Ancient History category: 8298 books

The Year of Four Emperors, so the ancient sources assure us, was one of the most chaotic, violent, and frightening periods in all Roman history. It was a time of assassinations and civil war, of armies so out of control that they had no qualms about occupying the city of Rome, and of ambitious men...

The doomed love affair that united Ancient Rome & Egypt. The immortal lovers of novels, plays and films, Antony and Cleopatra were reviled by contemporary Romans, but history has transformed them into tragic heroes. Somewhere between their vilification by Augustus and the judgement of a later...

There are but few nations of the earth which can match the boast of Persia: that despite an unexampled series of conquests and subjugations she has as a nation played a great part in world history in ancient, in mediaeval, and in modern times. In ancient times she stands forth, first among the great...

You're no idiot, of course. The battle scenes in Gladiator had you on the edge of your seat and wondering where you could find more information on the rise and fall of ancient Rome. But, so far, your search has left you feeling like a blundering barbarian. Pick yourself up off the Colisseum floor!...

The historian Arrian of Nicomedia is generally regarded as the best extant source on the campaigns of Alexander the Great, as narrated in the ‘Anabasis of Alexander’. For the first time in publishing history, Arrian’s complete works are available for readers in a single collection. Delphi’s...

The leading Stoic philosopher of the Silver Age of Latin literature, as well as tutor to the infamous Nero, Seneca was also an accomplished dramatist, whose ground-breaking tragedies changed the course of theatre writing. The Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical...

Five thousand years ago there began the most momentous revolution in human history. Starting in Mesopotamia, city civilization emerged for the first time on earth, to be followed in Egypt, India, China and the Americas. The ideals of these ancient civilizations still shape the lives of the majority...

The Silk Roads are the symbol of the interconnectedness of ancient Eurasian civilizations. Using challenging land and maritime routes, merchants and adventurers, diplomats and missionaries, sailors and soldiers, and camels, horses and ships, carried their commodities, ideas, languages and pathogens...

This fascinating history tells the story of the people of Japan, from ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two centuries in self-imposed seclusion. First revealed to Westerners in the chronicles...

VOLUME ONE: THE DISCOVERY "Let me try and tell the story of it all. It will not be easy, for the dramatic suddenness of the initial discovery left me in a dazed condition, and the months that have followed have been so crowded with incident that I have hardly had time to think."...

Lucian of Samosata is celebrated for lively and original satires, which demonstrate his cynical wit and critical interpretation of Greek literature. Well-regarded for his Attic purity and the elegance of his Greek, Lucian is now recognised as one of the first true modern innovators of literature....

Traditionally attributed to Apollodorus of Athens, ‘The Library’ is a first or second century encyclopaedia of Greek mythology and heroic legends, written in a concise and unembellished style, closely following Greek literary sources. The extant text provides an important record of Greek accounts...

Composed during the nights of an Attic winter, the sole surviving work of Aulus Gellius, the second century Latin author and grammarian, is an intriguing compendium of notes covering philosophy, history, biography and questions of grammar. ‘Attic Nights’ offers a valuable insight into the works...

Ancestral fault is a core idea of Greek literature. 'The guiltless will pay for the deeds later: either the man's children, or his descendants thereafter', said Solon in the sixth century BC, a statement echoed throughout the rest of antiquity. This notion lies at the heart of ancient Greek thinking...