Plato attempted to divorce wine-drinking and pleasure and to conscript wine to “worthy” purposes. Thank goodness no one listened to him

Peter Stothard’s lifelong ambition was to write a biography of Cleopatra. The charming result says as much about the author as it does about the Egyptian queen

The rule of the ancient King of Persia was more enlightened than the despots of today's Islamic Republic of Iran

Could anxiety over the future of the West be behind the publication of so many books on the fall of the Roman Empire?

Whose Culture?: The Promise of Museums and the Debate over Antiquities edited by James Cuno

Maurice Bowra: A Life by Leslie Mitchell

The Man who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus by Justin Marozzi

Two superb productions, The Norman Conquests at the Old Vic and Oedipus at the NT, explore the ties that bind ancient and modern drama

Sex and Sensuality in the Ancient World by Giulia Sissa

The British Museum’s exhibition reassesses the great Roman, a complex figure who left a legacy of unique glory