History's Greatest Cities Season 2

General History

History’s greatest cities: Split. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Watercolour illustration of Athens

General History

The history of Athens: exploring the birthplace of democracy and philosophy

Is Eastern Europe disappearing?

A portrait of Chevalier d’Éon presenting as a woma

Chevalièr d’Éon: the tale of an 18th-century gender non-conforming spy

Fulvia gleefully posing with Cicero’s severed head, in an 1898 painting by Pavel Svedomsky. Whether or not she pierced his tongue with hairpins is the subject of debate (Photo by CBW / Alamy Stock Photo)

Fulvia: the maligned wife of politicians who made herself the power broker of ancient Rome. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Men of the 23rd US Infantry in France, 1918. The Western Front w ould not have even come into existence had the Schlieffen Plan been executed successfully. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

What if…The Schlieffen plan had been successful?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Why is Napoleon such a figure of ridicule in cinema?

Ridley’s Scott’s Napoleon trailer: a historian reacts

What should we make of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon?

OppenheimerIs Nolan perpetuating a historical myth?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Historian Simon Schama, 2015 (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Simon Schama“Humans are a marvel of ingenuity, yet we seem to exist in this great pond of primitive terror and paranoia”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Napoleon Bonaparte depicted as emperor of France in c1804. By now he had his sights set on establishing a dynasty (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

How Napoleon (almost) destroyed the French Revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Margaret of Anjou, seated besides King Henry VI of England, is presented a book in a contemporary illumination (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty)

Margaret of Anjou: the 'she-wolf' queen who wouldn’t go quietly. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of the Children's Crusade of 1212, from the Story of the British Nation, Volume 1, by Walter Hutchinson, c1920 (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

What was the Children’s Crusade, and did it actually happen?

Illustration of Spartacus, the escaped gladiator who became a leader in the Third Servile War, and his comrades using vines to abseil down the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in preparation of a surprise attack.

The Servile Wars: Spartacus & the rebellions that threatened the Roman Republic

A painting by Vincenzo Camuccini depicting the death of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

The death of Caesar: do we know the whole story?

Athénaïs de Montespan, one of the official mistresses of Louis XIV, was a suspect in a scandalous plot to murder the French king (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The Affair of the Poisons: who plotted to kill King Louis XIV?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 6The evil that men do. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 3Master of his fate. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 5The dogs of war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 2Was this ambition?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Et Tu, Brute?What did Caesar say before he died?

Allied troops hide from enemy shelling during the battle of Caen. The town was finally captured after several weeks of intensive fighting. The white markings on their shoulders were later added to the photograph by a censor to hide the name of the battalion. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)

The battle for Normandy: what happened after D-Day?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British Army tanks are unloaded on to Gold Beach on D-Day

D-Day quizTest your knowledge of the Normandy Landings. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sex, scandal and slander: who was Messalina?

William Caxton shows off his new press in Westminster to Edward IV in a 19th-century painting (Photo by Artepics / Alamy Stock Photo)

How William Caxton printed the first-ever book in English. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Paris became a charnel house during the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre, as shown in this painting by François Dubois (Photo By DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

General Early Modern

Catholics vs HuguenotsYour guide to the French Wars of Religion

Illustration by Laurie Avon

Medieval warfare: five deceptive ways to win a battle. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.