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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?

(3 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)

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.
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Curses In The Greek & Roman Worlds - Defixiones

(2 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)

By Emma Oxenby Wohlfahrt
Monday, 01 March 2010
The most archaeologically prevalent form of magic to rise out of Classical society was certainly the curse tablet. Some 1,700 curse tablets have been found to date, the oldest being from Athens and the Greek colonies of Italy in the 5th century BCE. This katadesmos (“binding curse” in Greek), usually known by its Latin name: defixio, has been found all over the Ancient Greek and Roman worlds, from England to Turkey, over a time period stretching nearly a millennium. Many Ancient Greek and Roman writer may have asserted that no sensible person believes in demons, shape-shifters and witches. Plato went as far as to suggest that the only effect of magic was psychological. Even so, the amount of magic writing and paraphernalia uncovered by archaeologists suggests that belief in magic was widespread. Indeed, Plato the disbeliever himself differentiates between the good magic of physician and midwife charms and spells and the bad magic of necromancers and witches.
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Recent Pre & Ancient History Articles

Did Trojan Brutus found London?

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.
...... Read More
Curses In The Greek & Roman Worlds - Defixiones

The most archaeologically prevalent form of magic to rise out of Classical society was certainly the curse tablet. Some 1,700 curse tablets have been found to date, the oldest being from Athens and the Greek colonies of Italy in the 5th century BCE. This katadesmos (“binding curse” in Greek), usually known by its Latin name: defixio, has been found all over the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, from England to Turkey, over a time period stretching nearly a millennium.

Many ancient Greek and Roman writer may have asserted that no sensible person believes in demons, shape-shifters and witches. Plato went as far as to suggest that the only effect of magic was psychological. Even so, the amount of magic writing and paraphernalia uncovered by archaeologists suggests that belief in magic was widespread. Indeed, Plato the disbeliever himself differentiates between the good magic of physician ...... Read More
Cannae Aftermath: The Maharbal Fallacy

Hannibal is often criticized for not marching on Rome immediately after his crushing victory at Cannae in 216 BCE, over the largest Roman army ever assembled. Even Montgomery, who should have known better, condemns Hannibal in his History of Warfare for this apparent failure, arguing that it cost him the war. But was this indeed a strategic error on the part of the brilliant Carthaginian commander?

In an often-quoted anecdote, reported in the account of the war between Rome and Carthage by Livy (a notorious patriotic Roman propagandist), the commander of the Numidian cavalry, Maharbal, supposedly urges Hannibal in vain to march without delay against Rome, telling him: “In five days you shall banquet in the Capitol! Follow after; I will precede you with the cavalry that the Romans may know that you are there before they know that you are coming!” Upon Hannibal’s refusal, he allegedly rebukes him ...... Read More
Ahmose I and Egypt’s Expansion

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Ramesses II greets the deified Ahmose-Nefertari some 200 years after her death. Scene inscribed on the Girdle Wall, Temple of Amun-Re, Karnak

The first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Ahmose I ruled for around 25 years during which he finally overthrew the Hyksos kings in the north reuniting the lands of Egypt for the first time in more than 100 years. In achieving this he paved the way for his successors to create an empire stretching from Kurgus in the Sudan to the River Euphrates in Syria; and in time spanning almost 500 years from c1550-1070 BC, the period now known as Egypt’s New Kingdom.

The tomb inscription of Ahmose, Son of Abana, tells how he followed on foot as his king, Ahmose I, rode in his chariot, at the siege of the ...... Read More