Images

Cast of a portrait of Octavia Minor, photograph by G.dallorto, 30 March 2008. Museum of the Ara Pacis, Rome.

The Crusader States, collectively known as Outremer (from Old French outre-mer, “overseas”), were a group of Latin Christian polities established in the eastern Mediterranean following the First Crusade...

The Russian Revolution of 1917 marked the collapse of imperial authority and the emergence of a radically new political order. Years of military defeat, economic strain, and social inequality...

Medea, oil on panel painting with gilded background by Frederick Sandys, 1868. Medea is a key figure in the story of the quest for the Golden Fleece and a recurring subject of art and musical productions. According...

Bust of Lucian of Samosata, image included by William Faithorne in John Dryden's The works of Lucian, translated from the Greek by several eminent hands, London, 1711. Born in Roman Syria in the 2nd century CE, Lucian was a...

A statue of the snake god Glycon, whose cult became popular in the 2nd-century CE Roman Empire. The Roman satirist Lucian credits the founding of the cult to the mystic and apparent oracle Alexander of Abonoteichus. Museum...

The westward expansion of the Scythians (c. 700–300 BCE) illustrates how mobile steppe societies could reshape the political and cultural landscapes of Eurasia without building territorial empires. Originating...

Hekate, painting by Maximilian Pirner, 1901. A depiction of the Greek goddess Hekate, or Hecate, with her many symbols and faces in an art nouveau style. She is associated with the domains of magic, witchcraft, night, light...

The rise and spread of Christianity (1st–5th centuries CE) traces the transformation of a small, decentralized religious movement in Roman Judea into a faith that reshaped the political, social, and...

Caligula Depositing the Ashes of his Mother and Brother in the Tomb of his Ancestors, oil on canvas painting by Eustache Le Sueur, c. 1647. Depicted here is Emperor Caligula as he places the ashes of...