Although the Julian Dynasty of ancient Rome has delivered many examples of powerful and ambitious imperial women, not all of them were meant to become an empress. The reign of Emperor Augustus alone...
Lysippos was known as one of the three best Classical Greek sculptors of the fourth century BC. He, along with sculptors Scopas of Paros and Praxiteles of Athens, were instrumental in ushering in the...
Not long after the passing of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, one of his generals, Ptolemy - who went on to found the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt and later known as Ptolemy I Soter - annexed Cyrene (in...
Ptolemy I, one of the surviving generals of Alexander the Great, became satrap and eventually pharaoh of Egypt, but he had to employ spin doctors to recreate an impressive ancestry related to...
Pericles and Alcibiades were both descendants of the Alkmeonidai, an ancient Athenian aristocratic family. Pericles (495 – 429 BC) was an influential Athenian politician and general in the fifth...
In a clash of ego’s Teute, a third century BC widowed queen regent of the Ardiaei tribe of Illyria , faced off a Roman envoy, who challenged her policy on piracy, yet historians Polybius’ and Cassius...
When World War I broke out, the British Army faced a significant challenge - their small professional army was insufficient for a global conflict. To win the war, they had little alternative apart...
The ancient Greek city of Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, was home to the main Temple of Apollo and the renowned Oracle of Delphi . According to legend, the site was identified by...
The most well-known tale of how different languages came to be, at least in areas where Judaism and Christianity are prevalent, is recorded in the Bible, in Genesis 11:1–9 . According to the...
Amazon queen Penthesilea was breathtakingly beautiful. “ Aphrodite, the noble bride of the potent War-god, made her beautiful indeed in death, so that the son of Peleus (Achilles), could be pierced...
It comes as no surprise that stories about women's involvement in wars pique people's interest all over the world. Apart from challenging fundamental gender norms through their daring deeds and...
Trần Lệ Xuân, or Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, the First Lady of the Republic of Vietnam from 1955 to 1963, once celebrated the holiday to commemorate the Trung sisters by riding an elephant in honour of...
Behind every successful man stands an ambitious woman, the saying goes, more-so if she is a blood-relative of Alxander the Great, and a warrior. Claiming descent from Herakles, the son of Zeus,...
"Man the Hunter," an early 20h-century human origins story, saw hunting as the primary driver of human evolution, emphasizing mankind’s forefathers' bipedalism, large brains, sharp tools, and...
During a trip to France, cheesy pasta dishes were served to America’s President Thomas Jefferson. Enthralled by the dish, the president went on to have both the pasta and Parmesan cheese imported to...
When word of his younger brother’s life-threatening illness reached him, Roman General Tiberius (later Emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus) who was in Pavia at the time, crossed the Alps like a man...