Ancient Biography

One day in 1872, self-taught Assyriologist George Smith was sifting through a pile of clay tablets when he realized he was reading about "a flood, storm, a ship caught on a mountain, and a bird sent out in search of dry land". This is the riveting story of the discovery of the world's first literary epic, the "Epic of Gilgamesh".

Two works by the Roman historian, Tacitus. Agricola is a portrait of Julius Agricola, a governor of Roman Britain, and the first surviving account of the geography, climate, and peoples of Britain. The German tribes of Northern Europe are discussed in Germania.

Prominent military historian Victor Davis Hanson explores the nature of leadership with his usual depth and vivid prose in The Savior Generals, a set of brilliantly executed pocket biographies of five generals (Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus) who single-handedly saved their nations from defeat in war. War is rarely a predictable enterprise - it is a mess of luck, chance, and incalculable variables. Today's sure winner can easily become tomorrow's doomed loser.

St. Ignatius, first-century Bishop of Antioch, called the “God-bearer”, is one of the earliest witnesses to the truth of Christ and the nature of the Christian life. Tradition tells us that as a small child, Ignatius was singled out by Jesus himself as an example of the childlike faith all Christians must possess. In Bearing God, Father Andrew Damick recounts the life of this great pastor, martyr, and saint, and interprets for the modern listener five major themes in the pastoral letters he wrote.

In this installment, boys travel to the ancient world, following such famous figures as Alexander the Great and Hannibal, learning about the military battles that changed history. Beginning in Ancient Greece, the battles storm across the known world and into the Middle Ages, ending with the Spanish Armada's attempted invasion of England.

A powerful memoir by Nury Turkel lays bare China’s repression of the Uyghur people. Turkel is cofounder and board chair of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and a commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. In recent years, the People’s Republic of China...

Acclaimed historian and best-selling author Paul Johnson’s books have been translated into dozens of languages. In Socrates: A Man for Our Times, Johnson draws from little-known resources to construct a fascinating account of one of history’s greatest thinkers. Socrates transcended class limitations in Athens during the fifth century B.C. to develop ideas that still shape the way we think about the human body and soul, including the workings of the human mind.

In this classic of social history, the author describes the lives of six obscure men and women of the Middle Ages. She draws on account books, records, letters, diaries, and wills to make the life of those times as concrete and comprehensible as our own.

Marc Aurèle restera dans l'histoire comme un homme aux multiples facettes : l'empereur, le philosophe et le guerrier. Un homme d'exception qui gouverna l'Empire romain à son apogée, au IIe siècle de notre ère, et qui cultiva la philosophie depuis son plus jeune âge. Peut-on devenir empereur tout en étant stoïcien ?

Today, Tutankhamen is the most famous of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. After his death at the age of nineteen, "King Tut" was forgotten from history, until the discovery of his tomb in 1922 propelled him to worldwide fame. But the circumstances of his death remain shrouded in mystery. This fascinating, painstakingly researched book is the first to explore in depth the questionable circumstances of Tutankhamen's demise—and to present a shocking scenario of betrayal, ambition, and murder.

“A heart-pounding, mind-bending adventure.” —Ilyon Woo A riveting biography of Alexander the Great’s final years, when the leader’s insatiable desire to conquer the world set him off on an exhilarating, harrowing journey that would define his legacy. By 330 B.C.E., Alexander the Great...

Written in the tradition of historians like Stacy Schiff and Amanda Foreman who find modern lessons in ancient history, this provocative narrative explores the lives of five remarkable pharaohs who ruled Egypt with absolute power, shining a new light on the country's 3,000-year empire and its meaning today.

In his lifetime, Mark Antony was a famous man. Ally and avenger of Julius Caesar, rhetorical target of Cicero, lover of Cleopatra, and mortal enemy of Octavian (the future emperor Augustus), Antony played a leading role in the transformation of the Roman world. Ever since his and Cleopatra's demise at the hands of Octavian, he has remained famous, or infamous, a figure of recurring fascination. A Noble Ruin delivers a complex and captivating portrait of Mark Antony that offers a fresh perspective on the fall of the Roman Republic.

La obra trata de la vida del hombre que cambió la historia de Roma para siempre. La biografía de un jurista, escritor y reformista marcada principalmente por los logros, la codicia y la traición política y militar. La obra describe los episodios más relevantes y desconocidos de su vida y además traza una aproximación al entorno político, social, económico y cultural de la época.

Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) is one of the most famous figures of the last 500 years. He was a monk and theologian who proved to be the pivotal figure of Protestant Reformation. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1507 but later came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, nailing his 95 Theses of 1517 to the church doors. He was excommunicated by the pope and started what has become one of the largest sects of Christianity.

Una originale biografia della regina egizia Cleopatra che riuscì a diventare un personaggio storico e letterario grazie alla sua intelligenza e alle sue doti personali di donna dal grande fascino e astuzia.

In this stunning memoir, beloved internationally acclaimed earth advocate chronicles her journey to reconnect with the earth, offering a model for how we all can nurture the wild around and inside ourselves. In 1991, twenty-four-year-old Lynx Vilden crawled out of a sweat lodge covered in mud...

“Captivating...Mah channels Kennedy and brings postwar Paris to life with exquisite detail and insight.” -- People From the bestselling author of The Lost Vintage, a rare and dazzling portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier’s college year abroad in postwar Paris, an intimate and electrifying story...

Acclaimed as "the first citizen of Athens", Pericles was one of the greatest statesmen ancient Greece ever produced. During the Golden Age of Athens, in the much admired 5th century B.C., Pericles epitomized the influential politician. But he was also a brilliant orator and military leader brought up in the competitive environment of Greek democracy.

The scandalous image of the Empress Messalina as a ruthless and sexually insatiable schemer, derived from the work of Roman historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius, has taken deep root in the Western imagination. The stories they told about her included nightly visits to a brothel and a twenty-four-hour sex competition with a prostitute. Tales like these have defined the empress's legacy, but her real story is much more complex. In her new life of Messalina, the classicist Honor Cargill-Martin reappraises one of the most slandered and underestimated female figures of ancient history.