It's not easy being king, as many leaders throughout history have discovered. In antiquity, failing at your job could mean anything from displeasing the gods, to getting on the bad side of your future biographer.

Theme: Bad rulers of antiquity

• Kathryn Milne, 'Ancient explanations for failure - Misjudging the divine'.
• James Blake Wiener, 'Egypt's good, bad, and ugly rulers - Pharaohs who made history'.
• Martijn Icks, 'Character assassination of Roman emperors - Poisoned ink'.
• Colleen Darnell, 'Bringing about maat and destroying evil - How not to be a failed pharaoh'.
• Murray Dahm, 'Plato and Dionysius II, Tyrant of Syracuse - Didn't we almost have it all?'.
• Josiah Osgood, 'The messy ends of Roman rulers - Take that, Caesar!'.

Features:

• Manon Henzen, 'Sugar, spice, and everything nice - Rome sweet Rome'.
• Hareth Al Bustani, 'The emperor without sorrow - Ashoka Dharma'.
• Lindsay Powell, 'Pliny the Elder's book of everything - The Roman encyclopaedia'.
• Cyril Dumas, 'Art expressions of the intimate life in Pompeii - The lupanare grande'.