Ancient Empires

The bubonic plague was the worst affliction ever visited upon Europe and the Mediterranean world. Within a few short years, a quarter of the population was taken after a short but torturous illness. Those who escaped faced famine and economic hardship. Crops were left unsown; the harvests spoiled for lack of harvesters; villages, towns, and great cities were depopulated. Markets were destroyed; and trade ground to a halt. It must have seemed like the end of the world to the terrified populace.

For the people of the ancient Mediterranean and beyond, the city of Rome had been a symbol of power for centuries, and entering the early 5th century CE, the Eternal City hadn’t been taken by an enemy force since the Gauls had done it about 800 years, an unheard of period of tranquility in a world wracked with almost constant warfare. Thus, when the Visigoths, whom the Romans considered uncultured and inferior, took the city of Rome and sacked it in 410, the world was stunned. It made theologians of the newly Christianized empire question God’s plan on Earth.

At one point in antiquity, the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the largest empire the world had ever seen, but aside from its role in the Greco-Persian Wars and its collapse at the hands of Alexander the Great, it has been mostly overlooked. The Battle of Gaugamela: The History of Alexander the Great’s Decisive Victory and the Destruction of the Achaemenid Persian Empire looks at one of antiquity’s most important conflicts, and the profound ramifications of Alexander’s campaign; you will learn about the battle like never before.

The 50 years following the assassination of Severus Alexander on March 19, 235 CE has been generally regarded by academics as one of the lowest points in the history of the Roman Empire. In stark contrast to the previous 150 years, which included the reigns of the Five Good Emperors and has been universally praised as one of the high points of the empire. Many historians have debated how the Roman Empire managed to survive in any form at all, let alone remain robust enough to allow Diocletian and his successors to restore it.

Servilia is often cited as one of the most influential women of the late Roman Republic. During her second marriage, she began an affair with Julius Caesar, which probably lasted for the rest of his life and is further indicative of the force of her charm and her exceptional intelligence.

If you want to discover the captivating history of the Vandals, then keep reading...the Vandals didn't leave us any histories written by themselves. Thus, most of the ancient sources on their past were written by their enemies and adversaries, who didn't look too kindly on them. This is especially true for later historians who idealized ancient Rome and blamed the Vandals for its fall. But the question is, how much of it is true? This guide will try to give some voice to the voiceless Vandals.

To this day, we feel the influence of imperial Rome. After all, imperial Rome was one of the first successful “melting pots” of cultures. The Romans took what worked and discarded what didn’t work, showing that it was possible to have a stable, centralized government over an extremely large area.

Empezando en un pequeño asentamiento a orillas del Río Tíber, Roma se convirtió en una fuerza colosal e imparable. En su apogeo, el Imperio dominaba el mundo desde Europa, Asia Occidental, el norte de África y muchos más territorios.

From its mythical origins, stunning architecture, innovative engineering, and mighty army that led Rome's meteoric rise to become the world's most powerful empire, to the debauchery, excess and self-obsessed emperors that caused its eventual decline and self-destruction, this publication is a wonderfully illustrative and informative history of a once magnificent ancient civilization.

The author describes the Roman Empire as having three sections: the Oriental, the Greek, and the Roman-Barbarian. It deals with Greek influence, Roman law, philosophy, the city state, the army, emperor-worship, economic conditions, commerce, industry, and social life in the Empire.

No discussion of the 19th Century is complete without Napoleon. We begin with Charles Phillips’ eulogy, summarizing the strangeness and contradiction of the most influential man of his time. Followed by 7 brief speeches by Napoleon himself.

Meet the man who met Abraham. Ephron wants to honor his father and unite his people but his intended bride has other ideas. Ephron's father Zohar chooses him to lead their family. He not only has vital skills to ensure the security and growth of their tribe but he is still unmarried. Zohar plans to unite the Hittite tribes using Ephron and his sister as peace children in arranged marriages. Marauding enemies and rising waters threaten the homelands of fellow Hittites but no one wants to sacrifice autonomy just for safety, food, clothing, and shelter. Family patriarch Heth's arrival might ...

Cage & Mars are back! Bravo company is trapped on a pristine world, ripe for colonization. Unfortunately, the humans weren’t the first species to arrive. Aliens with vastly superior technology have laid claim to the planet and Bravo company is in the fight of their lives. Help is on the way with more colony ships set to arrive in the system. Lieutenant Blake Cage must find a way to keep the platoon alive and his relationship with Felicity Mars a secret. Incursio is the second half of the Cage & Mars story. It is filled with action, and strategy, as the characters struggle to ...

She was an orphan. She was an outcast She was the queen of the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. And she was born... For such a time as this. A bold new retelling of the story of Esther, by Pulitzer Prize nominee Paula K. Parker. Hadassah was born in to a loving, wealthy Jewish family in the Persian Empire's capital city of Susa. But before she even comes of age her world is swept away by events over which she has no control. Her parents murdered, she is left with only one living relative, her much older cousin, Mordecai, who shelters her as his own daughter. Just when life ...

Learn about the rise of the Aztec civilization and the powerful cities they created, including the capital city of Tenochtitlan. Explore the daily lives of the Aztec people, their art and culture, and their architecture. Uncover the rituals and beliefs of the Aztec people, including human sacrifice and religious ceremonies. Discover the majestic kings of the Aztec Empire and the legacy they left behind.

Over the last 2,000 years, ambitious men have dreamed of forging vast empires and attaining eternal glory in battle, but of all the conquerors who took steps toward such dreams, none were ever as successful as antiquity’s first great conqueror. Leaders of the 20th century hoped to rival Napoleon’s accomplishments, while Napoleon aimed to emulate the accomplishments of Julius Caesar. Caesar himself found inspiration in Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BCE), the Macedonian king who managed to stretch an empire from Greece to the Himalayas in Asia by the age of 30.

Alexander the Great’s story often reads like fiction: son to a snake-loving mother and a battle-scarred father, tutored by Aristotle, a youth from the periphery of the Greek world who took part in his first campaign aged 16, becoming king of Macedon at 20 and king of Asia by 25, leading his armies into battle like a Homeric figure. Each generation has peered through the glass of history and come to their own conclusion about Alexander, be it enlightened ruler, military genius, megalomaniac, drunkard or despot. Yet the first two decades of his life have until now been a mystery.

A little over 2000 years ago a man named Julius Caesar changed the world. Even if you have never heard of him, his lasting legacy has no doubt had an impact on your life. Even the very calendar that you use is based upon the system he created, with the month of July bearing his name. So who was this man that single-handedly changed the course of history? This audiobook follows the life and legacy of the man whose life stood between Republic and Empire.

The success of the emperors ironically brought about the worst plague in Rome’s epic history. Due to constant warfare on the borders and attempts to defend positions against various groups, Roman soldiers came into contact with foreign diseases, and they unwittingly brought them home when campaigns ended. This culminated around 165 CE, when an unidentified disease brought the empire to its knees and afflicted an untold number of individuals, one of whom may have been Lucius Verus, the co-emperor of Rome alongside Marcus Aurelius.

King Xerxes I: The Life and Legacy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire’s Most Notorious Ruler looks at the life of the Persian leader and the major conflicts he led. You will learn about Xerxes like never before.