home | before 1000 BCE | 6th-15th centuries
India, Empire and Chaos – rise and fall of the Maurya and Gupta empires
Empire and the Ancient Chinese – monarchy and rebellion from the Zhou to Liu-Song dynasties
Middle East Empires and Judaism, to the 400s BCE – Israel, Judah, Assyrians, Persians and the rise of Judaism
Greeks, Democracy and Slavery , 650-501 BCE – draconian Athens, Sparta, Athenian democracy, the culture of slavery
The Greeks at War, 494 to 371 BCE – the Greco-Persian and Peloponnesian Wars and end of Spartan power
Alexander the Great and Hellenistic Civilization – empire, dissintegration, Jews and failed revolutions
Rome Staggers to Empire – from early republic to the Mediterranean's great hegemonic power
The Roman Republic's Civil Wars and End – from Tiberius Graccus the younger to Caesar's nephew, Octavian
Roman Emperors, Prosperity and Decline – from Augustus Caesar to Constantine the Great
The Roman Empire Disintegrates – Christian emperors fail. Rome burns and the empire is overrun
The Parthian and Sassanid Empires – more rise and fall
Africa, Iron and Empire – the Nubians, iron in the west, Askum and Meroe, the Bantu
The Ancient Japanese – from the legend of Jimmu to the rise of the Yamato dynasty
North Americans – Woodland, Adena and Hopewell cultures, the plains and ancient southwest
MesoAmerica – the Olmecs, Teotihuacán, and the Maya
South America – Rise and fall of Chavin culture. Moche, Nazca, chiefdom and other societies.
Southeast Asia and Oceania – migrations.
Hindus, Jains, and the Buddha – changing Hinduism, the Upanishads, Buddhists, epic literature
Religion and Philosophy in China – conqurors, human sacrifice, Confucius, Mozi, Buddhism, Taoism, I-ching
Confucianism and Buddhism to Korea – from animism to wars fought under the banner of Buddhism
Myths among the Ancient Japanese – creation, and ancestors descended from the gods
Religion, Myth and the Ancient Greeks – stories by Homer and Hesiod, cults, resurrection, the Olympics and war
Greek philosophers before Socratics – Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Xenophanese, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, et cetera
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle – gods of Homer, nature of idea, categories and science
Cynics, Skeptics, Stoics and Epicureans – Antithenes, Diogenes, Pyrrho, Arcesilaus, Zeno of Citium, Epicurus
Hellenism and Jews – cultural diffusions, integration and trade versus religious traditionalists
The Gods of Rome – heavenly bodies, religious authority, importations, anti-druids, family values
Philosophy and the Roman Empire – Cicero, Senaca, Plutarch, Lucian, Marcus Aurelius, Galen, Plotinus
Jews, Rome and Jesus – from the loss of indepence (63 BCE) to the cruxificion
Jewish Revolts and Christian Identities – Jews and Christians divide. Christians create hierarchy
Christianity Triumphant – martyrdom, growth, establishment, Eusebius' ideological adaptation, intolerance
Additional Church Ideology – Augustine overthrows Eusebius, rival bishoprics and rival views of Christ's nature
Ancient Zoroastrians – gods and the Persians, Zarathustra, optimism against evil
Manichaeism, a Universalist Faith – the prophet Mani and his demise, 3rd century CE