Douglas Boin

A pioneering political voice, with charisma and power that rivalled many of her male contemporaries, Clodia of Rome was a pivotal figure in the late Roman Republic until a murder trial, rife with corruption, catalysed her fall from grace. Taking readers inside the courtroom to follow the trial and Clodia's family's tumultuous political history, Douglas Boin brings a modern perspective...

Stigmatized and relegated to the margins of Roman society, the Goths were violent "barbarians" who destroyed "civilisation," at least in the conventional story of Rome's collapse. But a slight shift of perspective brings their history, and ours, shockingly alive. Alaric grew up near the river border that separated Gothic territory from Roman. He survived a border policy that separated migrant...

One of Rome's most powerful women, Clodia has been maligned over two thousand years as a promiscuous, husband-murdering harlot—thanks to her starring role in one of Cicero's most famous speeches in the Forum. But Cicero was lying, in defence of his own property and interests. Like so many women libelled or erased from history, Clodia had a life that was...