Sexual activity in Ancient Rome wasn’t the licentious free-for-all we may imagine (especially for women); in fact it was strictly regulated. But author and historian LJ Trafford has unearthed plenty of weird and lurid facts about Ancient Roman sex for her new book, as she tells Historia. When my publisher suggested to me that I […]
Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome by LJ Trafford
From emperors and empresses, poets and prostitutes, slaves and plebs, Ancient Rome was a wealth of different experiences and expectations. None more so than around the subject of sex and sexuality. The image of Ancient Rome that has come down to us is one of sexual excess: emperors gripped by perversion partaking in pleasure with […]
How to Survive in Ancient Rome by LJ Trafford
Imagine you were transported back in time to Ancient Rome and you had to start a new life there. How would you fit in? Where would you live? What would you eat? Where would you go to have your hair done? Who would you go to if you got ill, or if you were mugged […]
Gladiator sweat and leech hair dye; how to survive in Ancient Rome
When Pen & Sword Books approached historian and novelist LJ Trafford about writing a book they described as ‘Horrible Histories for Grownups’, set in Ancient Rome, she accepted with pleasure. As readers of her books – and her Historia pieces – know, she’s an expert in the bizarre, ridiculous and downright disgusting details of Roman […]
Review: Downton Abbey: the film
Does Downton Abbey work as a film? Should you take your non-DA-addict friend or partner to see it? Will there be posh frocks and implausible plots? These and many other important questions are answered in LJ Trafford’s Historia review. The world is neatly divided into those who have never seen Downton Abbey and those who […]
The Wedding by LJ Trafford: part 3
The final part of LJ Trafford’s The Wedding, one of the short stories published in Rubicon, the HWA and Sharpe Books collection of stories by ten leading authors who write about Ancient Rome.
The Wedding by JL Trafford: part 2
The second part of Historia’s serialisation of LJ Trafford’s tongue-in-cheek short story, The Wedding, from the HWA/Sharpe Books Rubicon collection
The Wedding by LJ Trafford: part I
Historia serialises LJ Trafford’s The Wedding, one of the short stories in Rubicon, the HWA and Sharpe Books collection of stories by ten leading authors who write about Ancient Rome. This is part 1. Rome under Emperor Nero