Irrigation: Did you mean...?

Artaxerxes I (r. 465-424 BCE) was the sixth monarch of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. He was the son of Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BCE) and his principal wife Amestris (d. 424 BCE) and grandson of Darius I (the Great, r. 522-486 BCE...

Serket (also known as Serqet, Selkis, and Selket) is an Egyptian goddess of protection associated with the scorpion. She was worshipped widely in Lower Egypt as a great Mother Goddess in the Predynastic Period (c. 6000- c. 3150 BCE) and...

In 509 BCE, with the exit of the last Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the Roman people were presented with a unique opportunity, an opportunity that would eventually have an immense impact on the rest of Europe for centuries...

Homer's Odyssey is an epic poem written in the 8th century BCE which describes the long voyage home of the Greek hero Odysseus. The mythical king sails back to Ithaca with his men after the Trojan War but is...

Tarentum (Taras, modern Taranto), located on the southern coast of Apulia, Italy, was a Greek and then Roman city. Controlling a large area of Magna Graecia and heading the Italiote League, Tarentum, with its excellent harbour, was...

The Oxus Treasure is a collection of 180 artifacts of precious metal, dated to the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE), which were discovered on the north bank of the Oxus River near the town of Takht-i Sangin in Tajikstan between...

Hades was both the name of the ancient Greek god of the underworld (Roman name: Pluto) and the name of the shadowy place below the earth which was considered the final destination for the souls of the dead. Perhaps the most feared of...

Polycrates (r. c. 535-522 BCE) was the tyrant of Samos who established Samian naval supremacy in the eastern Aegean and strove for control of the Aegean Sea and mainland towns of Ionia in the 6th century BCE. Polycrates had a successful...

Coins were introduced as a method of payment around the 6th or 5th century BCE. The invention of coins is still shrouded in mystery: According to Herodotus (I, 94), coins were first minted by the Lydians, while Aristotle claims that...

The fasces were a bundle of rods and a single axe which were carried as a symbol of magisterial and priestly authority in ancient Rome. They featured prominently in important administrative ceremonies and public processions such as triumphs...