| LEAD | Also called plumbum, a toxic element whose use in everyday life by the Ancient Romans is said by some to have contributed to the empire's downfall (4) |
| ONION | Bulb eaten as a vegetable whose inner concentric rings were thought to symbolise eternal life by the ancient Egyptians (5) |
| ARSENIC | Toxic element whose name is often used for its trioxide |
| IDES | Nasty side to the Romans is a warning (4) |
| TURN | Revolution in Italian city after one of the Romans is ousted (4) |
| VISITOR | Five Romans is it, or a guest? (7) |
| OAK | Sacred to Roman god Jupiter, a tree in the genus Quercus whose use in shipbuilding inspired David Garrick's line in a song used as the official march of the Royal Navy (3) |
| MINUTE | Word for the 60th part of an hour whose use in the sense of a note or memorandum derives from pre-printing days when scribes made rough copies in small writing (6) |
| BAYES | Presbyterian minister whose mathematical theorem devised in the 18th century for determining conditional probability has become a formula used in everyday life (5) |
| ORGANS | Aerophones with manuals, stops and ranks of pipes whose use whose use in English parish churches succeeded "west gallery" music provided by groups of singers (6) |
| DEVA | Name by which the city of Chester was known by the ancient Romans (4) |
| POWEROFTWO | Indigo Girls song with the chorus "Adding up the total of a love that's true / Multiply life by the ..." |
| NEODYMIUM | What's shattered me? Mind you, it is a toxic element |
| HATS | The Queen wears them in place of crowns in everyday life |
| STRIGIL | Curved blade used by the ancient Romans to scrape the body after bathing (7) |
| MICHIGAN | University whose use of affirmative action in admissions policy was upheld by a federal judge |
| PIETIN | Item once manufactured by the Frisbie company, whose use as a toy inspired Wham-O's Frisbee trademark |
| SALLYLUNN | A brioche-, bun- or teacake-like delicacy from Bath, whose name is said by some to derive from its original baker and others from "soleil et lune", French for "sun and moon" (5,4) |
| BEHN | Playwright, poet, polemicist, prisoner and Charles II's spy, whose Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, based on Lord Grey and Lady Henrietta Berkeley, is said by some to be England's first |
| EVANS | Lee ___, now retired comedian who starred in the films Mouse Hunt, The Fifth Element and There's Som |
