Christopher Mallan is an Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History and the Cassamarca Chair in Latin Humanism at the University of Western Australia. Eleanor Cowan is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney. She is the editor of Velleius Paterculus: Making History (2011) and co-editor of a special edition of the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (2023/4) on Domestic Violence and Vulnerability in the Roman World and of The Rule of Law in Ancient Rome (2025).

• Part I. Monarchy: 1. Making sense of monarchy Christopher Mallan with Eleanor Cowan; 2. Who's driving this thing? The idea of the weak king in the early Principate Robert Cowan; 3. Monarchical myth, or mirror for Rome? Pliny the Elder, the Principate and King of Sri Lanka Rhiannon Ash; 4. Wonder women: queens and female rulership in Diodorus' Bibliotheke Nakeesha Radice; Part II. Making Sense from Discord: 5. Dionysius and Rome's failed Constitution Liv Yarrow; 6. A king by other name: electing monarchs in Cornelius Nepos' Lives of Miltiades and Timoleon Elisabeth Slingsby; 7. Manilius (and his contemporaries) makes sense of monarchy Eleanor Cowan; 8. Murder, treason and plot: conspiracy narratives in Valerius Maximus and Curtius Rufus Christopher Mallan; Part III. Making Sense of Benevolence and Beneficence: 9. Nicolaus of Damascus and the wealth of kings Kimberly Czajkowski; 10. Kingship and imperial benefaction in Luke-Acts Shushma Malik; Bibliography; Index locorum; General index.

Christopher Mallan is an Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History and the Cassamarca Chair in Latin Humanism at the University of Western Australia. Eleanor Cowan is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney. She is the editor of Velleius Paterculus: Making History (2011) and co-editor of a special edition of the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (2023/4) on Domestic Violence and Vulnerability in the Roman World and of The Rule of Law in Ancient Rome (2025).

• Part I. Monarchy: 1. Making sense of monarchy Christopher Mallan with Eleanor Cowan; 2. Who's driving this thing? The idea of the weak king in the early Principate Robert Cowan; 3. Monarchical myth, or mirror for Rome? Pliny the Elder, the Principate and King of Sri Lanka Rhiannon Ash; 4. Wonder women: queens and female rulership in Diodorus' Bibliotheke Nakeesha Radice; Part II. Making Sense from Discord: 5. Dionysius and Rome's failed Constitution Liv Yarrow; 6. A king by other name: electing monarchs in Cornelius Nepos' Lives of Miltiades and Timoleon Elisabeth Slingsby; 7. Manilius (and his contemporaries) makes sense of monarchy Eleanor Cowan; 8. Murder, treason and plot: conspiracy narratives in Valerius Maximus and Curtius Rufus Christopher Mallan; Part III. Making Sense of Benevolence and Beneficence: 9. Nicolaus of Damascus and the wealth of kings Kimberly Czajkowski; 10. Kingship and imperial benefaction in Luke-Acts Shushma Malik; Bibliography; Index locorum; General index.

Christopher Mallan is an Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History and the Cassamarca Chair in Latin Humanism at the University of Western Australia. Eleanor Cowan is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney. She is the editor of Velleius Paterculus: Making History (2011) and co-editor of a special edition of the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (2023/4) on Domestic Violence and Vulnerability in the Roman World and of The Rule of Law in Ancient Rome (2025).

• Part I. Monarchy: 1. Making sense of monarchy Christopher Mallan with Eleanor Cowan; 2. Who's driving this thing? The idea of the weak king in the early Principate Robert Cowan; 3. Monarchical myth, or mirror for Rome? Pliny the Elder, the Principate and King of Sri Lanka Rhiannon Ash; 4. Wonder women: queens and female rulership in Diodorus' Bibliotheke Nakeesha Radice; Part II. Making Sense from Discord: 5. Dionysius and Rome's failed Constitution Liv Yarrow; 6. A king by other name: electing monarchs in Cornelius Nepos' Lives of Miltiades and Timoleon Elisabeth Slingsby; 7. Manilius (and his contemporaries) makes sense of monarchy Eleanor Cowan; 8. Murder, treason and plot: conspiracy narratives in Valerius Maximus and Curtius Rufus Christopher Mallan; Part III. Making Sense of Benevolence and Beneficence: 9. Nicolaus of Damascus and the wealth of kings Kimberly Czajkowski; 10. Kingship and imperial benefaction in Luke-Acts Shushma Malik; Bibliography; Index locorum; General index.