Ancient Europe

Samarkand is one of the oldest cities of Central Asia, founded nearly 3,000 years ago. The legendary city was the capital of the Sogdians, a trading people who facilitated the spread of commodities, religions, technologies, and ideas across the Silk Road between China and the rest of Eurasia. Samarkand was a key site along the ancient Silk Road, a place where a number of world cultures from the East and the West met and assimilated.

Throughout history, Syria has been dominated not by one great city but by two. Aside from Aleppo to the north, the religious and commercial metropolis of Damascus has been a place desired by the powerful. For thousands of years the Phoenicians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Christians, and Muslims all vied for control of the city.

21 aprile 753 a.C.: il giorno e l'anno di nascita di Roma sono la data di una fantasia, di un mito fondativo, la vicenda suggestiva di un gemello, sfuggito miracolosamente alla morte per annegamento? O invece rimandano a un fatto realmente accaduto, ovvero a quel solco che Romolo avrebbe tracciato intorno al Palatino per definire il perimetro dell'abitato più antico di Roma?

Die keltische Kultur erlebte viele Hochs und Tiefs. Auf die erste Hochphase im 7. Jh. v. Chr. folgte der Untergang, doch die Kelten richteten sich im 2. Jh. v. Chr. wieder auf, bis Julius Cäsar Gallien eroberte und die Kultur erneut erstarb. Erst nach ihrer dritten Blütezeit auf den Britischen Inseln waren die Kelten ein für allemal besiegt. Doch gerade ihre Niederlagen machen die Kelten nicht nur bei Asterix-Lesern und Druiden-Fans beliebt - es gibt so viel mehr zu erfahren über diese faszinierende, vergangene Zivilisation!

The Armenians were the power behind the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium was a great empire that missed the European arrival in the New World by a few decades. They did not endure a thousand years under siege but were a major player on the world stage and much of their power came from an ancient people known as the Armenians who supplied them with emperors, generals, soldiers, intellectuals, religious leaders and artisans.

Most historians credit the city-state of Florence as the starting place of the Italian Renaissance, a process carried out through the patronage and commission of artists during the late 12th century. If Florence is receiving its due credit, much of it belongs to the Medici family, a Florentine dynasty that ruled at the height of the Renaissance. Both Leonardo and Michelangelo were members of Lorenzo de Medici's court. The famous leader, who also considered himself an artist and poet, became known for securing commissions for the most famous artists of the age.

For several centuries, fishermen on Lake Nemi in Italy could see ship wreckage on the floor of the lake, and in 1928, under the patronage of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, one of the most extraordinary archaeological recovery processes was begun to raise from the floor of Lake Nemi, a small volcanic lake in the Alban Hills some 30 miles south of Rome, two sunken barges that had lain half buried in the silt since the reign of the Roman Emperor Caligula.

The World's Greatest Civilizations: The History and Culture of the Minoans shines a light on this Bronze Age civilization, providing a comprehensive overview of the reign of the Minoans and their lasting influence on European art, culture, trade, and more. Along with a description of Minoan life, you will learn about the civilization some have dubbed the first Europeans.

The ancient Greeks believed there were a great number of gods and goddesses. These gods had control over many different aspects of life on earth. In many ways they were very human. They could be kind or mean, angry or pleasant, cruel or loving. They fell in love with each other, argued with each other and even stole from each other.

In this book you will find information about Norse mythology. Norse mythology, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of mythology of the North Germanic people stemming from Norse paganism and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia and into the Scandinavian folklore of the modern period.

It goes without saying that the Goths played an integral part in the history of Europe during this time, and they remain among the most notorious and controversial groups in history. By the 4th century CE, The Goths were among the prominent barbarian groups who became a threat to the Roman Empire, but they also had contacts with the Romans well before then, and they even traded for awhile.

The Acropolis, which literally means "a city on the heights", is a citadel whose currently surviving structures were mostly built during the fifth century BC in honor of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. It functioned as a sacred precinct that contained the city's most important religious and municipal structures, many of which have remained relatively intact for over 2,000 years.

Richard II was young, handsome, and elegant. Last living child of the brilliant Black Prince, he came to the throne bearing the hopes of his people on his shoulders. His court glittered; his tastes were refined; his portraits shone with gold. Regal, composed, aloof, he was the very picture of majesty. He became a murderous, capricious tyrant. His favorites plotted against his family. He rewrote the laws of England to give himself absolute power. He raised an army against his own subjects. His subjects deposed him.

Born from a strange mixture of divine blood, severed genitals, and seafoam, Aphrodite washed up on the shores of Cyprus long before the emergence of her fellow Olympians. A figure who is as petty as she is relatable, she is not only a key deity of the Greek pantheon, but she is also a central figure in many of the myths we know and love. While it would be impossible to gather all the different stories related to Aphrodite in their entirety in one collection, this audiobook provides a nice, if modest, assortment of narratives that display different facets of this fascinating goddess.

Thanks to ancient Greece, we know more about philosophy, politics, the democratic system, mythology, art, the Olympics, and many, many lingual references imbedded in almost every European language. Ancient Greece has had a significant impact on many concepts we still hold true today.

Does Greek mythology fascinate you and your children? Do you struggle to find the appropriate learning resources that are fun and interesting for the whole family? In today's digital age, finding educational content for kids that is captivating enough to get them away from a screen can seem like an impossible task. But with the right book, it won't be. If you are looking for a children’s book of Greek mythology to connect the dots between ancient myths and modern pop culture icons like Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Percy Jackson, then you need to listen to this book!

The names of the months and the days of the week come from a time in the ancient past. Collected here are the stories which these names tell. Gods, heroes, and planets come into play with the names of the months and the sunlit countries of Greece and Rome, and the names of the days and the cold and stormy northern lands of the Norsemen.

Many people know about the glories of ancient Greece: the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the sculptures, the writings of Homer, and the adventures of Achilles and Jason and the Argonauts. They know about the Greek gods and goddesses, of Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, Poseidon, and many others. Even the term “Trojan Horse", named after the trick that the Greeks played on the inhabitants of Troy, has made it into our language. Ancient Greece gave us philosophy, math, medicine, the roots of many languages, and so much more.

From the late eighth century to somewhere around the middle of the 11th century, the history of Europe was dominated by the people who have become known as the Vikings. The Vikings were among the first global explorers who established territory that stretched from North America in the west to Constantinople in the east, and from the frigid wastes of the Arctic in the north to the warm shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the south.

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.