Most Read This Week In Ancient History

Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Post-classical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing from the proto-literate period around the 30th century BC.

The term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC (First Olympiad). This roughly coincides with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 B ...more

Most Read This Week Tagged "Ancient History"

The House with the Golden Door (Wolf Den Trilogy, #2)

Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World

Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History

River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road

Ancestors: A History of Britain in Seven Burials

Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples from Destruction

Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire

The Buried City: Unearthing the Real Pompeii

The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation

Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God

Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End

Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It

Voice of the Ancient (The King's Men, #1)

After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations

Peak Human: What We Can Learn from History's Greatest Civilisations

Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great

The Eagle and The Lion: Rome, Persia, and an Unwinnable Conflict

Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization

Buried: An Alternative History of the First Millennium in Britain

The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing

The Roman Revolution: Crisis and Christianity in Ancient Rome

Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age

Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern

Between the Wild Branches (The Covenant House, #2)

Lost Realms: Histories of Britain from the Romans to the Vikings

The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada and the End of the Norsemen

The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful: Curious and Incredible Facts that Will Blow Your Mind

The Far Edges of the Known World: Life Beyond the Borders of Ancient Civilization

Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire

Ask a Historian: 50 Surprising Answers to Things You Always Wanted to Know

Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome

The World Before Us: How Science is Revealing a New Story of Our Human Origins

Alexandria: The City that Changed the World

The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome: A History of the Ptolemies

Ancient Egypt: The Definitive Visual History (DK Classic History)

Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas

The King's Shadow: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for the Lost City of Alexandria

Daughters of Bronze (A Novel of Troy, #2)

Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins

The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra

Cleopatra's Daughter: From Roman Prisoner to African Queen

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East

Egypt's Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth

A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins

The Scythian Empire: Central Eurasia and the Birth of the Classical Age from Persia to China

First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human

Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome

The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity

The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library)

Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus

Land Between the Rivers: A 5000-Year History of Iraq

The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins

A Year in the Life of Ancient Egypt (A Year in the Life of Ancient History, #2)

The Young Alexander: The Making of Alexander the Great

Egyptian Myths: Meet the Gods, Goddesses, and Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt

Unfortunately, She was a Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome's Imperial Women

The Mad Emperor: Heliogabalus and the Decadence of Rome

What to Expect When You're Dead: An Ancient Tour of Death and the Afterlife

X Marks the Spot: The Story of Archaeology in Eight Extraordinary Discoveries

Clodia of Rome: Champion of the Republic

Fulvia: The Woman Who Broke All the Rules in Ancient Rome

The Other Ancient Civilisations: Decoding Archaeology’s Less Celebrated Cultures (History Gifts, Ancient World History)

Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World (Turning Points in Ancient History)

Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws: And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities

Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World

Disappearance of a Scribe (Eye of Isis #2)

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Quotes Tagged “Ancient History”

“ We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The Predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so... I have been beating around the bush all this time, insinuating to you that something is holding us prisoner. Indeed we are held prisoner! "This was an energetic fact for the sorcere We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The Predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so... I have been beating around the bush all this time, insinuating to you that something is holding us prisoner. Indeed we are held prisoner! "This was an energetic fact for the sorcerers of ancient Mexico ... They took us over because we are food for them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. just as we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human coops, humaneros. Therefore, their food is always available to them." "No, no, no, no," [Carlos replies] "This is absurd don Juan. What you're saying is something monstrous. It simply can't be true, for sorcerers or for average men, or for anyone." "Why not?" don Juan asked calmly. "Why not? Because it infuriates you? ... You haven't heard all the claims yet. I want to appeal to your analytical mind. Think for a moment, and tell me how you would explain the contradictions between the intelligence of man the engineer and the stupidity of his systems of beliefs, or the stupidity of his contradictory behaviour. Sorcerers believe that the predators have given us our systems of belief, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have given us covetousness, greed, and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal." "'But how can they do this, don Juan? [Carlos] asked, somehow angered further by what [don Juan] was saying. "'Do they whisper all that in our ears while we are asleep?" "'No, they don't do it that way. That's idiotic!" don Juan said, smiling. "They are infinitely more efficient and organized than that. In order to keep us obedient and meek and weak, the predators engaged themselves in a stupendous manoeuvre stupendous, of course, from the point of view of a fighting strategist. A horrendous manoeuvre from the point of view of those who suffer it. They gave us their mind! Do you hear me? The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now." "I know that even though you have never suffered hunger... you have food anxiety, which is none other than the anxiety of the predator who fears that any moment now its manoeuvre is going to be uncovered and food is going to be denied. Through the mind, which, after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear." "The sorcerers of ancient Mexico were quite ill at ease with the idea of when [the predator] made its appearance on Earth. They reasoned that man must have been a complete being at one point, with stupendous insights, feats of awareness that are mythological legends nowadays. And then, everything seems to disappear, and we have now a sedated man. What I'm saying is that what we have against us is not a simple predator. It is very smart, and organized. It follows a methodical system to render us useless. Man, the magical being that he is destined to be, is no longer magical. He's an average piece of meat." "There are no more dreams for man but the dreams of an animal who is being raised to become a piece of meat: trite, conventional, imbecilic. ...more ”
― Carlos Castaneda, The Active Side of Infinity

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“ Much as Sade had done, Nietzsche valued the ancients for the pleasure they had taken in inflicting suffering; for knowing that punishment might be festive; for demonstrating that, 'in the days before mankind grew ashamed of its cruelty, before pessimists existed, life on earth was more cheerful than it is now'. ...more ”
― Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

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