The year of the four emperors: Did you mean...?

The emperors of ancient China had tremendous power and responsibility. Called the 'Son of Heaven', he (and once she) was given a divine right to rule over all people but was expected to promote their best interest and not his...

The Roman imperial cult was the practice of venerating Roman emperors and their families as having divine attributes, honoring their contributions to the spread of Roman religion and culture. It was instituted by the first...

Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine Saint-Just, Georges Couthon, and their allies take shelter at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris on the night of 9-10 Thermidor Year II (27-28...

The Morning of 10 Thermidor Year II depicts a wounded Maximilien Robespierre on the last morning of his life, jaw shattered, lying on the centered table. He and his allies would be executed later that day. Oil on canvas...

Uprising of 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795) against the policies of the Thermidorian Reaction during the later stages of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Here, the insurrectionists wave the severed head of Jean-Bertrand...

New Year's Image, Persepolis

Boissy d'Anglas saluting the head of deputy Féraud, 1st Prairal Year III (20 May 1795), during the Prairial Uprising. Although d'Anglas is depicted in this painting, the president...

General Napoleon Bonaparte's guns fire into a mob of royalist insurrectionists during the Revolt of 13 Vendémiaire Year IV (5 October 1795), the famous "whiff of grapeshot". Drawing by Felician...

Terracotta tablet listing the year formulae of King Shulgi of Ur. From Southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, Ur III period, 2094-2047 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.

Insurrection on 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795), engraving by Isidore Stanislas Helman and Jean Duplessis-Bertaux after Charles Monnet, 1796. National Library of France, Paris.