Drawing on new primary source evidence, this volume evaluates ancient Rome's influence on an English intellectual tradition from the 1850s to the 1920s as politicians, scientists, economists and social reformers addressed three fundamental debates of the period – Empire, Nation and City. These debates emerged as a result of political, economic and social change both in the Empire and Britain, and coalesced around issues of degeneracy, morality and community. As ideas of political freedom were subsumed by ideas of civilization, best preserved by technocratic governance, the political and historical focus on Republican Rome was gradually displaced by interest in the Imperial period of the Roman emperors. Moreover, as the spectre of the British Empire and Nation in decline increased towards the turn of the nineteenth century, the reception of Imperial Rome itself was transformed. By the 1920s, following the end of World War I, Imperial Rome was conjured into a new framework echoing that of the British Empire and appealing to the surging nationalistic mood.

The biography of Arthur Weigall, the British Egyptologist who was involved in the exploration and conservation of the monuments and antiquities of a region stretching from Luxor to the Sudan border. At a time when Egypt was being ransacked by private collectors and the agents of Western museums, it was said that, without Weigall, much more would have been lost altogether - most notably, the wall paintings in the Tombs of the Nobles. The enthusiasm and energy of the man and of the books and articles he wrote played a large part in popularising Egypt and Egyptology, and in promoting the then radical view that Egypt's antiquities belonged to the Egyptians. When, in 1922, Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by his old colleague Howard Carter, Weigall came into open conflict with Carter's patron, Lord Carnarvon, for his handling of the question of rights in the tomb, and for his sale of information from it to the London Times. Following Carnarvon's premature death in Egypt, it was Weigall's remarks to the press that led to the notorious story of the 'Curse of the Pharaohs': a myth that persists to this day. Weigall had many talents: he also designed theatre scenery, made films and wrote novels. But his real legacy derives from his passion for Egypt, both ancient and modern - a passion that informs the whole of his compelling story.

This landmark book shows how much Victorian and Edwardian Roman archaeologists were influenced by their own experience of empire in their interpretation of archaeological evidence. This distortion of the facts became accepted truth and its legacy is still felt in archaeology today. While tracing the development of these ideas, the author also gives the reader a throrough grounding in the history of Roman archaeology itself.