Plutarch is the most famous biographer of the ancient world and the author of a famous collection now known as Plutarch's Lives. Plutarch's original title was Parallel Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans, and that describes his unique approac...

The Copper Scroll (3Q15) is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3 near Khirbet Qumran, but differs significantly from the others. Whereas the other scrolls are written on parchment or papyrus, this scroll is written on metal: copper m...

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty. Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First J...

Trajan was Roman emperor (A.D. 98-A.D. 117). Born in Spain, he was the first non-Italian to become head of the empire. Trajan served in the East, in Germany, and in Spain. He was adopted in A.D. 97 by Emperor Nerva, who died shortly afterwa...

One of the greatest historians of ancient Rome, Cornelius Tacitus is a primary source for much of what is known about life the first and second centuries after the life of Jesus. His most famous works, Histories and Annals, exist in fragmen...

Boudica (d. AD 60 or 61) was a queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire. Boudica's husband Prasutagus ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome and left his kingdom...

Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him. They were both witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD. Pliny is known for his hundreds...

This book is the fundamental vademecum for every day life. No person that I know has left this book suffer the dust and the quiet tranquillity that any other philosophy book enjoy in a library. This letters contain all the wisdom and the po...

The Jewish–Roman wars were a series of large-scale revolts by the Jews of the Eastern Mediterranean against the Roman Empire between 66 and 135 CE. While the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE) were nati...

The Revolt of the Batavi took place in the Roman province of Germania Inferior between AD 69 and 70. It was an uprising against the Roman Empire started by the Batavi, a small but militarily powerful Germanic tribe that inhabited Batavia, o...

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius, was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domit...

The Second Temple is the term used for the Jewish holy temple, which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, actually two temple complexes which succeeded each other and allowed almost uninterrupted temple service between c. 516 BCE and 70...

Hadrian was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. In Latin, the full imperial title of Hadrian was also rendered as Tito Ael Hadriano, just as it appears in ancient epigraphic records. He re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus a...

Natural History is an encyclopedia written by Gaius Plinius Cecilius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder. In its present form the natural History consists of thirty-seven books, the first book including a characteristic preface and tables of...

Zhang Heng was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholar from Nanyang, Henan. He lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25–220) of China. He was educated in the...