Ancient History Lives

The life story of Ramesses II is voluminously recorded and illustrated through documents and inscriptions, and it is even represented physically through his funerary goods and the well-preserved mummified remains of the man himself. But despite the resources available with which to reason about who Ramesses II was and what his impact might have been, there is also a necessary disconnection between him and those who chronicled his story.

Caught between two seas and two continents, Istanbul lies at the centre of the most pressing challenges of our time. With environmental decay, rapacious development and tightening authoritarianism straining its social fabric to breaking point, it represents the precipitous moment civilizations around the world are currently facing. In and around its crumbling Byzantine-era fortifications, Alexander Christie-Miller meets people who are experiencing the looming crisis and fighting back, sometimes triumphing despite the odds.

Long before the first pharmaceutical companies opened their doors in the 1850s, doctors treated people, not symptoms. And although we've become used to popping pills, Americans have finally had it with the dangerous side-effects, addiction and over-prescription - and they're looking for an alternative. Here's the good news: that alternative has been here all along in the form of ancient treatments that have been used for eons by cultures around the world.

Nero. The very name seems to embody the character of a tyrant. The years of his reign come down to us with tales full of self-serving totalitarianism. Wasn’t he the one that fiddled while Rome burned after all? Wasn’t this the mad monarch who wished to embark upon a building project, so he set the old buildings that were in his way on fire? But besides this power-mad tyranny, what do we know about Nero? Surely even the most despotic dictator has a good side?

Spartacus is the world’s most famous slave, and one of the most notorious figures of Ancient Rome. A slave enamored of freedom and willing to fight and die for it, he became especially popular in the years following the Enlightenment, after which he was widely viewed as a poignant champion of liberty in the 18th and 19th centuries. As a result, he became a symbol during struggles like the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and the struggle for emancipation.

"Die Geschichte der Römer erstreckt sich von ca. 750 v. Chr. bis in die 'Römische Kaiserzeit“. Sie endet mit dem Untergang des Römischen Reichs ca. 400 n. Chr., als Konstantinopel sich als Gegenmacht zur Vorherrschaft Roms entwickelt. Germanen und Goten erobern die Metropole, später fallen noch die Vandalen ein. Von ihrer zerstörerischen Aktivität leitet sich der heutige Begriff "Vandalismus“ her. In den 12 Jahrhunderten des Römischen Reichs gab es eine Zeit der königlichen und eine der kaiserlichen Macht....

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. Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) managed to stretch an empire from Greece to Asia's Himalayas at just 30 years old. It took less than 15 years for Alexander to conquer much of the known world.

Possibly the most important man of antiquity, and even all of history, was Julius Caesar. Alexander Hamilton, the famous American patriot, once remarked that "the greatest man who ever lived was Julius Caesar". Such a tribute, coming from one of the Founding Fathers of the quintessential modern democracy in reference to a man who destroyed the Roman Republic, is testament to the enduring mark that Caesar left upon the world.

Claudius is particularly remembered for the conquest of Britain, as Roman power there had weakened since Julius Caesar had invaded nearly a century before. Beyond this, he established Roman colonies on the frontiers of the empire, annexed several territories in North Africa (including Thrace and Mauritania), and made Judea a province. Claudius’s rule stands out in other aspects as well. He paid great attention to Rome’s judicial system and religious policy, and the Empire’s infrastructure was improved during his reign.

For centuries, the idea that humans possess an immortal soul has shaped religious doctrine, philosophical thought, and cultural traditions. But where did this belief originate, and does it align with the Bible? Immortality of the Soul: The Birth of the Doctrine traces the historical development of this concept, revealing how it emerged from Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, and Greek philosophies and was later adopted by various religious movements—including mainstream Christianity. Through careful historical and biblical analysis, this book dismantles the notion that the soul is inherently ...

He appears once in the New Testament, mentioned only in passing in the Acts of the Apostles; only a few verses in the canon, but for the primitive Church, there is a whole corpus about Simon Magus, its most formidable antagonist, an enemy of such colossal proportions that he deserved to be called "the father of all heresies." His only mention in the Bible occurs at the beginning of the second volume of Luke the Evangelist where he had a minor confrontation with Saint Peter which nonetheless had a happy ending.

Hannibal Barca, one of Carthage’s most influential generals, lived a couple hundred years before Christ, and has led many Roman troops to victory to conquer the surrounding nations. Famous were his battles with elephants he employed during tactical moves of cavalry and infantry armies alike. His resistance against the Roman powers in the Punic Wars have been praised and lamented worldwide.

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. When it has been studied, the historical sources have mostly been Greek, the very people the Persians sought to conquer. Needless to say, their versions were biased.

Between the infamous Lindisfarne raid in 793 CE and the Norman conquest of 1066, the peoples we know now as the Vikings became one of the most far-ranging and influential civilizations in history. The Vikings are frequently portrayed as raiders, marauding across medieval Europe and Britain, but the culture and society of the medieval Nordic peoples was so much more diverse, multifaceted and influential than it is often depicted.

Epaminondas was known better for his way with words than his way with a sword. He used his wits on the battlefield to lead armies and took the honor of himself and his men most seriously. Nepos here admires the Theban orator who could out-speak any Athenian.

En este libro descubrirá cómo era realmente la vida de los vikingos durante su época dorada. Aprenderá sobre los vikingos y las incursiones más importantes, y conocerá más sobre su vida cotidiana y las cuestiones que eran más importantes para ellos. También explorará su folclore y oirá hablar de monstruos, dioses, diosas y de las épicas aventuras que vivieron. La historia cobra vida en este libro con fotos atractivas, datos curiosos y actividades creativas. ¿A qué espera? ¡Viajemos en el tiempo para convertirnos en vikingos!

Carthage was one of the great ancient civilizations, and at its peak, the wealthy Carthaginian empire dominated the Mediterranean against the likes of Greece and Rome, with commercial enterprises and influence stretching from Spain to Turkey.

Over 1500 years before Leonardo Da Vinci became the Renaissance man, antiquity had its own in the form of Archimedes, one of the most famous ancient Greeks. An engineer, mathematician, physicist, scientist, and astronomer all rolled into one, Archimedes has been credited for making groundbreaking discoveries, some of which are undoubtedly fact and others that are almost certainly myth.

Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book VIII deals with the Pythagoreans, including Pythagoras, Empedocles, Epicharmus of Kos, Archytas, and Alcmaeon of Croton.

Become familiar with the time of the Romans. Learn about their slaves, their freemen, their sex slaves, their sex lives, their prostitutes, their habits and professions, and more. This guide will put special emphasis on the rebellion of Spartacus, the taboos in Roman culture, and the religious cults with their idols.