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Gonzaga Cameo
The Gonzaga Cameo (named after Renaissance dukes of Mantua) is a miniature masterpiece of Hellenistic art, attributed to Ptolemy II (r. 285-246 BCE) and Arsinoe II (r. circa 272 - c.268 BCE). Sardonyx, provenance unknown, ca. 3rd cent. BCE...
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Greek Mathematics
Greek mathematics, the study of numbers and their properties, patterns, structure, space, apparent change, and measurement, is said to have originated with Thales of Miletus (l. c. 585 BCE) but was clearly understood during the periods of...
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Alexander the Great & the Burning of Persepolis
In the year 330 BCE Alexander the Great (l. 356-323 BCE) conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire following his victory over the Persian Emperor Darius III (r. 336-330 BCE) at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE. After Darius III's defeat...
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Was Cleopatra Beautiful?
The idea that Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE), the famous last queen of ancient Egypt, owed her powerful position to her beauty persists. “The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have changed,” the French...
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Ancient Egyptian Government
The government of ancient Egypt was a theocratic monarchy as the king ruled by a mandate from the gods, initially was seen as an intermediary between human beings and the divine, and was supposed to represent the gods' will through the laws...
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Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and natural philosopher. He created a superior telescope with which he made new observations of the night sky, notably that the surface of the Moon has mountains...
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Fayum
The Faiyum (also given as Fayoum, Fayum, and Faiyum Oasis) was a region of ancient Egypt known for its fertility and the abundance of plant and animal life. Located 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of Memphis (modern Cairo), the Faiyum was...
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The Seven Wonders
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were seven impressive structures famously listed by ancient writers including Philo of Byzantium, Antipater of Sidon, Diodorus Siculus, Herodotus, Strabo, and Callimachus of Cyrene, among others. The...
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Ancient Greek Science
Ancient Greek science is a modern term for the application of systematic inquiry into the individual, the world, and the universe, which began in Ionia in the 6th century BCE with Thales of Miletus (l. c. 585 BCE) and continued through the...
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Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543 CE) was a Polish astronomer who famously proposed that the Earth and other planets revolved around the Sun in a heliocentric system and not, as then widely thought, in a geocentric system where the Earth is...