War: What is it good for? Although the question has been tossed around for eons, there is no cookie-cutter answer. Certainties are thrown out the window. There is guarantee of surviving the next battle, of seeing a white flag wave, or of drinking from the victor’s cup; cold hard truths such as these have stirred …
Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city of the Middle Ages and one of the few remnants of the once all-encompassing Roman Empire. It ruled the Golden Horn, a natural estuary connected to the Bosphorus Strait in modern Turkey, where it thrived on trade. Early History of Byzantium and Constantinople Byzantium – the future Constantinople …
The Roman Empire believed its civilization was founded by the gods — but these deities weren’t buried in the past. The Romans felt their presence in everyday living, family life, faith, and politics. Even when something good or bad happened, they linked it to a certain god’s mood. This close relationship crafted a detailed mythology …
Norse mythology is full of supernatural beings. There are elves, dwarves, giants, and gods. Traditionally, myths and legends were relayed through oral tradition. Such myths were first recorded in the 13th-century Poetic Edda and translated into prose by Snorri Sturluson in his Prose Edda. Since written records were sometime after the Christianization of Scandinavia and …
Let’s be honest: ancient Egypt will never cease to amaze and ignite the imagination. From the Valley of the Kings to the Great Sphinx of Giza, many aspects of this ancient world remain as alive today as they did thousands of years ago. More than anything, Egyptian gods and goddesses remain a lively topic of …
The French Revolution is a famously bloody mark on France’s past. The Storming of the Bastille was just one of many striking events during the decade of discourse that ended nearly 200 years of the French Bourbon monarchy. In the end, the Storming of the Bastille showed that unified civilians were more than capable of …