Paul Stephenson

Paul Stephenson is the author of "The Serpent Column: a cultural biography," which explores the history of a bronze sculpture through 2,500 years. His next book is "New Rome. The Roman Empire in the East", forthcoming with Profile and Harvard University Press.

Unlike Putin, the British have never really understood the central importance of Constantinople to European history

Will Hagia Sophia’s Christian heritage survive under President Erdoğan’s ‘neo-Ottoman’ vision?

The history of iconoclasm offers deeper lessons than are on display in the current statue-toppling craze