A strikingly beautiful young man was forcefully castrated and made to live in an emperor’s palace as his “queen” draped in veils. The story is so dark, fantastical, and profoundly queer it seems ...

History is kind to fools and cruel to tyrants — but occasionally, it gifts us someone who is both. Nero came to power not as a leader but as a spectacle. He fancied himself a genius, an artist, a ...

The Coen brothers once admitted that they struggle to sit through certain epic classics, which they called "boring". Read ...

Nero, the fifth Roman emperor, is remembered for his decadence and brutality. Many colourful tales surround his reign, including that he set fire to Rome, playing his lyre while it burned. He is also ...

Nero's reign. The invasion of Parthia has been a fiasco. Two Roman legions have been brought to a stand still in the snowy mountains of Armenia, and the men are dying slowly in the cold. The rest of ...