When he died in Babylon in 323 B.C., Alexander the Great of Macedonia had plans to continue his career of conquest, and these included Italy. The first century B.C. Roman historian Livy contemplated what might have happened had Alexander fought the Roman Republic. Livy had a strong opinion as to the outcome of a confrontation that never actually happened, and I have mine. Will you agree with my take on this extraordinary “what if?” Read my article, “Alexander in Italy, 317 BC,” in the May/June 2021 issue of Ancient Warfare magazine to find out. It’s on the shelves of bookshops now.

Third-century Rome was beset by many problems, including foreign invasions and internal rebellions. So bad did its security crisis become that huge chunks of the empire, east and west, broke off to temporarily form their own states. How and why did this happen? Why did these mini-empires ultimately fail? Find out by listening to the latest episode of Ancient Warfare podcast.

AW146 – Breakaway empires of the third century AD