History Ancient Empire

In northern Iraq, on the banks of the Tigris River, lie the ruins of the ancient city of Aššur. This was the first capital and the most important religious center of the Assyrian Empire. Underneath the cover of sand and soil are almost six meters of dense stratigraphic layers that reveal the passage of millennia. Known today as Qal'at Sherqat, and also as Kilah Shregat, the city dates back to the third millennium BCE.

The Byzantine Empire was founded during the chaotic third century. It was the time when revolts and civil wars were common, and Roman emperors merely lasted for a year. Despite being one of the most captivating historical periods of all time, the Byzantine Empire is a lesser known one.

Explore la fascinante historia del Imperio asirio. Situado en el actual Irak, la antigua Mesopotamia, la tierra entre los grandes ríos Tigris y Éufrates, fue donde todo comenzó. Es la parte del mundo donde hace unos 6.000 años la gente finalmente se despidió de sus vidas de cazadores y recolectores, y comenzó a cultivar e iniciar la construcción de civilizaciones. La historia de Mesopotamia está llena de fronteras en constante cambio, civilizaciones en ascenso y descenso y, por supuesto, guerra y conquista.

In this two in one audiobook, you'll learn about the history of Persia.

During the first half of the first millennium CE, an empire arose in Persia that extended its power and influence to Mesopotamia in the east, Arabia in the south, the Caucasus Mountains in the north, and as far east as India. This empire, known alternatively as the Sasanian Empire or Sassanid Empire, was the last of three great dynasties in Persia before the rise of Islam. In fact, many scholars consider the Sasanian Empire to be the last great empire of the ancient Near East.

The Roman Empire lasted a solid 500 years—an impressive number by any standard. The decline and final collapse of the Roman Empire took longer than most other empires even existed. Any historian trying to unearth the grand strategy of the Roman Empire must, therefore, always remain cognizant of the time scale. Over the centuries, the Empire's underlying economy, political arrangements, military affairs, and the myriad of external threats it faced were in constant flux, making adaptability to changing circumstances as important to Roman strategists as it is to strategists of the modern era.

Some of the most iconic symbols of the Roman Empire that have survived into the modern world today are the arches that Romans erected to commemorate military victories and glorify individual emperors. The story of how arches came to be used throughout the Roman world in such a way is one that involves the evolution of the military and its leaders into the political forces that came to dominate the state, and those arches, along with the triumphs that came to be associated with many of them, were key parts in the process of exhibiting the might of both Rome.

The action-filled movie 300 focused on Ancient Greece's epic battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas led 300 Spartans into battle against Xerxes and his million-strong Persian forces. In the sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, the action moves to the sea, covering 10 years starting with the Battle of Marathon and ending with naval engagement the Battle of Artemisium, which occurred the same day as Thermopylae. Rise of an Empire tells the story of the real men and events depicted in the movie.

On his deathbed, some historians claim that when he was pressed to name a successor, Alexander the Great muttered that his empire should go "to the strongest". Other sources claim that he passed his signet ring to his general Perdiccas, thereby naming him successor, but whatever his choices were or may have been, they were ignored.

The Rise of Constantinople looks at the events that brought about the transformation of Byzantium, and how Constantinople became one of the most important cities in the world.

In the minds of most people today, Gaul equates to modern France. However, the vast geographical area that Caesar named Gaul, in fact, was made up of a number of very distinct regions and covered, in addition to modern-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Northern Italy. The Romans called the northern area of the Italian peninsula, which is now part of modern Italy, Cisalpine Gaul, or Gaul on this side of the Alps.

The Han Dynasty: The History and Legacy of Ancient China’s Most Influential Empire examines how the Han dynasty took control of China and the impact of their reign over several centuries.

In The Rule of Empires, Timothy Parsons gives a sweeping account of the evolution of empire from its origins in ancient Rome to its most recent twentieth-century embodiment. He explains what constitutes an empire and offers suggestions about what empires of the past can tell us about our own historical moment. Parsons uses imperial examples that stretch from ancient Rome, to Britain's "new" imperialism in Kenya, to the Third Reich to parse the features common to all empires, their evolutions and self-justifying myths, and the reasons for their inevitable decline.

Alexander the Great’s story often reads like fiction: son to a snake-loving mother and a battle-scarred father, tutored by Aristotle, a youth from the periphery of the Greek world who took part in his first campaign aged 16, becoming king of Macedon at 20 and king of Asia by 25, leading his armies into battle like a Homeric figure. Each generation has peered through the glass of history and come to their own conclusion about Alexander, be it enlightened ruler, military genius, megalomaniac, drunkard or despot. Yet the first two decades of his life have until now been a mystery.

Famous for its unflagging narrative power, fine organization, and irresistibly persuasive arguments, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has earned a permanent place of honor in historical literature. Gibbon's elegantly detached erudition is seasoned with an ironic wit, and remarkably little of his work is outdated.

This third volume of Gibbon's masterpiece covers the years A.D. 1185 to A.D. 1453 and explores the rise of Islam, the Crusades, the invention of gunpowder, Genghis Khan and the Mongol invasions, the Turkish conquests, and the beginning of the Renaissance.

The success of the Five Good Emperors ironically brought about the worst plague in Rome’s epic history. Due to constant warfare on the borders and attempts to defend positions against various groups, Roman soldiers came into contact with foreign diseases, and they unwittingly brought them home when campaigns ended. This culminated around 165 CE, when an unidentified disease brought the empire to its knees and afflicted an untold number of individuals, one of whom may have been Lucius Verus, the co-emperor of Rome alongside Marcus Aurelius.

Do you know why the Romans were considered the most powerful nation in the world for many centuries? How did they live? What was life like in early Rome? In this audiobook, you’ll discover how they lived, what they ate, and how they entertained themselves. Discover the story of how Rome began and why the Roman Empire fell. Learn about some of the greatest soldiers who led the Roman armies into battle and the kinds of weapons they used. Learn about famous emperors and whether they were loved or hated—and why.

Would you like to learn about daily life in ancient Rome, but find conventional history books a bit boring? Would you like a more entertaining way to learn about Roman history, from the Republic to the Empire? We have a look at Roman sanitation, medicine, education, wine, sex, bathing, dining, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health from an accessible, non-academic perspective in this book, as well as looking at some of the perils or downsides in these advances in civilization. We discuss the developments in these aspects of daily life.

Did you know that it was during the New Kingdom period that ancient Egyptian kings started calling themselves “pharaohs"? Previously, they were simply referred to as kings. But the fact that we call all of them pharaohs today speaks about how important and influential the New Kingdom was. It is also the most researched period of ancient Egyptian history because it has an abundance of surviving evidence. This is also the time when some of the best-known pharaohs ruled, such as Ahmose, Hatshepsut, Thutmose, Nefertiti, and Ramses II.