People & Places
By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide to Ancient / Classical History
Information on famous people, characters, and gods and goddesses in the ancient world. You'll find them arranged alphabetically and topically, with the big ones highlighted. You'll also information on ancient locations. Geographic entities here do not correspond well with modern geography.
People
What's history without the people? Here you'll find an A-Z that covers more than the basics, a list of people you really should know, and an occupation index, in case you know job but not name. Within the lists, you'll find military/political leaders like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Cleopatra, important cultural icons like Homer, Vergil (Virgil), and Aristotle, and legendary or mythological figures.
- A - Z of Famous Ancient People
- Ancient People You Need to Know
- Occupation Index of Famous Ancient People
- Famous Romans
- Early Christian Saints
- 12 Caesars
- Cleopatra Study Guide
- Julius Caesar Study Guide
Gods and Goddesses
Ancient gods and goddesses weren't ignored six days a week and then prayed to in a church on Sundays. Most ancient cultures credited the gods with the powers of nature. If it rained, blame the rain god. If you couldn't get pregnant, check in with the fertility goddess. In the ancient world, there were hundreds of spirits, gods and goddesses. In general, each god, goddess or spirit had control over specific powers of nature. They also administered to human activities like war and some behaved in a way we would describe as badly.
- Gods and Goddesses A-Z
- Which Greek Goddess Are You?
- Roman Gods and Goddesses
- Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
- Moon Goddesses and Gods
Rulers
Kings, emperors, and other monarchs who ruled ancient city-states or empires. Some of these rulers were members of ruling dynasties; others were elected or otherwise appointed. Mostly, you'll find chronological lists of kings here.
- Rome - Kings
- Roman Emperors Portrait Gallery
- Timeline: Roman Emperors
- Timeline: Egypt - Pharaohs and Dynasties
- Timeline: Indian Subcontinent - Mauryan Kings
- Timeline: Parthian Kings
- Timeline: Persian Empire - Kings of the Sassanid Dynasty
- Timeline: Persian Empire - Kings of the Achaemenid Dynasty
- Timeline: Hebrew Kings
- Timeline: Mesopotamian Kings
- Chinese Dynasties
- Alexander the Great
Heroes
Would the ancient Greeks have counted you a hero for saving a puppy from a burning building? Possibly, but probably not. Heroes were expected to be a certain calibre of person, between an ordinary mortal and a god. Their fathers were kings if not gods -- usually the randier gods, Zeus or Poseidon -- and they were expected to have arete 'virtue'. Adversity humbled them.
- Picture Gallery of the Greek Heroes
- Top Heroes
- Who's Who in Greek Legend
- Who Was Hercules?
- Labors of Hercules
- Theseus
- Orpheus
- Atalanta
Playwrights
Imagine the world of Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre. Now go back further to a time when men still played the parts of women, but plays were part of a religious ceremony. The ancient Greeks are credited with inventing theater, as an element in their religious celebrations to which they zealously attached contests and prizes. Here are the most famous of the Greek playwrights in tragedy and comedy, as well as their successors in Roman drama.
Writers
Time, fires, and the monks of the Middle Ages have prevented us from reading all the great literature of the ancient world. Having lost so much, we put a premium on the relatively small corpus of ancient literature that we have. The competitive ancient Greeks and Romans kept modifying and improving their literary forms. Greeks developed poetic and theatrical genres. Romans invented a genre that did more than entertain: It insulted. This now popular genre is satire.
Ancient Historians
The ancient Greeks are credited with inventing the genre of history. We tend to lump together with historians proper, like the father of history (or lies) Herodotus, with people who wrote biographies, like Plutarch, and geographers. You'll find them here.
Philosophers
The Greeks are credited with inventing philosophy and of philsophers, the Greek Socrates is probably the best known. Here you'll find information on ancient Pre-Socratic philosophers, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicureans, Stoics, and the eastern philosopher we know as Confucius.
People of the Bible
Purposely ambiguous in order to apply to both the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible as well as scholarship about both, here you'll find information on both verifiable and legendary figures in Bible history, as well as important people connected with the Bible -- like the Jewish historian Josephus who is used in arguments about the verifiability of Jesus.
- Historical Biblical Figures You Should Know
- Bible History
- Star of Bethlehem and the Dating of the Birth of Jesus
- Herod the Great
- Legends of the Jews
Maps and Places
Maps that locate ancient places and show the ancient view of the world, focusing mainly on the countries surrounding the Mediterranean ("Middle of the Earth") Sea. Names of ancient places do not always correspond with their modern equivalents. Political borders are different. Ancient maps of the Roman Empire include much of what we think of as Europe, parts of Asia, and Northern Africa; the geographic borders of Asia fluctuated with the dominant empires; Sudan and Egypt are in both the Near East and Africa.
