Benito Mussolini

Italy

'The Last Supper' by Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci's paintings: a guide to 8 famous works

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: your guide to the poet’s life, work and love

Da Vinci's sketch 'The Vitruvian Man'. Da Vinci's talents ranged from anatomy to military engineering, and many of his innovations were not explored further for several centuries. (Photo by: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

Your guide to Leonardo da Vinci: his life, inventions and milestones in his career

Michelangelo was a Renaissance sculptor, painter and visionary. This 17th-centruy portrait was completely shortly after his death

Your guide to Renaissance sculptor and painter Michelangelo

Cellini: the “supreme scoundrel of the Renaissance”

Second century relief portraying a Roman ophthalmologist examining a patient. (Photo By DEA / A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

Roman medicine: 6 ways people stayed healthy in ancient Rome

Formidable dynasties of the Italian Renaissance

The Roman emperors: everything you wanted to know

The assassination of Julius Caesar

What if…Julius Caesar had not been assassinated?

The hunt for Caesar’s killers

Canossa: a medieval clash between church and state

The battle for Sicily, 1943

Illustration showing Roman Saturnalia banquet. (Photo by Alamy)

Saturnalia: the origins of the debauched Roman 'Christmas'

Marble bust of Caligula

Caligula: murderous and depraved, or a victim of history?

Painting of Pope Callixtus II, the first Borgia pope, though it would be his nephew Rodrigo (later Pope Alexander VI) who would earn great infamy

Your guide to...the Borgias

Vivid experiences: a self-portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque artist whose brilliant renderings of biblical and classical scenes earned her commissions from some of the most powerful figures in 17th century Europe. (Photo by Araldo de Luca/Corbis via Getty Images)

Artemisia Gentileschi: how pain powered the great 17th-century artist

People gather around the Mona Lisa painting after its return in January 1914

Mona Lisa heist: how do you steal the world's most famous painting?

Roman republic

Your guide to the Roman Republic

Marble relief depicting the Praetorian Guard, legionnaires and elite soldiers. In the Louvre, Paris, France. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Praetorian Guard: the emperors’ fatal servants

Pompeii,Italy

What was life like in ancient Pompeii? Mary Beard shares an A-Z guide

Marble bust of Nero

Emperor Nero: the tyrant of Rome

Protesters demonstrate against a US military base at Santo Stefano in 2005

Sardinia: the legacy of the notorious shepherd-bandits of the mountains

Rethinking the Renaissance

Why Florence Nightingale was so much more than the ‘Lady with the Lamp’

Spartacus is now associated with political upheaval, as in the 1919 Spartacist uprising.

Who were the gladiators of ancient Rome? Plus Spartacus, Crixus and 8 more fighters you should know

Engraving of emperor Commodus's death

Cheese, angry gods and shoddy surgeons: the unlikely deaths of Roman emperors

Self portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi as a lute player (Photo by Getty Images)

The genius of Artemisia

Pompeii wall painting depicting an erotic satyr and nymph

In bed with the Romans: a brief history of sex in Ancient Rome

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective