During the period between the death of Trajan and the rise of Constantine, several emperors perpetuated the imperial cult. Here's a timeline.

Scholars claim Nero built a huge bronze statue of himself as the sun god and set it up in his Golden House. But he probably never saw the statue standing in his house.

Manipulation of religious fervor is an important element in the rise and rule of dictators such as Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and Kim Il-sung.

Kim Il-sung of North Korea created his own postcommunist Juche ideology of self-reliance, perpetuating a personality cult and savior dynasty.

Mao received the Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot in Beijing in June 1975 to congratulate him on installing radical communism in one fell swoop.

Confronted with the evidence of the inhumanity of slavery, William Wilberforce’s hope was to abolish it throughout the British Empire.

On the heels of R.J.B. Bosworth's latest volume on Benito Mussolini, Il Duce's youngest son Romano offers new, albeit revisionist insights into his father’s life.

Vision reviews two books by R.J.B. Bosworth on Benito Mussolini and life in Italy under his dictatorship.  

Napoleon’s Imperial Catechism as issued by the emperor in 1806.