Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance History

Lives of the painters, sculptors and architects of the Italian Renaissance.

How the stirrup and the plough reorganised medieval society and economy

A contemporary's account of the long war between Athens and Sparta.

Fifteenth-century Italian painting, and reading social history from its style.

Cicero's speeches defending accused murderers, from Sextus Roscius to King Deiotarus.

Drawn reconstructions of buildings that open up two ancient cities and their people.

A narrative history of how the Roman Empire declined and fell.

Maps in sequence of peoples in Europe and the Near East, from 50,000 BC to AD 362.

How the Mongol empire's trade and communication helped make the modern world.

Nearly a thousand years of Islamic rule in Spain from 711, and its mark on Europe.

How Rome's republican institutions broke down and the Republic fell into tyranny.

Argues that the Arab conquests ended Roman Europe and opened the Dark Ages.

Spartans' everyday lives and customs: constant training, self-denial and hardship.