Ancient Legends

It would be hard if not outright impossible to overstate the impact Roman Emperor Constantine I had on the history of Christianity, Ancient Rome, and Europe as a whole. Best known as Constantine the Great, the kind of moniker only earned by rulers who have distinguished themselves in battle and conquest, Constantine remains an influential and controversial figure to this day. He achieved enduring fame by being the first Roman emperor to personally convert to Christianity.

Legends of the Ancient World: The Life and Legacy of Hannibal looks at the life of the Carthaginian hero, explores some of the mysteries and myths surrounding his life and campaigns, and analyzes his legacy, which has remained strong over 2,000 years after his death and promises to last many more. You will learn about Hannibal like you never have before, in no time at all.

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.

The Babylonians were one of the earliest of history's great ancient civilizations, and the most famous Babylonian of them all was Hammurabi, who came to the throne as the first king of the Babylonian empire around the beginning of the 18th century BC. Hammurabi had a long and fruitful reign that saw him consolidate most of Mesopotamia under his control, but he's best known today for Hammurabi's Code, one of the earliest known code of laws in human history. Inscribed on stone tablets, Hammurabi's Code was found over 3,500 years later, in the early 20th century.

The importance of Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (or as he was known from birth, Gaius Octavius "Octavian" Thurinus) to the course of Western history is hard to overstate. His life, his rise to power, his political, social and military achievements, all laid the foundations for the creation of an Empire which would endure for almost five centuries, and whose traditions, laws, architecture and art continue to influence much of Europe and the world today.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was one of the most famous Romans in his day, and posterity has been even kinder to him. Cicero was a legend in his own time for his oratory abilities, which he used to persuade fellow senators and denounce enemies like Catiline and Mark Antony, but he was also one of Rome's most prodigious writers and political philosophers. Alongside Pericles, Cicero was one of antiquity's greatest politicians, and he has remained one of the most influential statesmen in history.

Odysseus is, without question, one of the most fascinating figures in classical mythology. Indeed, despite being an ancillary character in The Iliad, he was so beloved by ancient audiences that he warranted his own spin-off, The Odyssey. He was endemic throughout Greek thought and art. Unlike other notable figures of classical antiquity who were forgotten, Odysseus' fame endured through the Medieval and Renaissance eras.

Leading Athens for upwards of 40 years between the Second Persian War and the Peloponnesian War, Pericles has become an idealized figure over the last millennia, but he was a polarizing figure among his contemporaries. According to some, he was an honest and upstanding politician, while for others he was the lowest kind of demagogue. They thought he was a political opportunist whose ability to wriggle free of criticism was best summed up by the typically pithy comment of his rival Thucydides.

The book contains the myths about the "Heroes" set out on the works of Hesiod, Ovid, Aeschylus, Homer, Moschus, Sophocles, Pausanias, Pindar, Euripides.

This book contains all the gods and goddesses from ancient Egypt that you can imagine. The list is long, and the names go on for a while. Needless to say, this book is complete. You won’t miss out on any of the deities they worshipped. Also, some more background information is given about deities such as Thoth, Horus, and Isis. At the end of the book, another subtopic will be addressed, namely: The use of medication and doctors in ancient Egyptian culture.

Here are the great stories of the Heroic Age, from the myths of the making of the universe to the death of Heracles. Set against the colorful background of Greece and the Aegean, the adventures of heroes such as Perseus the Gorgon-slayer, Dionysus, Theseus, and Jason and the Argonauts once again come to life.

In the early 20th century, over 3,000 years after her death, Nefertiti became a household name and one of the most famous women of the ancient world. Egyptologists were aware that she was a queen of the New Kingdom Egypt during the later portion of the 18th dynasty, but she was little-known until the presentation of a reconstructed bust depicting her at the Berlin Museum in 1924. Nefertiti means "the beautiful one has come", and if the presented bust is anything to judge by she, was indeed a beautiful woman.

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.

Attila, Emperor of the Hunnic Empire and thus most commonly known as Attila the Hun, is an idiosyncratic figure who has become more myth than man, not least because much of his life is shrouded in mystery. Perhaps the most famous "barbarian" in history, Attila was the lord of a vast empire spanning two continents, but he is best remembered for what he did not conquer.

While Nebuchadnezzar’s name lives on mostly due to the Bible and the Hanging Gardens, behind it all was a man documented by the Babylonians and his contemporaries as a competent and successful king.

The book contains myths of the Trojan cycle outlined by the poem of Homer's "Iliad," the tragedies of Sophocles, poems of Virgil, Ovid's "Heroines", and fragments of other works.

Argonautika is the story of Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. This epic story of gods and goddesses, mythical beasts, thrilling adventures, and narrow escapes may be the oldest surviving Greek myth, which Homer referred to as something "familiar to all." Listen to this masterpiece of classical literature in an all-new translation that captures the timeless magic and quiet humor of this ancient legend.

Within this audiobook lies the heart of Irish identity—a rich heritage of storytelling that has been passed down through the generations, from the mysterious Druids and the formidable Tuatha Dé Danann to legendary heroes whose deeds are still sung. Meet the awe-inspiring gods and goddesses who wielded power over life and death and shaped the destiny of Ireland itself.

Which came first--the monster or the myth? Journalist Linda Godfrey investigates present-day encounters with mysterious creatures of old. The monsters of ancient mythology, folklore, and more contemporary urban legend have long captured the popular imagination. While most people in America today...

Nero ranks among the very worst of the caesars. He is a figure so hated that in many ancient Christian traditions, he is literally - without hyperbole - considered the Antichrist. He was the man who famously "fiddled while Rome burned" and his economic policies, according to many historians, virtually bankrupted Rome. Nero was an inveterate lecher, a murderous tyrant who showed little compunction in murdering his mother, and he liked to use Christian martyrs as sources of illumination by burning them alive at night.