When we think of the great libraries of antiquity, one name that almost definitely comes to mind is that of Alexandria (rather than Pergamon). Egypt’s gem was a city synonymous with intellectual grandeur, long regarded as the undisputed queen...
A funerary stele in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece, has reignited debate over the origins of the “devil’s horns” gesture. The relief, dated to around 50 BC, depicts Gaius Popillius seated on an ornate throne while an attendant...
Byzantine Emperors never claimed pagan divinity, but they learned to look like gods, knowing how to cast themselves as the “living image” of heaven’s rule on earth.
From the fourth century onwards, the imperial office in Constantinople fused Christian theology...
In the turbulent years following the conquest of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, a number of newly-born Latin and Byzantine Greek states emerged. These states were established to fill the power vacuum left by the shattered and...
When a Greek city-state hit a crisis, such as a period of famine, a plague, or a bad outcome in a war, the solution was almost embarrassingly direct. They picked a person, loaded every bit of the city's misfortune...
The Aztecs and the Mayans are the most well-known Mesoamerican civilizations, but, in fact, the Olmecs pre-existed them.
The Olmecs were the first of the great Mesoamerican civilizations. They lived along modern-day Mexico's Gulf coast in what is today the...
One of history’s greatest ironies is that the Renaissance in Europe, a movement celebrated for reviving the classical wisdom of ancient Greece, was fueled by a deep-seated hatred and contempt for Byzantium and its people. This paradox—the wholehearted embrace...
Two and a half millennia on, ancient Greek general and historian Thucydides still feels as relevant as the latest breaking news bulletin on TV. His History of the Peloponnesian War is such a fundamental account of ancient conflict that...
In 359 AD, the ancient city of Scythopolis (located in modern-day Israel, known today as Beit She'an) became the epicenter for one of the most disturbing episodes of political paranoia in the late Roman Empire. This was a time...
Those who are familiar with the Emperors of Byzantium know they were often spoken of as "purple-born," a phrase that has, understandably, sparked some wild representations of these powerful rulers of the Byzantine Empire over the centuries. This has...
