What comes to mind when you think about the kind of Roman Emperor who managed to establish an indestructible empire?

Augustus appointed himself as the chief priest – or Pontifex Maximus – and used the appearance of Halley’s Comet to claim that he was, himself, the son of a god.

By the time of Augustus, however, women with three children (and freedwomen with four) became legally independent, a status known as "sui iuris." In reality, the degree of freedom a woman enjoyed ...