Ancient greece
I didn’t realise Petra was an ad for Merkel’s immigration policy: Civilisations reviewed
Most of the history I know and remember comes from my inspirational prep school teacher Mr Bradshaw. History was taught…
Troy managed to descend into cliché even when nobody was actually using any words
ITV’s Marcella (Monday) represents another triumphant breakthrough in the portrayal of female cops on television. Of course, thanks to more…
A recording that makes you realise Les Troyens is one of the greatest operatic masterpieces
Grade: A- Berlioz’s Les Troyens, one of the greatest operatic masterpieces, manages to be neglected even if it is…
The icemen cometh
You wouldn’t want to stumble upon the Scythians. Armed with battle-axes, bows and daggers, and covered in fearsome tattoos, the…
Silent films
On 15 September 1888 Vincent van Gogh was intrigued to read an account of an up-to-date artist’s house in the…
How Aristotle would hire civil servants
The civil service is to be allowed to find out what job applicants’ ‘socio-economic background’ is. What abject drivel is…
The treasures of Alexandria revealed: British Museum’s Sunken cities reviewed
It was not so unusual for someone to turn into a god in Egypt. It happened to the Emperor Hadrian’s…
The best guide to being an EU politician – from 1,900 years ago
Boris Johnson argues that the current European Union is yet another failed attempt to replicate the golden age of a…
Why confront the ugly lie of Islamic State with a tacky fake?
Can the beauty of Palmyra be reproduced by data-driven robots? Stephen Bayley on copies, fakes and forgeries
Not a repertory piece but in its dignity it earns respect: Royal Opera’s Oedipe reviewed
For years I have been telling people that they should listen to, in the absence of staged performances, Enescu’s opera…
The Camerons of the ancient world boasted about the tax they paid
As Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell whinge away about how rich David Cameron’s family is, they might consider that in…
Meet the Donald Trump of ancient Athens (he won)
Why does the Republican party loathe Donald Trump? Because Trump is the ultimate loose cannon, beholden to no one. And…
The singing made me seasick: ETO’s Don Giovanni reviewed
One of these days I will probably see a production of Don Giovanni set in a research station in the…
There were no safe spaces at the dawn of democracy
Brilliant Oxford undergraduates argue that it is right to prevent us saying things they object to, because speech they do…
What Pericles knew that David Cameron doesn’t
It does seem extraordinary that the increasingly puce-faced Mr Cameron offered us an ‘in-out’ referendum and is now telling us…
Become like ancient Athens — leave the EU
One feels that Sir Stuart Rose, leader of the EU referendum ‘In’ campaign, should really try a little harder. First…
Ancient and Modern: The mercenaries of IS and ancient Greece
Last week we read that Isis was crumbling, but still a force to be reckoned with. That is true, but…
For a true moral lesson, Rugby School, get your pupils drunk
Rugby and Ampleforth schools have decided to give their charges experience of sensible drinking by introducing a little alcohol, under…
Galleries are getting bigger - but is there enough good art to put in them?
Martin Gayford recommends the exhibitions to see — and to avoid — over the coming year
How ancient Athens handled immigrants
Among all the arguments about how many non-EU immigrants we should let in, campaigners are proposing a scheme for private…
Egypt: where gods are born and go to die
Tom Holland on Egypt, where the deities were born and history itself began
Jeremy Corbyn and Pericles: spot the difference
Whatever else one can say about Jeremy Corbyn, one thing is clear: he is a leader who does not believe…
Adventures on the isle that seduced Odysseus
Gozo — Malta’s tiny island neighbour — was once rather a crucial spot in the Mediterranean. The Knights of Malta…
Socrates and Galen on the Great British Bake Off
As the national girth expands by the second, Auntie, never backward about lecturing us on the topic, continues to glory…
The Globe's Oresteia lets Aeschylus speak - the Almeida's muzzles him
To examine an ancient text requires an understanding of the ancient imagination. The Oresteia is set in a primitive world…
