In the year 606 or 607, Emperor Phokas of Constantinople (r. 602-610) arranged for his daughter, Domentzia, to marry an influential man named Priskos....
This painting, by the Swedish artist August Malmström (c. 1829-1901), was inspired by famous Germanic and Norse legends and myths. The older man seen...
Emperor Phokas became the ruler of Constantinople and its empire in 602, after successfully leading a military revolt that overthrew Emperor Maurice (r. 582-602)....
This painting, by the Austrian artist Hans Makart (c. 1840–1884), draws inspiration from ancient and early medieval Germanic-Norse religious beliefs. It features a being...
Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321)
"All love that glows within you; to dismiss
Or harbour it, the power is in yourselves."
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (Purgatory, Canto XVIII), translated...
Jonathan Swift (c. 1667-1745)
"Having strictly examined all the persons of greatest name in the courts of princes for an hundred years past, I found...
This abstract and hazy painting, by the American artist Albert Pinkham Ryder (c. 1847-1917), depicts the famous flying horse, Pegasus, surrounded by other figures...
This painting, by the Swedish artist August Malmström (c. 1829-1901), was inspired by famous Germanic and Norse legends and myths. The older man seen...
This curious image comes from the 12-century Skylitzes Matritensis manuscript of the Synopsis Historion by John Skylitzes (c. 1040-1101). The scene above features a...
Sophocles (c. 496-406/405 BCE)
"For a man to help others
with all his gifts and native strength:
that is the noblest work."
Sophocles, Oedipus the King, approximately...
Around the year 360 BCE, the relatively weak city of Tibur infuriated Rome by allegedly harboring and accommodating Gallic warbands. In response, Rome declared...
Pliny the Younger (c. 61/62-113) was a successful lawyer, bureaucrat, politician, and financial advisor. Judged in the currency of denarii and sesterces of his...
This painting, produced by an unidentified artist around 1625, depicts one of the early heroic accomplishments carried out by the ancient Greek god, Apollo....
Thorir Olvirsson was an up-and-coming, youthful 11th-century Norwegian nobleman who cultivated a lot of good will with the people living in the regions around...
