The only historic figure outside the early Christiantradition to whom the Gospels ascribe a dialoguewith Jesus is the first-century Roman prefect PontiusPilate. Presiding over the trial and execution
Public execution of criminals has been practiced in the West since ancient times. In this wide-ranging investigation of the death penalty in Europe from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, Adria
Spartacus (109?–71 bce), the slave who rebelled against Rome, has been a source of endless fascination, the subject of myth-making in his own time, and of movie-making in ours. Hard facts about the ma
Law is a specific form of social regulation distinct from religion, ethics, and even politics, and endowed with a strong and autonomous rationality. Its invention, a crucial aspect of Western history,
