Ancient Greece
Herodotus and the birth of enquiry
Before there were historians, there was Herodotus — a wandering Greek determined to discover why civilisations rise and fall
Embers to tend
The brilliance of Sappho has been obscured by rumour and neglect
So long, Socrates
Socrates turned relentless questioning into a way of life — and paid for it with his own
Alcibiades
The Ancient Greek orator, philanderer, drunk, traitor and hero would have felt at home in modern politics
When classicists attack classics
Sanskrit isn’t the only ancient language to be affected by academic imperialism
Hellenism in Rome
Children of Athens is an absorbing romp through Greek (and Roman) history
Life versus learning: a battle of the titans
In their lives we find fiercely opposed poles of a culture that has profoundly shaped our world
The immoral case for restitution
Britain does not owe Greece the Parthenon sculptures
Mystery of the missing bronze
A new excavation to find the third Riace statue is planned
Most Read
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Grooming gangs and the truth
We should not give ammunition to deniers of the grooming gangs scandal
Why has Keir Starmer been so unpopular?
He was the perfect embodiment of a failing system
Babies need women
Leaving children with only men who are not their parents is foolish and dangerous
Stop ignoring the Islamisation of our democracy
The British state is bending to Islamism, not attempting to defeat it
Our new five-party system
First-past-the-post no longer means
an electoral carve-up between the
Tories and Labour, allowing “fringe”
parties real political influence
Clarifying the fog of the gender wars
Michael Foran’s new book will undoubtedly be celebrated, but is it essential?
Against the censorious right
Miriam Cates is wrong about free speech and anonymity
The spy chief who sold us Blue Nun
Raise a glass to a long life, very well lived
Undramatic life of a literary also-ran
Malcolm Cowley never understood very much about literature
No gods, no monsters
We should stop projecting our neuroses onto foreign leaders
Zelda Zingari
Arty types: the fashionable poet
Fond portrait of an odd couple
Two irascible, elderly artists and two beautiful younger women in unusual relationships
Hyperventilating vexillology
Once councils flew the symbols of the realm; now they proclaim the enthusiasms of the age
English football is not boring
Greater competition is being confused with dullness
Why tradition, not utopia, protects expression
Free expression thrives on human frailty, debate, and tradition — not on utopian zeal or moral legislation