'Because of his baldness and hairiness, he announced it was a capital offence for anyone either to look down on him as he passed or to mention goats in any context.
An absorbing travel book, a meditation on geology, photography, Romanesque art and the romance of physical decline, The Slow Breath of Stone throws a mirror on Europe of the Middle Ages and its hold on us today.
Between the Sack of Rome by the Gauls in 390 BC and the middle of the second century BC, a part-time army of Roman peasants, under the leadership of the ruling oligarchy, conquered first Italy and then the whole of the Mediterranean.
The epic true-life story of one of the most notorious maritime disasters of the nineteenth century - and inspiration for 'Moby-Dick' - reissued to accompany a major motion picture due for release in December 2015, directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker and Cillian Murphy.
A rich blend of history and spirituality, adventure and politics, laced with the thread of black comedy familiar to readers of William Dalrymple's previous work.
The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum CryptographyFrom the best-selling author of Fermat's Last Theorem, The Code Book is a history of man's urge to uncover the secrets of codes, from Egyptian puzzles to modern day computer encryptions.
A brilliant new reading of the Bayeux Tapestry that radically alters our understanding of the events of 1066 and reveals the astonishing story of the survival of early medieval Europe's greatest treasure.
The author of the international bestsellers Watching the Tree and Falling Leaves has always been fascinated by proverbs and their importance and use in China.
While Plato's and Aristotle's theories of virtue have received extensive scholarly attention, less work has been done on Xenophon's portraits of virtue and on his attitude towards the theoretical issues connected with it.
The twentieth century has seen a remarkable revival of "e;the Old Religion,"e; as adherents of New-paganism call the native religious traditions of Europe and tribal traditions from North America that predated Christianity.
Professor Tudor Parfitt, a real-life British Indiana Jones, has made the biggest discovery of the last 3,000 years - the secret location of the fabled Ark of the Covenant.
A concise history of the goddess-like figures who evade both Christian and pagan traditions, from the medieval period to the present day In this riveting account, renowned scholar Ronald Hutton explores the history of deity-like figures in Christian Europe.
A compelling account of Christianity’s Jewish beginnings, from one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient religion How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working to prepare their world for the impending realization of God’s promises to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church?
Britain's pagan past, with its mysterious monuments, atmospheric sites, enigmatic artifacts, bloodthirsty legends, and cryptic inscriptions, is both enthralling and perplexing to a resident of the twenty-first century.
New directions in queer theory continue to trouble the boundaries of both queerness and the classical, leading to an explosion of new work in the vast-and increasingly uncharted-intersection between these disciplines, which this interdisciplinary volume seeks to explore.
Despite the relevance of astrology in Graeco-Roman mentality, our information about the early period of Hellenistic astrology is marred by the scarcity of original sources.
