Thrace: Did you mean...?

The Thracian landscape in Rhodope in the early spring. The name of the region emerged from Rhodope, a Thracian naiad and daughter of the river Strymon. The naiads, daughters of the river gods Potamoi, were water nymphs who lived in lakes...

Silver amphora-rhyton with zoomorphic handles. C. 500 BCE, Vassil Bojkov Collection. Photographer: Marin Karavelov for the Thrace Foundation www.thracefoundation.org

The Scythians were a nomadic culture that flourished between the seventh and the third centuries BCE, as their territory expanded from Thrace in the west across the Central Asian Steppe (a steppe is basically just an open swathe of grassland...

The Persian Wars refers to the conflict between Greece and Persia in the 5th century BCE which involved two invasions by the latter in 490 and 480 BCE. Several of the most famous and significant battles in history were fought during the Wars...

Ancient Asia Minor is a geographic region located in the south-western part of Asia comprising most of present-day Turkey. The earliest reference to the region comes from tablets of the Akkadian Dynasty (2334-2083 BCE) where it was known...

The Byzantine Empire existed from 330 to 1453. It is often called the Eastern Roman Empire or simply Byzantium. The Byzantine capital was founded at Constantinople by Constantine I (r. 306-337). The Byzantine Empire varied in size over the...

Aphrodite was the ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty, desire, and all aspects of sexuality. She could entice both gods and men into illicit affairs with her beauty and whispered sweet nothings. Aphrodite was born near Cyprus from the severed...

A Roman gladiator was an ancient professional fighter who usually specialised with particular weapons and types of armour. They fought before the public in hugely popular organised games held in large purpose-built arenas throughout the Roman...

The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies came in two stages: from c. 460 to 446 and from 431 to 404 BCE. With battles at home and abroad, the long and complex conflict was damaging to both sides. Sparta...

The Second Crusade (1147-1149) was a military campaign organised by the Pope and European nobles to recapture the city of Edessa in Mesopotamia which had fallen in 1144 to the Muslim Seljuk Turks. Despite an army of 60,000 and the presence...