Ancient English History

Filled with tales of adventure and astounding reversals of fortune, The Rise of Athens celebrates the city-state that transformed the world - from the democratic revolution that marked its beginning through the city's political and cultural golden age to its decline into the ancient equivalent of a modern-day university town. Anthony Everitt constructs his history with unforgettable portraits of the talented, tricky, ambitious, and unscrupulous Athenians who fueled the city's rise.

Greatly expanding on his blockbuster 1421, distinguished historian Gavin Menzies uncovers the complete untold history of how mankind came to the Americas - offering new revelations and a radical rethinking of the accepted historical record in Who Discovered America? The iconoclastic historian's magnum opus, Who Discovered America? calls into question our understanding of how the American continents were settled, shedding new light on the well-known "discoveries" of European explorers, including Christopher Columbus.

In 63 BC, frustrated by his failure to be elected leader of the Roman Republic, the aristocrat Catiline tried to topple its elected government. Backed by corrupt elites and poor, alienated Romans, he fled Rome while his associates plotted to burn the city and murder its leading politicians. The attempted coup culminated with the unmasking of the conspirators in the Senate. In How to Stop a Conspiracy, Josiah Osgood presents a brisk, modern new translation of the definitive account of these events, Sallust's The War with Catiline.

The Battle of Red Cliffs changed Chinese history. It marked the end of the Han Dynasty, one of the greatest in China’s history, and pushed China into the era of the Three Kingdoms, an era of perpetual warfare and chaos. Furthermore, the battle also had a dramatic effect on Chinese culture, media, and literature, and the battle and its major participants remain legendary in China.

Through 10 unique cities, from the founding of ancient capitals to buzzing modern megacities, Paul Strathern explores how urban centres lead civilisation forward, enjoying a moment of glory before passing on the baton. We journey back to discover Babylonian mathematics, Athenian theatre and intellectual debate, and Roman construction that has lasted millennia. We see Constantinople evolve into Istanbul, revolutionary sparks fly in Enlightenment Paris, and the railways, canals and ships that built Imperial London.

How did we get here, to this time and place in history? Are we repeating history's mistakes because we did not learn about the pivotal events that shaped the modern world? This three-book history course helps you quickly understand the nuances and the impact of three crucial periods portrayed in countless films: the Crusades and of the rise and fall of two great empires, the Roman and British.

In the second half of the tenth century, Byzantium embarked on a series of spectacular conquests. By the early eleventh century, the empire was the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. Yet this imperial project came to a crashing collapse fifty years later, when political disunity, fiscal mismanagement, and defeat at the hands of the Seljuks and the Normans brought an end to Byzantine hegemony. By 1081, Byzantium's very existence was threatened.

When one thinks of the world’s first cities, Sumer, Memphis, and Babylon are some of the first to come to mind, or if the focus then shifts to India, then Harappa and Mohenjo-daro will likely come up. But archaeologists recently uncovered a site thousands of years older than any of those, marking one of the oldest settled sites in the world.

This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time. It leads us on a fascinating journey across the world, from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through muscular Christianity and the British Raj, to the Indian nationalist movement and the arrival of yoga in the 20th-century West. We discover how the practice reached its present-day ubiquity and how it became embedded in powerful social currents shaping the world's future.

Do you know that the ancient Egyptians believed that people were made out of clay by their river god? For eons, the wisdom cultivated by the Egyptian people has been extolled time and time again. These timeless myths are fountains of insight and, many would argue, beacons of light that can shatter the darkness of ignorance. For those of you that are ready and willing to receive these ancient messages, your time has come. All you need to do is start listening. Then the wisdom of Thoth will begin to stir inside you.

Appian of Alexander was a Greek historian who lived at the height of the Roman Empire during the first half of the 2nd century AD, having been born around AD 95 and died about AD 165. Very little is known about him beyond what he reveals about himself, along with the fact that he lived in Alexandria. He was a Roman citizen and held several senior-level public offices, both in Alexandria and in Rome.

Centuries before whisperings began, of secret knowledge being handed down from the ancient Greeks, through shrouded fraternities such as the Rosicrucians and Freemasons, the Druids were slowly and steadfastly creating priests and philosophers of their own, akin to the Brahmans of India, the Magi of the Persians, as well as the hierophants and scholars of what would eventually become known to the world as the Western Mystery Tradition.

Inside you will find some of the most famous highlights from history along with the greatest stories ever written. Children will learn about the past and our ancestors in new and exciting ways.

The Jewish people are one of the oldest living people groups on the planet. The Jews lived alongside the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Sumerians - all of whom have since disappeared from the pages of history. Yet the Jews still remain. Despite all of the odds, Jewish culture, language, laws, and religion have remained intact over the course of thousands of years.

Cronus, a giant Titan, is obsessed with power, and he goes to great lengths to preserve it. However, his own sons may be his downfall when an epic battle between the Olympians and Titans explodes. Will Cronus lose his precious power?

Medusa, once a bewitching beauty, has become a hideous monster with snakes for hair. When men look at her, they turn to stone. When King Polydectes sends Perseus for Medusa's head, he thinks Perseus will soon be another one of Medusa's stone men. Or will he?

Scientists have long attempted to understand Earth’s past, and in service to that effort, they have divided the world’s history into eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. The Triassic Period: The History and Legacy of the Geologic Era that Witnessed the Rise of Dinosaurs looks at the development of the era, the extinction events that preceded it, and how dinosaurs began to evolve in the Late Triassic. You will learn about the Triassic Period like never before.

Everyone has seen pictures of one of the Incas’ greatest achievements: the mountaintop wonder of Machu Picchu. But Inca history has always been told by the Spanish colonizers who conquered them since the Inca had no formal writing. Now, archaeology is giving us more information on how the Inca really lived, helping us differentiate real history from myth and propaganda. In this audiobook, you will discover how the Inca created an expansive empire in just a century and why that civilization crumbled so fast once the Spanish arrived.

How could the Jews comprise less than one percent of the world’s population, yet make up 22 percent of Nobel laureates? Despite passing through innumerable challenges, the Jews have produced stunningly gifted people in the sciences, humanities, and economics. Through the millennia and around the world, Jewish history is an astounding story of survival against all odds, yet a touching narrative of faith, covenant, and tradition.

This famous work by Lucretius is a masterpiece of didactic poetry, and it still stands today as the finest exposition of Epicurean philosophy ever written. The poem was produced in the middle of first century B.C., a period that was to witness a flowering of Latin literature unequaled for beauty and intellectual power in subsequent ages. The Latin title, De Rerum Natura, translates literally to On the Nature of Things and is meant to impress the reader with the breadth and depth of Epicurean philosophy.