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Who was Narcissus?
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Aztec Sun Stone
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What is an Obelisk?
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Who was Alexander the Great?
One of history's greatest conquerors, Alexander the Great (356-328 BC) overran the Persian Empire in less than 10 years and advanced as far as India.
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Etruscan Art
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History of Bread
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History of Plastic Surgery
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Trojan War
In Greek legend the Trojan War was a 10-year battle fought by the Greeks to recover Helen, wife of the King of Sparta, who had been kidnapped by Paris, son of the King of Troy.
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The Samurai
Samurai helmets had a circular opening at the top which was designed to allow the spirit of the Shinto war god Hachiman to enter the fighter's body
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What is Bushido?
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Life in Ancient Sparta
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History of Grammar
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Who Was Galileo?
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Who were the Illuminati?
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Who was Thucydides?
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Who was Florence Nightingale?
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Who was Cleopatra?
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Who was Achilles?
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Who was Alcibiades?
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History of Psychology
The branch of science that deals with the behavior of humans and animals is known as psychology. Along with biology, sociology and anthropology it is one of the behavioral sciences.
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Middle Kingdom of Egypt
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Etruscan Language
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Who was Pythagoras?
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History of Acrobatics
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What Is Roman Law?
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Romanesque Art
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History of the Bean
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What Are Coat of Plates?
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History of Comic Books
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Why did the Roman Empire fall?
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Housing and Health in Rome
By AD 200 the city of Rome contained about 1.2 million people. They needed a large number of buildings, shops, temples, theaters and public baths. But most of all they needed homes. Most people in Rome lived in blocks of flats, five or six storeys...
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Rise of the Roman Empire
A new power had begun to arise in western Europe between 500 to 275 B.C. the Romans gained control of the entire Italian peninsula south of the River Po. They conquered some of the Italian cities founded by the Greeks, but the Romans did not...
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Amazons
The Amazons in Greek legend were members of a tribe of women warriors who lived on the southern shore of the Black Sea. The Amazons were said to kill or send away their male offspring, keeping only their female children. One story about them...
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Grammar in Greece
It should be noted that Plato and Aristotle, like the Greeks in general, were not much interested in grammar as such; their contributions were incidental to their concern with broader issues, which can be called the nature-or-convention debate and...
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Golden Horde
Golden Horde is the modern term for a state that existed from 1223 to about 1400 in the Turkic steppes, the westernmost part of the Mongol empire. In 1223, Jochi, the son of Genghis Khan, received Khwarizm (Khorezm) and the northern Caucasus from...
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Galen's Theories
His main theory was that every part of man's body is there for a special and particular purpose, and that it is possible to understand that purpose fully by constant study, and that an understanding of the body will bring an understanding of God's...
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History of Bathing
Of Greek bathing we know a good deal from excavation, literature and vase-painting. A private bath in the shape of a pottery bowl has been found at Phylakopi, the Mycenaean city excavated on Melos. Public baths of the Mycenaean era are known from...
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Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar was one of the most remarkable men in any period of history. He was a highly successful general. As a strategist and tactician he fell short of greatness, but he made up for that with speed and boldness as well as courage. His ability...
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2nd Century Rome
While it lasted, the era of peace and prosperity under the good emperors brought to the world blessings that have never been wholly lost or forgotten. There was no serious threat or invasion from without or of revolution from within. For three...
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Clipper
The Clipper was a sailing merchantman designed primarily for speed. Clippers were usually square-rigged ships with three or more masts, but there were also clipper barks, brigs, and schooners. Considerations of large carrying capacity and...
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Emperors of the 2nd Century
The period comprising the final years of the 1st century and most of the 2nd century was the age of the five "good" emperors: Nerva (reigned 96-98), Trajan (reigned 98-117), Hadrian (reigned 117-138), Antoninus Pius (reigned 138-161), and Marcus...
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Sejanus
Lucius Aelius Sejanus was an adviser of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. He was the son of a Roman knight and had influential political connections through his mother's family. After the accession of Tiberius in 14 A.D., Sejanus and his father were made...
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The Sphinx
The correct name for the huge sphinx of Giza is Harmakhis, meaning 'Horus on the Horizon'. The sphinx was carved from a natural outcrop of rock near the pyramid of El Giza nearly 5000 years ago to act as a guardian of the Nile Valley. The face of...
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Consuls and Proconsuls
These are terms for honored offices of authority held by distinguished Romans before the days of the Roman Empire; although the word 'proconsul' is seldom used today, the consular service remains an important branch of a nation's foreign service. ...
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Procopius
Procopius was a Byzantine historian (circa AD 500 – circa AD 565) born in Caesarea, Palestine, he was educated in Caesarea and Gaza, where he studied rhetoric and law, he went to Constantinople to practice the legal profession. There he became...
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Cossacks
The Cossacks were bands of warlike horsemen who, from the early 15th century, roamed the steppe north of the Black Sea along the frontiers of Muscovite Russia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire. The name "Cossack" is from the Turkish kazak,...
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History of Japan
The original inhabitants of the Japanese islands were the Ainu, a hairy, bearded people culturally close to the Buryats and other tribes of the northern Russia, and still surviving in small numbers on the island of Hokkaido. It seems certain that...
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Ottoman Empire
Formed by the Ottoman Turks in the fourteenth century, the Ottoman Empire covered a vast territory. With unequaled military strength, Turkish forces conquered the Middle East and south-east Europe. The empire flourished until the late sixteenth...
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Slavery and the Games
A million or more people lived in Ancient Rome in the third century AD. Some were wealthy generals, senators and magistrates; many were middle-class merchants, business people, craft workers and shopkeepers; but the majority were poor. The biggest...
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End of Roman Britain
Claudius's invasion had begun in AD 43. By AD 47 the Romans had reached the Fosse Way, and they advanced further across Britain between AD 71 and 84. Hadrian's Wall was started in AD 122, and north of that, the Antonine Wall was built about the year...
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Roman Conquest of Britain
The Emperor Claudius began his invasion of Britain in AD 43. This was nearly one hundred years after Julius Caesar's landings. As with Caesar, there were a number of possible reasons why Claudius wanted his troops to cross the Channel. He may have...
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Roman Invasion of Britain
In 55 BC Julius Caesar decided to invade Britain with two legions, the Seventh and the Tenth. Each Roman legion had about 5,500 soldiers in it. A supporting f1eet carrying supplies and cavalry would follow soon afterwards. When his ships arrived off...
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Mongols
The Mongols were a nomadic people of Mongolia, emerged from obscurity in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan (1162-1227), at the head of hordes of mounted tribesmen, conquered a vast empire. He captured Peking in 1215 and then turn ed west to sweep...
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The Renaissance
Renaissance, or Revival of Learning, was a great movement in literature, art, architecture, science and human behavior that began in Italy in the 14th century, reached its peak in the 15th century and spread to the rest of Europe. It marks the end...
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History of Jewelery
The instinct to decorate the person has been common to all people at all times. Jewellery falls into a number of categories according to what parts of the body it is intended to adorn; at different times and in different places the emphasis has...
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History of Portugal
In 206 BC, after fierce fighting, the tribes of Iberia (Spain and Portugal) were absorbed into the Roman Empire. Portugal was part of the province of Lusitania until the 5th century AD, when Visigoths, barbarians from the north, established a...
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History of Canada
Stone Age ancestors of today's Indians arrived in Canada from across the Bering Strait about 20,000-30,000 years ago. They gradually spread, becoming cropraisers in the east, fishermen on the west coast, hunters in the forests and nomads on the...
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Herod
Herod the Great, king of Judea, who founded the Herodian dynasty (55 B.C. to 93 A.D.). He is also called Herod I. He was the son of Antipater, governor of Idumaea. Herod was appointed governor of Galilee in 47 B.C. Although nominally a Jew (his...
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Tatars
A Turkic-speaking people from Mongolia, the Tatars (or Tartars) invaded western Asia and parts of Europe in the thirteenth century under the leadership of Genghis Khan. They were called Tartars by European writers of the time who compared them to...
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Vandals
A Germanic people, the Vandals were one of the several barbarian tribes who invaded the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD. The Vandals originated in the Baltic area but by the first century AD had settled in East Europe. After AD 400, through...
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History of Spain
According to tradition Cadiz was founded by the Phoenicians about 1000 BC. Long before that time, however, prehistoric civilizations flourished; the famous cave paintings at Altamira in Santander province are attributed to Cro-Magnon man. The...
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History of the Navy
It was in the Mediterranean Sea that navies, as such, first made their appearance in history. The Egyptian kings probably had ships specially designed for fighting as early as 3000 B.C. Crete reached its height as a great sea power about 1600 B.C....
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Babylonia
The Sumerian civilization flourished in Mesopotamia, the area in South West Asia that surrounded the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys, during the approximate period 3000-2000 B.C. Mesopotamia was divided into several kingdoms, one of which,...
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Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was a civilization that flourished along the Nile River in north west Africa from before 3400 B.C. until 30 B.C., when the last Egyptian king, Ptolemy XIV, was put to death by order of Octavian (later Roman Emperor Augustus), and Egypt...
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History of Scotland
Scotland had a long history of fierce independence, resisting onslaughts by Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and the English, until the act of union in 1707 united England and Scotland under one king and parliament. A progression of events, including union of...
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History of Scotland: Picts, Scots, Britons, Angles, Norsemen
Before the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain, Scots from Ireland were establishing their power in what is now Argyll. Soon afterward the Angles began to occupy Lothian, and the Britons who had lived under Roman rule were driven westward....
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History of Scotland: Development of Christianity
Saint Ninian and Saint Kentigern were among the earliest Christian missionaries known to have worked in Scotland, but the Irish Scot, Saint Columba, probably did most to Christianize the Highlands from his base on Iona during the second half of the...
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History of Scotland: Emergence of the Border with England
In spite of his English connections, David I pursued the policy of his predecessors of expansion southward, and due to English weakness in the reign of Stephen, he succeeded in mastering the northern counties of England. However, Henry II recovered...
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History of Scotland: Union of the English and Scottish Parliaments
In some ways the most important result of the Revolution was the union of the English and Scottish parliaments (1707). As long as the king governed Scotland and kept control of the Scottish Parliament, no one in England felt any need for closer...
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History of Scotland: End of Jacobitism
For half a century after the union the basic political issue in Scotland was between supporters of the House of Hanover and union with England, and supporters of the House of Stuart and an independent Scotland. On two occasions this led to civil...
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History of Scotland: End of the Clan System
The end of the clan system in the Highlands and the changing use of land-not to support the largest possible number of able-bodied men but to provide the maximum return in cash-led to emigration of many Highlanders, mostly to other parts of Britain...
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Schooner
A schooner is a sailing vessel with two or more masts, having only fore-and-aft-rigged sails. This type of rigging enables the vessel to sail closer to the wind than a square-rigged ship can. Schooners are also easily maneuverable and can be handled...
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Saxons
One of the Germanic tribes that invaded the Roman Empire, the Saxons later settled in Britain with the Angles and Jutes. Their origins are obscure but, by the third and fourth centuries AD, they were settled along the Baltic coast and in the area of...
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Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great was king of Persia and founder of the Achaemenid empire. He was born about 600 B.C. According to Herodotus he was the third of his line to hold the name; hence he should be designated Cyrus III. Cyrus was the son of Cambyses II and...
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Thucydides
Athenian historian, whose masterpiece was a 'History of the Peloponnesian War', an account of the struggle between Athens and Sparta for dominance in Greece from 431 to 404 BC. Thucydides completed only eight volumes of this massive study, covering the wars down to 411 BC, before his death. He is...
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Pirate History
Pirates were international outlaws. They could be tracked down by any nation, and their bases attacked without a declaration of war. Pirates could be brought to trial in the courts of any nation, for under international law, piracy was a crime...
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Viking History
The Vikings were seafaring raiders from Scandinavia during the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries, the period known as the Viking Age. They are also called Northmen or Norsemen.
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Lucius Sergius Catilina
Catiline (109-62 B.C.) was a Roman politician, who was notorious because of the abortive conspiracy he organized in 63 B.C. Catiline (Lucius Sergius Catilina) was born to a patrician family that had been long obscure. In his early years he seems to...
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Viking
'Viking' is a designation of the adventurous people of the North, a collective name for the Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes in the 8th to 10th centuries.
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Lares
Lares, in Roman religion, are tutelary deities. Few modern scholars support the old theory that the lares were the ghosts of the dead and deified ancestors, who personified the vital powers and thus assured the duration of the family over which...
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Apollo
Apollo was one of the greatest Greek gods, for he was perfect in the qualities the Greeks loved and admired most. He was strong and beautiful, a god of wisdom and truth, justice and healing, and everything that is best in man's life. At first...
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Huns
Huns were a Mongolian people who for more than 80 years (ending about 454 A.D.) profoundly affected the history of Europe. The ethnic upheavals caused by their arrival in Russia were largely responsible for the Germanic invasions of the Roman Empire...
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Zeus
Zeus, in ancient Greek religion, is the chief deity. He was known to the Romans as Jupiter (Juppiter) and to Asiatic Indians as Dyaus pita. In origin he was an Indo-European divinity- a weather god enthroned on mountain summits, which are watched...
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Aenid
The Aenid is the finest epic of ancient Rome and one of the great poems of world literature. It was composed in Latin by Virgil in 30-19 B.C. and left without the final revision. Virgil before his death wished the work destroyed, but it was...
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Cuneiform
Cuneiform is the earliest fully developed system of writing known. The name "cuneiform" - derived from Latin cuneus (wedge) and forma (shape) - is applied to ancient scripts in which each character is formed by a stroke in the shape of a wedge,...
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Belisarius
Belisarius (505-565) was a famous general of the Eastern Roman Empire. Under Justinian, he won great victories over the Vandals and the Ostrogoths. He is first mentioned about 525, during the war with Persia, when procopius became his secretary. In...
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Battle of El Alamein
An important land battle of World War II was fought between the British and German armies in North Africa. The battle of Alamein took place in the western desert of Egypt and began on the night of October 23, 1942. Winston Churchill, then Prime...
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Robert Bruce
Robert Bruce, (1274-1329), King of Scotland. The Bruces were of Norman origin, and Bruce's grandfather, with John de Baliol, had claimed the Scottish throne in 1290. On the death of his father in 1304, Bruce became sixth lord of Annandale. At the...
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Argonauts
In Greek mythology the Argonauts were the heroic adventurers who sailed on the ship Argo to capture the Golden Fleece held by King Aeetes at Colchis. The Argonauts were led by Jason, a Greek prince whose kingdom had been usurped by his cousin...
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Blackbeard
Blackbeard was an English pirate notorious for his forays against shipping off the West Indies, the Spanish Main, and the coast of North Carolina. His real name was Edward Teach or Thatch. Little is known of his early life, but it is thought that he...
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Titus Pomponius Atticus
Titus Pomponius Atticus (109-32 B.C.), Roman literary patron. He was born in Rome of a wealthy family, one of the most distinguished of the equites (knights). About 88 B.C., while still a young man, he moved to Athens to avoid the civil warfare...
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Attila
Attila the Hun (406-453) was known to Roman Christendom as the "scourge of God" because of the devastation he wrought throughout the Roman empire. He is remembered for his savagery and his unattractive, even brutal, appearance. The Huns, whose...
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Gawain
Gawain was a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the central figures in Arthurian literature. He was the son of Arthur's half-sister Morgawse (or Anna) and King Lot of Orkney. References to Gawain antedate the earliest extant account of...
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Titans
In Greek mythology, the Titans were the 12 divine children of Uranus (Sky) and Gaea (Earth). One of the Titans, Cronus, castrated his father Uranus and seized the over-lordship of the universe. To escape a similar fate Cronus then swallowed his own...
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Praetor
The praetor was a high magistrate in ancient Rome (republic and principate) vested with judicial functions in civil trials (jurisdictio) and commanding power (imperium) in the broadest meaning of the term. In the official hierarchy he ranked after...
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Toga
The toga is a draped outer garment worn by the citizens of ancient Rome. It was an oblong of wool, which was draped over the left arm, around the back, under the right arm, across the chest, and over the left shoulder. The toga, derived from the...
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Ptolemy
Name of a Macedonian dynasty, comprising 14 kings and one queen of Egypt, who ruled the country from 323 to 30 BC. The dynasty was founded after the death of Alexander the Great by Ptolemy I Soter, 'the Savior', one of Alexander's generals. He made Egypt prosperous and peaceful through economic...
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Clearchus
Clearchus was a Spartan general. After serving in the Peloponnesian War he was sent to Byzantium as governor, to protect the city against Thra-cian attacks. Having fulfilled his mission he established himself as tyrant of Byzantium (403). Recalled by the ephors, he refused to obey, and was...
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Cimon
Cimon, Athenian admiral and statesman, son of Miltiades and Hegesipyle. He commanded the Athenian fleet in the 470s, and won the battle of the Eurymedon. He was for some time one of the most prominent members of the aristocratic party in Athens and to him was due the extension of Athenian power...
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Cleisthenes
Cleisthenes, Athenian statesman, son of the Alcmaeonid Megacles and Agariste; he was named after his maternal grandfather, the Sicyonian tyrant. After the expulsion of the Pisistratids (510), finding that he could make no headway against his political rivals, Cleisthenes won over the people by...
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Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest took place in 9 A.D. in which German tribesmen inflicted a disastrous defeat on the Romans. At that time Publius Quinctilius Varus, one of Emperor Augustus' relatives, commanded the Roman army in Germany. Late in...
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Ruthenes
Ruthenes is the medieval Latin term for the inhabitants of ancient Kievan Russia. In modern times it has been used as a synonym for those Ukrainians who are also known as Little Russians, for the Ukrainian-speaking population of the regions of...
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Gaul
Gaul was the homeland of the Gauls in western Europe in ancient times. It was bounded by the Rhine River and the Alps on the east, the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees on the south, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west and north. Most of Gaul now...
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Hoplite
The hoplite was the foot soldier of ancient Greece, who was the mainstay of the phalanx, which revolutionized warfare in the 5th century B.C. In the Athenian army, in which citizens served according to the equipment their individual wealth could...
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Roman Legion
The legion was the basic combat organization of the armies of ancient Rome. At various times its numbers ranged from about 3,000 to about 6,000 men. Most of these were infantrymen, armed with javelins and short swords. Often there was a small...
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The Helvetii
The were an ancient Celtic tribe, which migrated about 200 B.C. from southern Germany to a region bounded by the Rhine and Rhone rivers, Lake Geneva, and the Jura mountains. The region today forms western Switzerland. The Greek geographer-historian...
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Masada
Masada was the stronghold where the Jewish Zealots made a last stand against the Romans in 72-73 A.D. It is an isolated rock in Israel, rising some 1,300 feet (400 meters) near the western shore of the Dead Sea.
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Tacitus
Cornelius Tacitus (55-188 A.D.), one of the greatest Roman historians. Little is known of his life. Roughly accurate guesses can be made about the years of his birth and death, but his parents are unknown. He was a Roman senator who began his...
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The Battle of Marathon
Battle in Greek history in which the Athenians under Miltiades defeated a superior Persian army and so prevented invasion. A messenger, Pheidippides, ran the 40 km to Athens with the news - and died from his effort. This 'marathion run' is commemorated in the Olympic Games.
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The Franks
The Franks were a Germanic people that occupied Gaul during the fall of the Roman Empire and established the most important of the kingdoms that replaced the Roman government. The settlement of the Franks in Gaul marked the beginning of modem...
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Senate
The Senate was the chief governing body of the Roman republic for a period of 400 years. Originally it was the advisory council of the kings, and on the expulsion of the kings in 510 BC it continued to act, in theory, as adviser to the magistrates....
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The Battle of Cannae
The Battle of Cannae took place in 216 B.C., in which the Carthaginians led by Hannibal defeated the Romans. It is the most perfect example in the history of warfare, of the double envelopment of an opposing army. The Second Punic War fought...
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The Battle of Actium
The Battle of Actium was a crucial naval battle between Mark Antony and Octavian, who at the time of the battle ruled the Roman world, Antony in the east and Octavian in the west. By the battle of Actium, Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) won the...
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Aedile
Aedile was the title of an ancient Roman magistrate. According to tradition, the aedileship, which ranked above the quaestorship and below the praetorship in political importance, was created in 494 B.C., when two plebeians were elected aediles. In...
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Centurion
The Centurion was a professional officer in the Roman army. Every Roman legion (nominally 6,000 men) was divided into 60 centuries, each of which was commanded by a centurion. The centuries of a legion were grouped into 10 cohorts with 6 centuries...
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Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman statesman, orator, and author, who was one of the most active politicians and scholars of his time. He was born in the town of Arpinum in the Italian countryside on June 3, 106 b. c. His family was of...
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Ancient Corinth
Corinth is a city in Greece, at the southwestern end of the Isthmus of Corinth. Corinth (Greek Korinthos) is the capital of the nomos (department) of Corinthia (Korinthia). The chief crops of the region are grapes, tobacco, and olives. The modern...
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Acta Diurna
The Acta Diurna were official written accounts of daily events in ancient Rome. The term means "daily acts" in Latin. The Acta Diurna were also known as Acta Populi (Acts of the People), Acta Publica (Public Acts), or Acta Urbana (Municipal Acts). ...
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Roman Emperor - Valerian
Valerian, full name Publius Licinius Valerianus, Roman Emperor, 253-60, general, and faithful supporter of Gallus, after whose death he was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. Valerian took his son Gallienus as colleague, and, leaving him in charge of affairs in Europe, set out for the east to...
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Arabian History
Over the desert, for countless ages, have wandered the Bedouins, pitching their great, black tents wherever they are lucky enough to find a well and scanty pasture for their flocks of camels, sheep and goats. The Arabian barbs (horses) are as famous...
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Athenian General - Aristides
Aristides was an Athenian aristocrat, statesman, and general. A selfless individual whose chief concern was the welfare of Athens, he achieved a reputation for justice and fairness and was commonly called Aristides the Just. He played a major role...
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Aristarchus of Samos
Aristarchus of Samos, Greek astronomer and mathematician. Born about 310 B.C. Died about 250 B.C. He was the chief exponent of the heliocentric theory of the universe- that the sun stands still and the earth and the rest of the universe revolve...
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The Delian League
The Delian League was a confederation of Greek states organized by Athens after the expulsion of the Persians from Greece in 479 B.C. The league was the first major attempt in history to unite self-governing states for cooperative action. It...
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Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights were one of several military-religious orders founded in the 12th century during the Crusades. The Teutonic Knights came to play an important role in the settlement of eastern Europe during the late Middle Ages. The Knights, also...
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The Battle of Salamis
Salamis is an island in eastern Greece; in the Saronic Gulf, an arm of the Aegean Sea; about 10 miles (16 km) west of Athens. Area 39 square miles (101 sq km). Most of Salamis is mountainous and rocky, but there are some farming regions in the...
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Akkadians
Akkadians were an ancient Semitic people who conquered the non-Semitic Sumerians of Mesopotamia (now in Iraq) and built one of the first empires of Western history. They migrated into northern Mesopotamia from the Arabian Peninsula about 4000 B.C....
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Thrace
Thrace is a historic region of the Balkan peninsula, lying partly in Greece, partly in Turkey, and partly in Bulgaria. Thrace as a political and geographical unit in antiquity extended over the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, bounded on the north by the Danube River and on the south by the...
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Korean War
At the close of World War II it was agreed that the Soviet Union would accept the surrender of Japanese troops in the northern part of Korea, and the United States, the surrender of those to the south. For this purpose, the 38th parallel of north...
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Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan, Mongol khan (ruler) and founder of the Mongol dynasty in China. Born in 1216. Also called Khubilai Khan or Kubla Khan, he was the son of Tului and the grandson of Genghis Khan. After Mangu, his older brother, became Mongol khan in 1251,...
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Justinian I
Justinian I (full name Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus; commonly called Justinian the Great) Roman emperor of the East. Born of Gothic peasant parentage at Tauresium, Illyricum, in 483 A.D. Patronized by his uncle, Justin I, who, from a...
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Kish
Kish was an ancient city and kingdom in Mesopotamia. It was situated about 50 miles (80 km) south of modern Baghdad, Iraq. Within walking distance of the site of ancient Babylon lies an extensive field of ruins, out of which projects the mound of...
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Ancient Greece Medicine
Greek medicine, by far the best of the ancient world, reached its peak late in the 5th century B.C. It is always associated with Hippocrates, often called the father of medicine, who lived about this time on the Greek island of Kos (or Cos) and...
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The Brutii
The Brutii were one of the Neolithic peoples of Italy who for centuries remained in undisturbed occupation of the southwestern tip of the Italian peninsula, a territory once known as Bruttium and now known as Calabria. Originally they may have...
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Charge Of The Light Brigade
The Charge Of The Light Brigade was a heroic incident in the Battle of Balaklava in the Crimean War. The charge took place on October 25, 1854. During the siege of Sevastopol a Russian force attacked the British wing of the Allied army, whose supply...
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The Chariot
The chariot is most commonly a two-wheeled light vehicle that was drawn by two horses. Chariots were used in war, hunting, travel, and racing. The earliest known chariot was used in war by the Sumerians in the 2000's B.C. and was a heavy,...
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Cleon
Cleon (died 422 B.C.), Athenian politician and general. The son of a wealthy tanner, he was the first member of the commercial classes |to attain prominence in Athenian politics. Cleon participated in the political attacks of 430 B.C. against...
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Gallic Wars
Gallic Wars is the name customarily given to Julius Caesar's campaigns in Gaul between 58 and 51 B.C. The wars, which are vividly described in Caesar's Commentaries, prevented the German tribes from overrunning Gaul and brought the area under Roman control. Caesar's campaigns, recorded in his book...
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Marcus Terentius Varro
Marcus Terentius Reatinus Varro was Roman scholar and author. Born in Reate, 116 B.C. He received a liberal education, held a high office in the navy in the wars against the pirates and against Mithridates, and at the commencement of the civil war...
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Patricians and Plebeians
In Roman history the distinction between patricians and plebeians is first noted in the period following the expulsion of the kings (i.e. the 5th century B.C.). The word patrician comes from pater, father, the Roman Senate being known as patres. The...
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Pompeius
Pompeius was the name of several soldier-statesmen of ancient Rome, including Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great); his father, Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo; and his two sons, Sextus Pompeius and Gnaeus Pompeius. Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo (d. 87 B.C.)...
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Mithridates
Mithridates was the name of Kings of Parthia and of Pontus, derived from Mithras, the sun-god. Mithridates II of Parthia (120-88 BC) drove back the Mongols, defeated the King of Armenia, and was the first Parthian King to treat with Rome. Mithridates the Great of Pontus (130-64 BC) three times...
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Parthian Empire
The Persian Empire was destroyed by Alexander the Great but from about 250 BC his Greek successors were gradually replaced by a new Iranian people, the Parthians, who re-established an Oriental empire over Mesopotamia extending to the Euphrates.
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Pompey
Roman soldier and statesman, Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) was born on September 30, 106 B.C. Pompey was the son of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, a former consul and supporter of Lucius Cornelius Sulla. And the father of Gnaeus Pompeius and Sextus...
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Roman Emperor - Romulus Augustulus
The hundred years preceding the end of the W. Empire had been marked by a series of Teutonic invasions, resulting in loss of territory on every side. In 378 the Visigoths (W. Goths) decisively defeated the Romans at Adrianople. Under Honorius and...
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Roman Emperor - Valentinian III
Flavius Placidus Valentinian III (grandnephew of Valentinian I) was born 419 A.D. He was Roman emperor in the West from 425 A.D. to 455 A.D. He was the son of Constantius III, by Placidia, the daughter of Theodosius the Great, and was seated on the...
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Roman Emperor - Jovian
Jovian, full name Flavius Claudius Jovianus (AD 331-64) was Roman Emperor from 363-64. He was prefect of the praetorian guards under Emperor Julian (reigned from 361 to 363), accompanying him on the disastrous campaign against the Persians in which...
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Roman Emperor - Vitellius
Aulus Vitellius, Roman emperor in A.D. 69, was born on September 24, A.D. 15, the son of Lucius Vitellius Though he was reasonably well educated, his vices had commended him to Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.He served as consul (48) and as...
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Roman General - Publius Quintilius Varus
Publius Quintilius Varus was a Roman general. He was consul in 13 B.C., afterward proconsul of Syria, where he gained the confidence of Augustus by checking an insurrection of the Jews. Six years later he received from the emperor, with whose...
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Odoacer
Leader of the Germanic tribes in Italy, who brought the already weakened Roman Empire formally to an end in 476 when he deposed the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus. Odoacer became king of Italy. In 489 he was defeated by his rival, Theodric the Ostrogoth, and four years later was treacherously...
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Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (89-12 B.C.), Roman triumvir. Son of the ill-fated consul of the same name, he attained the praetorship in 49 B.C. Lepidus joined Caesar's side in the civil war of 49-45. He proposed the law by which Caesar was appointed...
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Roman Emperor - Lucius Verus
Lucius Aurelius Verus (original name Lucius Ceionius Commodus) born in Rome, Italy on December 15, 130 A.D. Roman emperor from 161-169. Adopted by Emperor Hadrian in 136 and then, with Marcus Annius Verus (later Marcus Aurelius Antoninus), by...
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Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna (130-84 B.C.), Roman statesman. After an uneventful career, he burst upon the pages of Roman history in 88 and 87 B.C., in the period of civil conflict between Marius and Sulla. Sulla had expelled Marius and his followers from...
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Roman Emperor - Caracalla
Caracalla, real name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (AD 188-211), Roman emperor 211-17, eldest son of Septimius Severus; the nickname Caracalla was due to his wearing the long Gallic tunic. He accompanied his father to Britain (208-11), and in 211 became joint emperor with his brother Geta, whom he...
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Roman Emperor - Antoninus Pius
Antoninus Pius was a Roman emperor. Adopted in 138 as Hadrian's heir, he succeeded him later that year. His daughter married his successor Marcus Aurelius. He enjoyed a prosperous reign, during which the Antonine Wall was built, a Roman line of fortification built in AD 142. extending from the...
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Roman Emperor - Galba
On Nero's death Galba was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard and marched on Rome. But the troops and people soon resented his austerity and manners; a conspiracy was formed by M. Salvius Otho, and Galba was murdered.
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Roman Emperor - Nerva
Marcus Cocceius Nerva was the first of the five so- called good emperors chosen by merit rather than by birth. In his mild, 16-month rule he restored civil lib erties, supported the senate, initiated economic im provements, and helped the poor. He was proclaimed emperor on Domitian's death 96 A.D....
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Roman Emperor - Valens
Valens (c. AD 328-378), Eastern Roman Emperor, 364-378, elevated by his brother, Valentinian I. During his reign, the Goths penetrated into the countries south of the Danube. In 378 Valens was defeated by them at Adrianople, and his body never found.
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Roman Emperor - Valentinian
Valentinian I (AD 321-75), Roman Emperor, 364-75, born in Pannonia of humble parentage. During his reign the frontiers of the empire were threatened by the Alemanni, who were twice repulsed (366 and 368). He was a man of ability and a wise administrator, tolerant in religious affairs. His rule was...
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Roman General - Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40-93 A.D.), general and governor of Roman Britain. His career, typical for a competent administrator of imperial Rome, was eulogized by his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, in the Agricola. Agricola was born in Forum...
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Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus (115-53 B.C.), Roman politician. When both his father and brother perished on orders of the supporters of the general Marius in 87 B.C., Crassus fled to Spain, where he built an army. He joined Sulla in 83 and successfully...
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Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius was a Roman general born in about 155 B.C., in Cereatae, in the Volscian territory. He won his first military repute at Numantia in 134, beginning his rapid rise from the ranks; was made tribune of the people in 119; increased his...
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Roman Emperor - Otho
Marcus Salvius Otho born April 28, 32 A.D. in Brixellum (now Brescello, Italy) was a Roman Emperor, As a young man he was a favorite of Nero, but on his refusal to divorce Poppaea Sabina, who had become the emperor's mistress and was later to be...
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Roman Emperor - Honorius
Flavius Honorius (384 A.D. - 423 A.D.), Roman emperor, who inherited the western half of the empire from his father Theodosius I in 395. Initially, like his brother Arcadius in the East, the child-ruler was emperor in name only. From 395 to 408...
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Cleopatra
Cleopatra was the throne name of a number of Macedonian queens of ancient Egypt, the most famous of whom was Cleopatra VII Philopator (69 - 30 B.C.). Although she ruled in Alexandria, she was part Macedonian; part Greek and Iranian. In the history...
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Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus (85 - 42 B.C.) was a Roman statesman and scholar. He has been idealized and immortalized by Shakespeare in Julius Caesar, but his real character remains strangely paradoxical. Cicero was among his teachers and warmest admirers....
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Roman General - Germanicus Caesar
Germanicus Caesar (15 B.C. - 19 A.D.), was one of the leading members of the family of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Nero Claudius Germanicus was the son of Nero Claudius Drusus, Augustus' stepson, and he married Agrippina Major (the Elder), Augustus'...
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Mark Antony
Mark Antony (82-30 B.C.) was a Roman triumvir and general. The Latin form of his name is Marcus Antonius. Because of his relationship with Cleopatra, his life has been romanticized by ancient biographers, by Shakespeare, and frequently by modern...
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Praetorian Guard
Praetorian Guards were the elite bodyguard of Roman emperors. Augustus in 27 B.C. organized the corps into 9 cohorts, but Caligula (reigned 37 to 41 A.D.) had 12, Vitellius in 69 A.D. had 16, and Domitian (reigned 81 to 96 A.D.) reduced them to 10,...
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Euclid
Euclid was a Greek mathematician born in about 323 B.C. Euclid is believed to have been educated by pupils of Plato. Over the period 306-283 BC, he taught geometry in Alexandria, Egypt, and established a new school of mathematics. Alexandria had...
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Coinage
Coins have been made in Europe and the Near East for about 2,500 years: in China their history is equally long. They have almost always been made of metal: sometimes, in a crisis, people have had to use leather or card, and sometimes they have...
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Ancient Athens
Athens was named for Athena, goddess of wisdom, the city's patron. When the city first appeared in history, its population was grouped in families and tribes. Athens was governed by kings claiming descent from Erechtheus, who according to legend...
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Athenian General - Alcibiades
Alcibiades was an Athenian general and political leader. Born Athens, Greece, about 450 B.C. Died Hellespontine Phrygia, Asia Minor, 404 B.C. Alcibiades came to power during the temporary halt in the Peloponnesian War known as the Peace of Nicias....
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Achilles
Achilles, in Greek mythology, was the most valiant Greek warrior in the Trojan War. Achilles was the son of Peleus, King of the Myrmidons, and Thetis, a sea-goddess. When the Fates prophesied that Achilles would die in the Trojan War, Thetis bathed...
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Greek Historian - Herodotus
Herodotus (c. 484-410 B.C.), the Greek historian, "father of history", was born at Halicarnassus, but lived mostly in Athens, where his work was greatly appreciated. His history deals with the rise of Greece and Persia and the great Persian wars of invasion (490 and 480 B.C.); he supplements facts...
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Roman Poet - Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (84 B.C. to 54 B.C.), Roman poet, whose love lyrics served as models for later European poets. There is little certain knowledge of his life. According to ancient sources, he was born in 87 b.c. and died at the age of 30; one...
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Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in North Africa in the vicinity of modern Tunis. It was founded before 800 B.C. by Phoenician colonists from Tyre. According to legend the city was founded by Dido, who ruled as its first queen. Carthage nourished for...
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Demosthenes
Demosthenes was ancient Greek orator and statesman. Born Attica, Greece, 384 B.C. Died on the island of Calauria (now Poros), in the Aegean Sea, 322 B.C. Demosthenes was the greatest of the Greek orators, and his works represent the highest...
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Pericles
One of the greatest Athenian statesman. Pericles won prominence as a leader of the democratic part in the city, and virtually controlled Athens in its golden age from 460 to 430 BC. He owed much of his success to his mastery of oratory. Pericles had the Parthenon built and cultivated the arts. He...
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Peloponnesian Wars
Two conflicts which divided Greece in 459-446 BC and 431-404 BC, as Athens and Sparta struggled for supremacy. They ended in the eclipse of the Athenian Empire. The chief reasons for this were the weakening of Athens through the death of its greatest leader, Pericles, plague, and the failure of an...
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Horace
Horace was a Roman poet. Born Quintus Horatius Flaccus, at Venusia (now Venosa), Italy, December 8, 65 B.C. Horace was one of the greatest and most popular lyric poets of all time. He wrote with unique charm and urbane humor, and he had an...
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Sophocles
Sophocles was a dramatist in Ancient Greece. He was born in Colonus, Greece, about 496 B.C. Sophocles was one of the great tragic dramatists of all time. His plays usually present a noble person who is faced with an overwhelming problem and who...
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Aristotelian Philosophy
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher. Born Stagira, Chalcidice, about 384 B.C. Died Chalcis, Euboea, 322 B.C. Aristotle was one of the greatest philosophers and scientists of all time. He brought ancient Greek thought to the high point of its...
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Comitia
The Comitia was the assembly of the Roman people convened by a magistrate in order to put a question to them and obtain the binding response. The earliest political organization of the Roman people was based on its division into 30 patrician curiae...
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Hannibal
Carthaginian general who invaded Italy in the second Punic War. Using Carthage's territories in Spain as his base, Hannibal captured Saguntum, the chief center of Roman influence. In 218 he led his army and war elephants through Gaul and across the Alps into Italy, here he defeated the Roman...
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Punic Wars
Struggle for Mediterranean supremacy between Rome and Carthage in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The wars were so called because the Latin word for Phoenicians who founded Carthage was Poeni. In the first war, from 264 to 241 BC, Rome gained Sicily from Carthage. In the second, from 218 to 201 BC,...
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Aristophanes
Aristophanes was a Greek dramatist. Born in Athens, Greece, about 450 B.C. He died about 385 B.C. Aristophanes was the first comic playwright to combine thoughtful social criticism with light entertainment. His plays drew laughter from his audience...
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Ancient Sparta
Sparta was a city in ancient Greece, situated in the Eurotas Valley in the southern Peloponnesus. It was renowned in antiquity as the strongest land power in Greece. The modern town, which had a population of 10,523 in 1971, was built in 1834 on...
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The Rise of Ancient Greece
The earliest inhabitants of Greece were probably Mousterian hunter-gatherers who roamed the region during the Middle Palaeolithic period. By 4000 BC, Neolithic villages were established in most fertile lowland regions.
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Archimedes
Archimedes, Greek mathematician, physicist, and inventor. Born Syracuse, Sicily, about 287 B.C. Died Syracuse, 212 B.C. Archimedes was the greatest mathematician and physicist of the ancient world. He discovered many basic principles of geometry....
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Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia and of Egypt, General of Greece, and Emperor of Persia. Born Pella, Macedonia, 356 B.C. Died Babylon, June 13, 323 B.C. Alexander was one of the great military leaders of all time. He never lost a battle and...
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Xerxes
King of Persia from 485 BC when he succeeded his father Darius. In 480, at the head of a great army which was supported by the Phoenician navy, he crossed the Dardanelles over a bridge of boats. He captured and burned Athens, but the Persian fleet was defeated at Salamis and Xerxes was forced to...
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Homer
Homer ancient Greek epic poet. Traditionally said to be the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Lived probably before 700 B.C. Homer is the earliest known poet in European literature. His Iliad and Odyssey are among the greatest masterpieces ever...
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Socrates Philosophy
Since he left no writings, knowledge of Socrates' life and work is drawn entirely from secondary sources. Principal among these are the Socratic works of Xenophon (Apology, Memorabilia, Symposium) and the dialogues of Plato, who like Xenophon was a...
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Virgil
Virgil was a Roman poet. Born Publius Vergilius Maro, at Andes (now Pietole), Italy, October 15, 70 B.C. Died Brundisium (now Brindisi), Italy, September 20, 19 B.C. Virgil was the great national poet of ancient Rome. His most famous work, the epic...