During the first years of the Republic the legions of Rome were grouped under five banners:the eagle, the wolf, the bull, the horse and the boar. In 107 B.C., after the reforms undertaken by General Gaius Marius, the rest were abolished and only the eagle (Aquila remained). ) as a symbol of the enti
The Guelph terms and gibellines come from the Italian terms guelfi and ghibellini , with which the two factions were called that since the 12th century supported the House of Bavaria (the Welfen, and hence the word Guelph in the Holy Roman Empire, respectively. listen)) and to the house of the Hoh
In 1212, just eight years after the knights of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople, a group of thirty thousand children crossed half of Europe on their way to Jerusalem. His mission, entrusted by Jesus Christ through an apparition, was to reconquer the Holy City, under Muslim control. The episo
On many occasions history gives us a reality check when we believe that todays society is responsible for the recognition of some rights or pioneer of certain social achievements, when the reality is that rights already acquired in the past are recovered and that the passage of time has made them fa
Much has been written in recent years about Viking culture. Movies and television series have managed to arouse admiration for this fascinating culture that emerged overnight as a true Ragnaröki against European cultures, to, in the same sudden way, plunge into integration and oblivion. It did not d
If today, being informed to the second and even directly contemplating the events that occur, there are several versions of the same reality, what to say about what happened centuries ago. It is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff (the reality of the myth or legend) when the sources are s
Seeing that the shepherds of the Church had lost their way and, logically, their flocks had strayed from the path of the Lord, a philosophical-religious current spread throughout Lombardy, some areas of the Pyrenees and, above all, in the Languedoc, described by the Church as heretical, who advocate
Practically at the same time that Marco Polo arrived in China, a Chinese monk of Mongolian origin, Rabban Bar Sauma , he undertook a journey that would end up taking him through Byzantium and medieval Europe and meet emperors, popes and kings. From Mongol-dominated Beijing to Capetian France, Bar Sa
In the mid-13th century, the powerful Mongol Empire founded by Genghis Khan it was beginning to crack. After the death of Möngke Khan in 1259 a civil war began for the succession and, although officially the title would be inherited by Kublai Khan (the Great Khan), the empire would end up fragmented
After the conquest of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, a Christian kingdom was established in the Mediterranean Levant, within Muslim territory, which would survive for two centuries, until the fall of Saint John of Acre. After Godfrey of Bouillón take the title of Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri , Pr
The friends of the alien have existed in all times and places and, if we take a look at the newspapers, we see that they are not exactly in danger of extinction. But there have always been classes and, among so many small-time swindlers and swindlers, there are also bandits who have ended up becomin
The Japanese have a bad reputation for being copycats. Always appropriating other peoples ideas or inventions and then modifying and improving them on your own. But that sambenito is quite unfair. For example, if we say that in Japan they have an indigenous version of the Camino de Santiago, there w
There is a popular saying that «Clergymen know more about women than married men; if it were not so, they would also get married «. Leaving aside this saying, somewhat derogatory for women who pass by the altar, court or town hall, lets see how the issue of celibacy has been treated in the Catholic
Surely you have or have had a piggy bank in the shape of a pig in which you kept your savings, money you received from your parents or grandparents. Like so many things, everything has its explanation, and piggy banks do too. During the Middle Ages, in the Christian world, a family that had a pig i
If something happened regularly in Castile during the Middle Ages, it is that the kings are surrounded by nobles who seek to usurp their power and feel like kings without sitting on the throne. In this case we focus on the 13th century, and more specifically on the first years of the reign of Sancho
When John XII was elected Pope in the year 955, it must have been one of those days in which the Almighty was looking the other way or confused with other tasks, because, otherwise, it is not understood. Perhaps the fact of being elected at the young age of 18 had something to do with it -too many c
During the 8th century, Europeans saw how narrow and long ships arrived at their shores, from those ships disembarked blond, tattooed, armed men…. and with hornless helmets. Who were these men and where did they come from? They were the Vikings , farmers and merchants from the Scandinavian territori
Although there were European incursions into the Canary Islands since the 13th century, it was not until the beginning of the 15th century that colonization or conquest began... with the corresponding evangelization of the aborigines and their sale as slaves. But here the evangelizing and economic i
Mans relationship with the mountain dates back to ancient times, more because of the fears and respect that the inaccessible heights instilled in the simple eyes of his human neighbors than because of his interest in measuring himself against them in an attempt to climb. There are many historical, l
Gonorrhea (from Latin gonorrhoea , and this from Greek γονόρροια , seminal flow) is a sexually transmitted disease that has accompanied humanity since ancient times. Hippocrates , Galen and even in the Ebers papyrus , a medical treatise dated around 1500 BC in which hundreds of diseases are describe
Under the Robes Muff of a Thousand Years! shouted the students on the streets of Germany in 1968. Their protests were directed against the outdated higher education system, the grand coalition, the Vietnam War and demanded an honest coming to terms with the Nazi past. The triggers of the protest A
The XVIII Infantry Division (MP) held the extreme left of the Metaxa Line in April 1941. The division with only five battalions held a line 40 km long with only one company in reserve. The forts of Istibey, Kelkagia, Arpalouki and Paliouriones also belonged to the divisions sector. The division had
Revealing the deep ideological and political divisions in France before 1914, the Dreyfus Affair is at the origin of a serious political crisis which, from 1896 to 1899, caused a deep division of public opinion. It all started on October 15, 1894, when artillery captain Alfred Dreyfus, of Alsatian a
Nineteenth installment of “Archienemies of Rome “. Collaboration of Gabriel Castelló. Our archenemy of today is one of the least known barbarians, but not for that reason worth remembering his deeds, which were many and against a Roman Empire in its moment of maximum splendor. Diurpaneo he was a