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Beginning with the Pre-history of the stone, bronze and iron ages and sweeping on through the Ancient world, with it's mysteries and remarkable customs, practises and religions - modern humanity has always been fascinated and no wonder. Who can fail to be intrigued by the Ancient Egyptians or captivated by the incredibly advanced sophistication of the Ancient Chinese culminating in the splendour of the Tang Dynasty for example.

Likewise the grandeur of Ancient Rome and the Greeks love of philosopy still continue to exert a near mesmeric ability to make us yearn to travel back in time and discover what it must have been like to have lived among the peoples of those lost ages.

For example Ancient Greece is quite simply a miracle of history - is there any other way to describe it, having sprung so rapidly from the cluster of Aegean Islands at it's heart and then give us literary epics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey?

Or what about the Ancient Inca's with their astonishing wealth and the macabre centrality of human sacrifice to Aztec culture and religion... doesn't it just make you wish you had a time machine, even it if was just for a day so you could transport yourself back to visit these legendary peoples and places?

Medes, and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Babylonians and Assyrians, Vikings and Saxons or the Ancient Britons, everyone has their own favourite corner of Ancient History they love to explore, but one thing you can be sure of... there's always more you can discover, always more.

So let's get started...

Did Trojan Brutus found London?

(9 votes, average 4.89 out of 5)

Written by Glyn Rogers

Monday, 08 March 2010

It is a commonly held view that the city of London was founded by the Romans shortly after the successful invasion of Britain undertaken by the Emperor Claudius in 43AD. Is this true, or were the Romans building on an older foundation? Certainly there is evidence, at least in the name of Ludgate, which is said to be named after a British King Lud, whose son Cassibelanus fought against Julius Caesar in 54 BC.

According to one of the earliest histories of Britain and also to later Medieval histories, London was founded not by the Romans of the 1st century AD, but in a far more Ancient time by Brutus the Trojan. Nennius an 8th century British monk in his Historia Brittonum, tells the story of how Brutus, grandson of the fabled Aeneas of Troy came to Britain.

Recent Pre & Ancient History Articles

Murderous Schemes and the Age of the Four Cleopatras

Although the name Cleopatra brings to mind a particular resourceful young queen who had a good hand with prominent Roman men, it was in fact not an uncommon name. That famous queen herself was the seventh, or sixth as is now more commonly believed, ruling Cleopatra of Egypt. And she came from a cunning line of Cleopatras. At one time, there were even four of them at once: Cleopatra III and her daughters Cleopatra IV, Cleopatra Tryphaena, and Cleopatra Selene.

As mothers come, few have been as devious as Cleopatra III. Of course, she might not be entirely to blame. She had quite excruciating circumstances that might make anyone go a bit mad, or at least adopt a grim outlook on life. Her parents were siblings and constantly afraid of their younger brother who had already seized power from them once. ...... Read More
Famous Women of Ancient Egypt - Nefertiti

The great pharaoh Amunhotep III reigned for 37 years from circa 1387BC to 1350BC. During his reign the tributes and foreign taxes that had been secured by the military conquests of his predecessors continued to pour into the coffers of ancient Egypt. The temple and the priests of the state god Amun-Ra were granted a significant portion of the nation’s income in recognition of Amun-Ra’s past interventions and future supplicated support for all Egyptian endeavours. Amunhotep III took a “commoner” called Tiye to be his primary royal wife and together they produced at least two sons and several daughters. The elder son Djutmose was destined to be the successor of Amunhotep III, but he disappeared as a young man, presumed dead and Amunhotep III’s second son, also called Amunhotep became the heir apparent. The young Amunhotep took the beautiful Nefertiti to be his wife.
...... Read More
Nubian King Piye of Egypt

Piye was the son of Nubian kings. From his capital at Napata, he extended Kushite influence into Egypt, to Thebes, conquered Memphis and the Delta for a time, and had one daughter installed as the next God’s Wife of Amun.

Nubia had been conquered by the Tutmosid kings of Egypt during the 18th dynasty. After the death of Ramses XI in the 20th dynasty, Egypt’s rule began to fragment. After the end of the 21st Dynasty, the next three dynasties ruled in large part concurrently, from Bubastis and Tanis, from Leontopolis, and from Sais. By the end of the 23rd dynasty, Nubia was prepared to invade Egypt.
...... Read More
The Children of Cleopatra

The famous Cleopatra, that great queen who was actually a Greek woman of Macedonian descent and the seventh Cleopatra to rule Egypt, is oftentimes cited as the last of her line. It is true that after her demise Egypt fell to Rome and had no more kings or queens, but Cleopatra was not the last of her line. She was survived by her four children.

Approximately nine months after Cleopatra was smuggled into Julius Caesar’s chambers, and presented to him rolled out of a Persian carpet, she gave birth to a son. She named him Ptolemy Caesar, though he was best known to the world by his nickname: Caesarion, “little Caesar”.

Like any mother, Cleopatra had great hopes for her little Caesar. She wished that Julius Caesar, although already married to someone else, would recognise Caesarion as his son and heir. It ...... Read More

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