Matthew Nicholls is Senior Tutor of St John’s College, Oxford, and Visiting Professor of Classics at the University of Reading

Roman mosaic (2nd–3rd century), found at Southwark and photographed in February 2022.
A rendering of the plans for the new Colosseum floor.
The Mausoleum of Augustus.
The Severan Tondo, c. 200AD, Altes Museum, Berlin.
A visualisation of what visitors to the Ara Pacis Museum see via their AR headsets. Image: © Zètema Progetto Cultura
Leda and the Swan, discovered in Pompeii.
Frescoes in the Criptoporticus Domus, restored as part of the Great Pompeii Project, December 2015, MARIO LAPORTA/AFP/Getty Images
The Colosseum Seen from the Southeast, (c. 1700), Gaspar van Wittel, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Photo: Imaging department; Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum. Photo: Imaging department; © President and Fellows of Harvard College