Phocas: Did you mean...?

The column of Phocas in the Roman Forum, Rome. The column is 13 metres high and stands on a brick base surrounded by marble steps. The inscription on the base reveals that the column was dedicated to Phocas, a centurion who...

The column of Phocas is a column that refers to the Byzantine emperor Phocas (r. 602-610 CE), but it was in fact a column erected in the forum piazza to correspond with the late honorary columns, so it probably...

The Avars were a confederation of heterogeneous (diverse or varied) people consisting of Rouran, Hephthalites, and Turkic-Oghuric races who migrated to the region of the Pontic Grass Steppe (an area corresponding to modern-day Ukraine...

Khosrow II (aka Kosrau II, r. 590-628) was the last powerful shahanshah (king of kings) of the Sassanian Empire. Grandson of Kosrau I (r. 531-579) and near-conqueror of the Byzantine Empire in the Byzantine-Sassanian War of 602-628...

Yazdegerd III (r. 632-651) was the last monarch of the Sassanian Empire (224-651), ruling – or attempting to rule – amidst the chaos of its final decline and fall to the invading Muslim Arabs. He was the son of the prince Shahriyar...

The Roman Forum or Forum Romanum of ancient Rome was the bustling religious, administrative, legal, and commercial heart of the city from the 7th century BCE onwards. Made increasingly grandiose...

The mercenary Varangian Guard was an elite Byzantine army corps and the personal bodyguard of emperors beginning with Basil II in c. 988 CE. The Viking unit was famous for the stature of its members...

Bayan I (reigned 562/565-602 CE) was a king of the Avars, a confederation of heterogeneous people who migrated from the region of Mongolia, north of China, in 552 CE and came in contact with the Eastern Roman Empire c. 557 CE. Bayan...

An Ancient road, the Argiletum led you into the forum from the Subura, Rome's crowded slum district. The road was lined with booksellers and cobblers, according to Martial. Domitian made. narrrow forum, the Forum Transitorium...