Peter Heather

Foreign policy often involved nothing more than the decision whom to make war upon.

Reality confounds image.

Never base motivation or fear, entirely.

Author describes one monarch's impressive table but conveys a contemporary's observation, "the weightiest thing at dinner was the conversation".

He was a stylist, not a thinker. He spent time trying to say things in as complicated a way as possible.

With ancient history writers most immediately in view, the author indicates "tendency to look to the virtues and vices of individuals when seeking causes.

The factor that made him so powerful was also his greatest liability.

The cornerstone of the Roman legionnaires' astonishing fighting spirit can be attributed to their training.

The way to a landowner's heart was to tax gently.