Ancient

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...

"A treasure trove of myths and terror… Atmospheric as hell… Immersive."-The Times Based on the podcast with over one hundred million downloads, Fall of Civilizations brilliantly explores how a range of ancient societies rose to power and sophistication, and how they tipped over into collapse...

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.

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...

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....

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

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

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

Mary Beard narrates the unprecedented rise of a civilization that even 2,000 years later still shapes many of our most fundamental assumptions about power....

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...

Among the many important historical documents from the Classical world of Greece and Rome The Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus is one of the most distinctive and characterful....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

Author and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon—his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic—with Dynasty, a luridly fascinating history of the reign of the first five Roman emperors.

'The book that really held me, in fact, obsessed me, was Rubicon . . . This is narrative history at its best. Bloody and labyrinthine political intrigue and struggle, brilliant oratory, amazing feats of conquest and cruelty' Ian McEwan, Books of the Year, Guardian 'Re-evaluating Rome for a new...

From the world-leading expert on the Maya, a monumental history of a flourishing civilization across three millennia.

Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning the same thing, and you hear echoes of one of history’s most unlikely journeys.

Your ticket from the twenty-first century to the era of Jesus and the first Christians. A listenable, two-volume introduction placing the entire New Testament and early Christianity in its original context, written by distinguished scholar and author N. T. Wright. An ideal guide for students...

The incredible true story of a Galilean stonemason who changed the course of the world forever, beautifully told through the eyewitness accounts of those who knew him best. This real-life story will never leave you. He lived and died over 2,000 years ago, fulfilling expectations that existed...

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

Even after deciphering its hieroglyphs, and marveling at its scarabs, mummies, obelisks, and sphinxes, Egyptian civilization remains one of history's most mysterious....

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....

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Richard Armitage, star of Peter Jackson'sThe Hobbit trilogy and also known for his roles in Ocean's 8 and Spooks. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Diskin Clay. Originally written only for his personal...

Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods is a work of monumental importance....

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....

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.

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.

"By connecting our modern heroes to the archetypes of ancient myth, Peter Meineck's marvelous book bestows thrilling contemporary resonance upon those bygone legends." —Christopher Markus, coscreenwriter of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame What connects Dionysus, the ancient Greek...

Radical Antiquity takes you on a unique journey in search of anarchy, statelessness, and social experimentation in the Graeco-Roman world. Sweeping across the Mediterranean from the time of the first Olympic Games in 776 BCE until the emergence of Islam in 610 CE, Christopher B. Zeichmann introduces the listener to communities of escaped enslaved people, pirates, and religious sects—all of whom sought a more egalitarian way of life that avoided the coercion, hierarchy, and exploitation of the state.

For most of human history, life offered no safety net. Environments shifted, resources vanished, and stability was always temporary. People lived on the move—carrying knowledge, forming bonds, and adapting to constant change. This audiobook examines how human life took shape long before familiar societies appeared. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and evolutionary science, it explores how early humans lived, moved, cooperated, and adapted over deep time.

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...

Imagine you were transported back in time to Ancient Egypt and you had to start a new life there. How would you fit in? Where would you live? What would you eat? Where would you go to have your hair done? Who would you go to if you got ill, or if you were mugged in the street? All these questions, and many more, will be answered in this how-to guide for time travelers.

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.

Traversing more than seven hundred years of Roman history, this book explores how everyday Romans swapped gossip, spread rumors, told jokes, and chanted protests about their emperors—activity that amounted to much more than idle chatter. Caillan Davenport uses ancient evidence, including letters, graffiti, and songs, to reveal how Romans engaged in politics outside the senate house or imperial council. He argues that the idea of the Roman emperor was shaped not only by the political powers granted to him but also by the debate taking place in the streets, churches, taverns, and markets.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Around 1200 BCE, the most advanced civilizations on Earth were destroyed in a single generation. The Hittite Empire — gone. Mycenaean Greece — gone. The great port of Ugarit — burned and never rebuilt. Trade networks that had connected the Mediterranean for centuries — collapsed. An entire world of palace kingdoms, international diplomacy, and bronze-age prosperity vanished in a cascade of fire, famine, and war. At the center of the destruction: a mysterious coalition of raiders the Egyptians called the Sea Peoples. Who were they? Where did they come from? And did they really bring ...

Con la destrucción de Cartago, Roma se quedó sin un enemigo a su altura y con el Mediterráneo convertido en una suerte de lago privado. Solo una potencia podía interponerse en su destino: la propia Roma. Los años finales de la República estuvieron marcados por las conspiraciones, las guerras civiles y la transgresión de todos los límites legales. La sangre a borbotones de las legiones y de los políticos romanos marcaron los años finales de un sistema político que colapsó antes de evolucionar hacia un imperio que dominaría medio planeta.

In Bart Ehrman Interpreted, theologian and writer Robert M. Price evaluates Ehrman’s body of work. Taking a collegial approach and rejecting polemics, Price defends Ehrman’s writing against conservative attacks, but also suggests a number of points at which Ehrman may be insufficiently or inconsistently critical.

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....

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 ...

Long before the Greeks told tales of Olympus, long before the Norse imagined Valhalla, the people of ancient Mesopotamia were asking the questions that still keep us awake at night. Why are we here? What happens when we die? Why do the powerful rule and the weak suffer? This book is a journey through the oldest stories humanity ever wrote down. From the primordial waters of Tiamat to the desperate wanderings of Gilgamesh, from the first cities rising out of mud to the gods who demanded endless service, these myths shaped how an entire civilization understood its place in the universe.

You have read the *Meditations*. You have underlined the passages. You have returned to them in difficult moments. You have found in the private journal of a Roman emperor — written two thousand years ago, in a military tent, in a language not his own — something that still speaks directly to the experience of being human under pressure. But the *Meditations* are only half the story. They are the product of a life. A specific, extraordinary, brutal life that most readers of the *Meditations* have never fully encountered. A life of plague and war and political betrayal and the specific ...

From Primates to Homo Sapiens: How Humans Evolved, Migrated, and Became the Sapiens That Changed the World How did humans become human? For millions of years, our ancestors were just one small branch among many primates. They lived in forests, moved across open grasslands, survived ice ages, and faced environments that constantly changed. Yet from these fragile beginnings emerged a species capable of language, culture, technology, and global civilization. This book continues the story that began in Earth and Life: From the Birth of the Planet to the Rise of Complex Life. In that first ...

History tends to present the time around the birth of Jesus as quiet, sacred, and solemn. Reality was… considerably messier. The world between 10 BC and AD 50 was loud, crowded, political, dangerous, inventive, deeply religious, and sometimes unbelievably strange. Roman emperors ruled with theatrical ego. Street vendors sold questionable food. Doctors prescribed treatments that would horrify modern medicine. Religious movements collided, clashed, and spread through dusty roads and bustling ports. Meanwhile, ordinary people were navigating life in cities filled with sewage systems, ...

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...

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 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 ...

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 ...