Thomas Paine (by Matthew Pratt, about 1790) In the late 1700s AD, around the same time that Voltaire, du Chatelet, and Rousseau were writing philosophy in France, and Hume was writing in England, Thomas Paine was [...]
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom When the King of England, William IV, died in 1837, his niece Victoria became queen of England. She was also the queen of many other [...]
Greek hoplites and democracy - a Corinthian helmet from the 600s BC Hoplites needed armor When the Greek city-states turned to this new hoplite way of fighting, it meant that each man [...]
Who was Demosthenes? Life of Demosthenes Demosthenes was born in Athens about 385 BC, in the Hellenistic period. He was an Athenian citizen from a rich family (though not a [...]
Antigone at her brother's grave, from the Louvre (Paris) Sophocles' Antigone Antigone is a play that Sophocles wrote. He was an Athenian, who lived in the 400s BC. The play tells the [...]
Aeschylus's plays were performed in the Theater of Dionysos here on the Acropolis below the Parthenon in Athens Biography of Aeschylus Aeschylus (ESS-kill-us) is the earliest playwright in any language [...]
Alcibiades (from a later portrait done after he was dead) The Peloponnesian war was not going so well for Athens. So the Athenians decided to try a really dramatic, aggressive [...]
The end of the Peloponnesian War: Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap Alcibiades changes sides The Spartans defeated the Sicilian Expedition in 415 BC. Plus, now they had the help of the [...]
Battle of Marathon: The plain of Marathon The First Persian War The Persians were attacking Greece! They landed at Marathon in the fall of 490 BC. When the Athenians heard [...]
Thebes bell in the shape of a person, 700 BC (Louvre Museum, Paris) In Greek mythology, Thebes was where Oedipus lived with his mother-wife Jocasta. It was where Oedipus' daughter [...]
