Herodian: Did you mean...?

A map illustrating the geopolitical situation in the Levant after Herod the Great's death (an ambitious ruler appointed as the King of Judea by the Roman Senate in 37 BCE). The Herodian Tetrarchy, established by Herod the Great's will, divided...

In the wake of the downfall of the Western Roman Empire and the intellectual collapse of Athens, Byzantine scholars engaged in preserving the Classical Greek language and its literature. Thus they became the guardians of a vanished culture...

Caracalla was Roman emperor from 211 to 217 CE. Born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, he became co-ruler with his father in 198 CE and sole ruler after the death of his father in 211 CE and of his brother...

Caesarea Maritima was a city built over 2,000 years ago (c. 22-10 BCE) on the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean. With Roman engineering and largesse, Herod the Great (r. 37-4 BCE) accomplished this feat by constructing a whole metropolis...

Maximinius Thrax ruled briefly as the Roman emperor from 235 CE to his death in 238 CE. The young Roman Emperor Alexander Severus secured the imperial throne after the assassination of his cousin Elagabalus by the Praetorian Guard in 222...

When Maximinus Thrax was named Roman emperor upon the death of Alexander Severus, the news was not well-received by many in Rome and the Roman Senate considered him an illiterate barbarian. His financial excesses, principally used to fund...

Macrinus was Roman emperor from April 217 to June 218 CE. It is a story that has been told countless times before - an emperor is assassinated leaving no heir or successor. On April 8, 217 CE Roman Emperor Caracalla was murdered, supposedly...

Didius Julianus was Roman emperor from March to June 193 CE. On March 28, 193 CE Roman Emperor Pertinax was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard, and like his predecessor Commodus, he left no apparent successor. Two possible claimants presented...

Commodus was Roman emperor from 180 to 192 CE. With the death of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in March of 180 CE, the long reign of the five good emperors came to an end and with it so did the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace). Those emperors...

Alexander Severus served as the Roman emperor from 222 CE until his untimely death in 235 CE. At the urging of his mother, aunt, and grandmother, Emperor Elagabalus named his cousin Alexianus (the future Alexander Severus) as his heir in...