Ancient

This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages....

A sweeping, revisionist history of the Roman Empire from one of our foremost classicists. Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, a "mixture of luxury and filth, liberty and exploitation, civic pride and...

The legendary Stephen Fry retells the adventures of Odysseus for the fourth and final installment in his internationally bestselling Greek Myths series. Odysseus’s journey from the battlefields of Troy to his home in Ithaca is one of the greatest stories ever told. From the lotus-eaters to the...

Mythos is a modern collection of Greek myths, stylishly retold by legendary writer, actor, and comedian Stephen Fry. Fry transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians into emotionally resonant and deeply funny stories, without losing any of their original wonder. This stunning book...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus comes a surprising history of Jesus’ most radical commandment—a new kind of altruism—tracing how the extraordinary duty to love even those who are strangers to us has shaped our world and our lives. When we donate money to...

This sweeping history of the often-violent conflict between Islam and the West sheds a revealing light on current hostilities....

In this landmark work, one of the world's most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its final absorption into the Roman Empire - 3,000 years of wild drama, bold spectacle, and unforgettable characters. Award-winning...

Here in a single volume is the entire, unabridged recording of Gibbon's masterpiece....

Millions of readers have thrilled to bestselling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, page-turning works of nonfiction that have changed the way we read history. The basis for the 2015 television film available on streaming. Now the iconic...

In this sequel to the bestselling Mythos, legendary author and actor Stephen Fry moves from the exploits of the Olympian gods to the deeds of mortal heroes. Perseus. Jason. Atalanta. Theseus. Heracles. Rediscover the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths. Whether recounting a...

Here, anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: He shows that before there was money, there was debt....

The authors devoted five decades to the study of world history and philosophy, culminating in the masterful 11-volume Story of Civilization....

In this brilliant conclusion to his bestselling Mythos trilogy, legendary author and actor Stephen Fry retells the tale of the Trojan War. Full of tragic heroes, intoxicating love stories, and the unstoppable force of fate, there is no conflict more iconic than the Trojan War. Troy is the story...

This erudite book tells the fascinating, often violent story of kings, generals, and the peoples they ruled....

Do you know how many wives Zeus had? Or how the famous Trojan War was caused by one beautiful lady? Or how Thor got his hammer? Give your imagination a real treat. This Mega Mythology Collection of eight audiobooks is for you....

This audiobook tells the gripping story of what happened after the Bronze Age collapsed—why some civilizations endured, why some gave way to new ones, and why some disappeared forever.

Thousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time. What they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity.

Among the many important historical documents from the Classical world of Greece and Rome The Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus is one of the most distinctive and characterful....

In The Golden Road, revered historian William Dalrymple corrects the record, telling the captivating story of ancient India’s ascent through a swift and breathtaking tour of the ideas and places Indians created. Treks into the depths of cave monasteries illuminate the origins and spread of Buddhism.

A lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own....

The story of how their citizens took on the Great King of Persia, and thereby saved not only themselves, but Western civilization as well, is as heart-stopping and fateful as any episode in history....

In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire....

** THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ** Readers love The Greatest Story Ever Told 'Outstanding. A page-turner with a life-changing message.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review 'This book is incredible. It will speak to believers and non-believers alike.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader review 'Wow what a book...

In this, the first prose history in European civilization, Herodotus describes the growth of the Persian Empire with force, authority, and style....

Alexander was born into the royal family of Macedonia, the kingdom that would soon rule over Greece. Tutored as a boy by Aristotle, Alexander had an inquisitive mind....

From the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus comes a surprising history of Jesus’ most radical commandment—a new kind of altruism—tracing how the extraordinary duty to love even those who are strangers to us has shaped our world and our lives. When we donate money to...

The Four Heavens brings to life the cultural and visual splendor of the ancient Maya, drawing on the oldest indigenous texts of the Americas and the latest archaeological discoveries to present an entirely new history of this spectacular civilization. Renowned historian and archaeologist David Stuart, who has made groundbreaking contributions to the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics, shows how there was no single rise and fall of the Maya but a series of births and collapses over a breathtaking span of nearly three millennia.

This is the first person account of Evangeline Weathers, a young woman whoi travelled back in time to the Mediteranean world in 27 A.D. She tells of her journey to the past and her subsequent travels through Morrocco, Spain, Italy, France , Germany, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece and Palestine. She helps the reader see the wonders, spiritual practices, and dangers of the ancient world through her modern eyes. Themes of this story include flying, history, spiritual, romantic, and psychadelic practices, warfare, sea voyages, and self-defense.

The real Sparta was stranger, more brutal, and more fascinating than the movie. Everyone knows the legend: 300 warriors holding Thermopylae against a million Persians. But the real story of Sparta — the one behind the Hollywood mythology and ancient propaganda — is far more complex and far more interesting. How did a city of just 8,000 citizens build the most feared military force the ancient world ever saw? Why did they enslave an entire neighboring population and live as a permanent military garrison? How did their women own 40% of the land while their boys were taken from their ...

From the Sunday Times bestseller comes a gripping retelling of Hannibal's greatest trial - the battle of Cannae. Narrated by Phil Stevens, this audio-first novel features music, on-location sound effects and detailed sound design. Cannae, 216 BC - Under a blisteringly hot sun, Hannibal Barca...

For seventeen years, one man held the greatest military power in the ancient world at bay. Hannibal Barca crossed the Alps with war elephants, destroyed three Roman armies in succession, and came closer to conquering Rome than any foreign general before or since. He never got the chance to finish the job. Hannibal's War is the complete story of the Carthaginian general who nearly rewrote the history of Western civilization — from his childhood oath of eternal enmity against Rome, through his family's conquest of Spain, the legendary Alpine crossing, and the string of devastating victories...

Procopius held a position of esteem in Justinian’s empire as an advisor to the military commander Belisarius. He even wrote the official histories of Justinian’s military conquests, lauding both the emperor and his commander. But secretly… Procopius hated them both, so he wrote Anecdota, later known as Secret History, in private.

Everything you think you know about Cleopatra is probably wrong. She wasn't Egyptian — she was Macedonian Greek. She wasn't defined by her love affairs — she was a polyglot who spoke nine languages, a shrewd economic manager, and the most capable ruler her dynasty had produced in generations. And she wasn't swept along by fate — she was a calculating strategist who played the most dangerous political game in the ancient world and nearly won. In this book, you'll discover: How a Macedonian Greek dynasty ruled Egypt for three centuries — and why Cleopatra was the first of them to ...

Irish Druid Culture, Lore and Legacy begins in County Meath. A farmer plows around a hawthorn tree that stands alone in thirty acres of tilled ground. Forty minutes away, a motorway curves around an unmarked earthen mound because a county council quietly rerouted it. No archaeologist lobbied for the mound. There is no historical protection. Ireland simply went around. Ask what kind of belief -- not doctrine, not creed, but something older and quieter than either -- would have to persist across twenty centuries of invasion, famine, conversion, colonization, and modernity to still have that ...

Who was Perseus according to the ancient traditions? This book presents the full story of Perseus — from the prophecy that preceded his birth to the events that shaped the fate of his lineage — as it was preserved in the mythical traditions of ancient Greece. Without modern glamour, without cinematic simplifications, and without popular distortions, this narrative reconstructs the hero’s path according to the ancient sources and the religious and cultural context in which these stories were handed down. More than the famous episode of Medusa’s head, the reader will find here: the ...

They impaled prisoners on stakes. They flayed rebel leaders alive. They deported entire populations across hundreds of miles. And they did it all on purpose. The Assyrians didn't commit atrocities because they were uniquely cruel. They did it because terror worked. For three centuries, a city-state on the upper Tigris built and maintained the ancient world's first superpower through a calculated combination of overwhelming military force, systematic propaganda, and administrative genius that later empires — Persia, Rome, and beyond — would study and imitate. But the Assyrians were far ...

When Alexander the Great died at thirty-two, he left behind the largest empire the world had ever seen — and no plan for what came next. His generals — the Diadochi, the "Successors" — spent the next forty years tearing each other apart in wars more dramatic and consequential than Alexander's own conquests. An eighty-one-year-old one-eyed general charging into his last battle. A siege engineer who built towers taller than city walls. A pragmatist who stole Alexander's corpse and built a dynasty that lasted three centuries. A political operator who murdered an entire royal family to ...

Every few months, someone compares the fall of Rome to whatever crisis is in the news. The comparisons are almost always shallow. Rome had roads, we have the internet. Rome had bread and circuses, we have social media. This book is not that. The Roman Empire faced challenges that are structurally identical to those created by artificial intelligence — not because history mystically repeats, but because certain problems emerge whenever a civilization reaches a specific threshold of complexity, scale, and technological capability. Rome hit that threshold with roads, aqueducts, and slave ...

Everything you think you know about the Persian Empire, you learned from the Greeks. The Greeks were not objective reporters. The Achaemenid Persian Empire was the largest political entity the world had ever seen — stretching from Libya to India, governing perhaps forty percent of the world's population. It was held together not primarily by terror, but by the most sophisticated administrative system of the ancient world: satrapies, a royal road network, a postal service, standardized coinage, and a policy of religious tolerance that the Romans would study centuries later. This book tells...

I libri di storia possono mentire. Le pietre no; esse raccontano la vera storia. Ci hanno insegnato che la civiltà è nata lentamente—che gli Antichi Egizi fossero semplici agricoltori capaci, all'improvviso, di impilare milioni di pietre usando solo scalpelli di rame e corde di canapa. Ci dicono che la Grande Piramide era una tomba, che la Sfinge è il ritratto di un faraone e che le mastodontiche arche di granito del Serapeo servivano a seppellire tori. Ma la pietra urla una verità diversa. In La Verità Proibita dell'Antico Egitto, il ricercatore Mohamed Elshenawy smantella la ...

Ancient Ozarks The Ozarks keep their secrets in stone… The Ozarks have always held their secrets close. For more than 12,000 years, the limestone highlands of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma have preserved what time erases everywhere else: ancient tools, woven fibers, rock art, and the stories of the people who moved through these caves, bluffs, and underground rivers. Archaeologists uncovered the evidence. Folklorists kept the legends alive. What remains is a landscape where both still speak. Ancient Ozarks explores the region’s deep past through the tension between science and story....

Discover a journey through the rise, glory, and legacy of the Pharaohs. How did a desert land build one of the greatest civilizations on Earth? If you’ve ever wanted to understand ancient Egypt but found most history books confusing, slow, or overwhelming, this is the guide designed for you. An audiobook that brings Ancient Egypt to life. This guide is written in plain, accessible language with a structure that makes sense from the very first minute.

From the Great Pyramid to the Tunguska Explosion, from Atlantis to Area 51—100 enigmas that still defy explanation. What did the builders of Stonehenge know that we've forgotten? Why were the Nazca Lines drawn on a scale only visible from the sky? How did ancient civilizations cut, transport, and place stones so massive and precise that modern engineers struggle to replicate the feat? The Little Black Book of Ancient Mysteries is a guided tour through 100 of history's most enduring puzzles—monuments whose construction defies conventional explanation, manuscripts no one can read, ...

In virtually all fields of human endeavor, Classical Athens was so much at the forefront of dynamism and innovation that the products of its most brilliant minds remain not only influential but still relevant to this day. To the ancient Greeks, the cosmos was ordered and harmonious. Consequently, reason and intellect were considered the architects of all art and craftsmanship. The absolute perfection of form was sought in everything and the Greek passion for simplicity, elegance, harmony, and beauty is to be found everywhere, particularly in architecture.

The Bronze Age collapsed. What came next changed everything. Around 1200 BCE, the most advanced civilizations on Earth were destroyed in a catastrophe that ended empires, erased writing systems, and shattered trade networks spanning continents. Most histories end there — with the dramatic fall. Iron Age Dawn picks up where the collapse left off. It tells the story of the technological revolution that rebuilt civilization: the slow, uneven, transformative adoption of iron that reshaped the ancient world from the ground up. Inside this book: Why the Bronze Age was built on a fragile supply ...

When archaeologists uncovered the untouched tomb of Lady Fu Hao in 1976, they didn’t just find treasure, they found a story that rewrote history. She wasn’t just a queen. She was a fierce general, a high priestess, and a leader lost to time… until now.

Where is Africa Heading, and What Will Decide the Continent's Future? Africa is often discussed in headlines about crisis, conflict, or competition among global powers. But beneath those narratives lies a deeper question: What structural forces will determine Africa’s trajectory over the next 30 years? In Quo Vadis, Africa?, Conan Taggert takes readers on a sweeping yet rigorously analytical journey through: The sophisticated governance systems of precolonial African states The economic power of trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean trade networks The long-term institutional consequences of ...

From the desert sands of forgotten empires to the hidden valleys of vanished kingdoms, Civilizations That Time Forgot takes listeners on a journey through the lost chapters of human history. This captivating exploration uncovers societies that once flourished with advanced cultures, powerful cities, and rich traditions—yet were later erased from the mainstream story of civilization. These are not merely ancient ruins or forgotten names; they are complete worlds that shaped the development of humanity in ways we are still discovering today.

Rome stood on the brink of annihilation. Hannibal, the Carthaginian mastermind, had marched across the Alps, shattered Roman armies, and left the Republic reeling from defeat. When all seemed lost, one young general rose to the challenge: Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus; and changed the course of history forever.

The Fall of Rome: Decline and Transformation — How the Ancient World Became the Medieval The greatest civilization the world had ever seen didn't fall in a day. It took three centuries of plague, civil war, economic collapse, and barbarian pressure — and the story is more complex, more human, and more relevant than you've been told. Rome ruled the Mediterranean for centuries. Sixty million people lived under its laws. Its roads, aqueducts, and cities represented a level of infrastructure that wouldn't be matched for a thousand years. And then it was gone — replaced by a patchwork of ...