On this page we explore the Ancient World from the Sun God Akhenaten, often referred to as the First Man of History to the glories of Greece and Rome and the very foundations upon which Western Civilisation was to rise and flourish. We look at its rivalries and conflicts, the clash between Athens and Sparta, Rome and Carthage, to its life as lived and to its great men and women from the Pharaohs to the Caesars, Cleopatra to Boudica and more ...
And the Medieval World also, as cast into darkness by the Fall of Rome the world would emerge once more into a New Age, one fraught with danger and blighted by war, famine and disease but blessed by Omnipotent Gods and the hope of a better life on this earth or in the hereafter. It was a time of chivalry, of legend and myth, of King Arthur and Robin Hood but also of great bloodshed with the Crusades and the Hundred Years War. The longbow would dominate the battlefield, Magna Carta would establish the rule of law, and despite the Black Death ravaging the land it would end in the Renaissance and the creation of the Nation State.
Battle of Towton Battle
The Battle of Towton which took place on Palm Sunday, 29 March, 1461, was the largest battle ever fought on English soil and it was to prove a pivotal...
Caterina Sforza: Lady of Imola
She was born in 1462, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan and Lucrezia Landriani the wife of a courtier yet despite her...
Constantine I: The Vision of the Cross
As Constantine the Great he was the first Christian Emperor of Rome, the man who took it from a minority cult liable to persecution to the established...
Destruction of Pompeii Destruction
On 23 August AD 79, the good people of Pompeii were celebrating the Festival of Vulcan, the God of Fire, enjoying a glorious summers day unaware that...
Vestal Virgins: Keepers of the Flame
The Vestal Virgins occupied a unique place in Roman society and their continued existence was considered essential for the preservation of the city and...
Cleopatra: The Last Pharaoh
Like another famous seductress of history, Anne Boleyn, Cleopatra was not conventionally beautiful but she had all that was required to make her so. The Roman...
The Black Death: Brink of the Apocalypse
In 1346, the port city of Caffa in the Crimea on the shores of the Black Sea was a major commercial centre and trading post between East and West. It was...
Vespasian: Year of the Four Emperors
Just before midnight on 8 June, AD 68, the Emperor Nero rose from a deep sleep to find no sentry at his door, no one standing watch over him and that...
Battle of Thermopylae: Go tell the Spartans
So wrote the poet Simonides of Ceos about the Greek defenders of the pass at Thermopylae who by their courage and supreme sacrifice had acquired a place...