SPQR

And it is largely through Cicero’s writing, his eyes and his prejudices that we see the Roman world of the first century BCE and much of the city’s history up to his day. The

Roman history also demands a particular sort of imagination. In some ways, to explore ancient Rome from the twenty-first century is rather like walking on a tightrope, a very careful balancing act.

It is a dangerous myth that we are better historians than our predecessors.

It has loaned us its catchphrases, from ‘fearing Greeks bearing gifts’ to ‘bread and circuses’ and ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ – even ‘where there’s life there’s hope’

Rome still helps to define the way we understand our world and think about ourselves, from high theory to low comedy

In 63 BCE the city of Rome was a vast metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, larger than any other in Europe before the nineteenth century;