Ancient history

• How Epaminondas, with a little ruse, definitively defeated the Spartans

  Nine years after the Battle of Leuctra, in which the Theban Epaminondas crushed the Spartans using a new strategy, the staggered formation, both armies met again. It was 362 BC. and the result was similar, although its consequences were much more serious. This time Epaminondas used a little trick to

• Thespis, the first actor in history and inventor of the Greek tragedy and theatrical tours

  In 1939, the National Theater of Greece, a project founded almost six decades earlier by King George I to provide the country with a permanent theater in Athens, diversified its offer by creating an itinerant company that would travel throughout the territory staging functions in each city. It was c

• The rocks of Mount Chimera have burned for millennia and gave rise to the mythological monster of the same name

  About 80 kilometers southwest of the Turkish province of Antalya, near the town of Çıralı, is the mountain today called Yanartaş, whose main attraction is the numerous flames that constantly burn between its rocks, due to gas emissions. These fires, which have been burning for millennia (documente

• Antiochus I Soter, the Seleucid monarch who was the last King of the Universe

  You may have never heard of Antiochus I Soter . After all, he has gone down in history somewhat in the shadow of his father, Seleucus, one of Alexander the Greats generals, commander of the hypaspists and the Companions, protagonist of the Diadochi wars and founder of the Seleucid Empire. Antiochus

• Sisamnes, the judge whom Cambyses had executed and flayed for prevarication

  The worst crime that a judge can commit in the exercise of his office is prevarication, that is, knowingly handing down an unjust sentence. And such a negative conception is not current but dates back to Antiquity, a period from which we preserve a famous example outlined by Herodotus:that of the Pe

• Quirites, the common denomination adopted by Romans and Sabines that marked the beginning of citizenship

  One of the defining elements of Romanity -probably the most important- was the civitas , that is, citizenship. This concept, longed for by all the inhabitants of all the towns of the empire, since it meant the acquisition of a series of rights such as the suffragii (vote), the honorum (access to p

• The trickster who invented a new god and founded the most famous oracle of the 2nd century AD.

  If someone thinks that the tricksters of esotericism are a product of our time, they are completely wrong. Quackery is as old as speech and history is full of impostors, storytellers and frauds:there have always been false and enlightened prophets who take advantage of their talk to do business. One

• Aquae Sextiae, the battle in which the German women protected the retreat of their husbands by insulting them for being cowards

  From the 3rd century BC, facing the Roman legions was synonymous with suicide and it is not just an expression. There were several cases in which those who did it and were defeated chose to get out of the way before the black future that awaited them; we all remember Numancia, obviously, or, in late

• Eudoxus of Cyzicus, the Greek navigator who attempted to circumnavigate Africa in the 2nd century BC.

  Although its great emergence took place in the 16th century, the desire to travel the known world and discover new lands was something that already existed in Antiquity and that is why we have news of daring navigators who traveled unknown seas and found places far removed from their ports of depart

• Axial Era, the period in which empirical thought would have been born in various parts of the world at the same time

  In chronology, the term was sure sounds familiar to everyone. . It is a time computation formula that meets various criteria and is applied in both history and geology, being able to constitute independent systems. Thus, we speak of the Primary Era (or Secondary , Tertiary and Quaternary ) when we s

• Draco, the Athenian legislator expelled from the city for the severity of his laws

  Surely everyone has heard the adjective draconian/na , generally applied to laws or conditions, which the RAE defines as “excessively severe”. But do we know where that word comes from? It does so from the name of a historical character, a legislator from Ancient Greece who compiled the existing leg

• The small North African elephants, now extinct, with which Hannibal crossed the Alps

  Animals have accompanied Man in war practically since the domestication of the dog, constituting the combat vehicles of the time, apart from chariots, horses, camels and elephants. The latter can be considered the tanks of other times and we usually see them represented in illustrations and movies,

• The laws of Caronda, the Greco-Sicilian legislator who wrote them in verse

  The legal language is harsh and cumbersome for most people, something that law students who have to learn the law would surely subscribe to. Would they have it easier if they were written in verse? This was believed by Carondas, an ancient legislator, who applied it to the corpus normative that he m

• How an argument over a board game led to the Seven States Rebellion, which led to Chinese unification

  Like almost all countries, especially those that cover immense areas, China underwent a process of unification that culminated during the reign of the Qin dynasty, in the period of the so-called Warring States, in the year 221 BC. However, not everything was done, far from it, which is why less than

• Cincinnatus, the dictator who voluntarily relinquished his power twice, after saving Rome

  If in Italy it is not uncommon to find streets and neighborhoods called Cincinato, more familiar is the name of a city in the US state of Ohio. Although similar, these names are due to different reasons, since the American city is named in memory of The Society of Cincinnati (a society of veterans o

• Gaius Apuleius Diocles, the invincible charioteer who is considered the highest paid athlete in history

  Almost certainly they will not know it, but Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and all the car champions, whether in Formula 1 or other specialties, had a historical predecessor who surpassed them all in triumphs and fame, and also with a lot of amplitude. We are referring to Gaius Ap

• The Aedui, the Celtic people who considered themselves the original brother of the Romans

  It is known as the Gallic War to the military conflict waged between the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar and the Gallic tribes between 58 and 51 BC. These were not a handful of barbarians, quite the contrary, they were civilized tribes with great influence from Rome, most of which had abandoned the mo

• Theagenes of Thasos, the athlete who became a god

  The Greek island of Thasos is located in the northern part of the Aegean Sea, near the Thracian coast, and its capital, also called Thasos, is located in the north of the island. It was founded around the year 680 B.C. by settlers who came from the island of Paros. There he lived during the 5th cen

• The strange case of Aesop, the famous ancient fabulist whose existence and ugliness are doubtful

  We have all read, heard or seen a work of art or animation based on one of Aesops fables. The grasshopper and the ant , The goose that lays the golden eggs , or The Hare and the Tortoise These are just some of the best known stories where animals are the protagonists attributed to the famous Greek f

• Evidence of heavy metal air pollution during Roman times found on Mont Blanc

  A study of the oldest radiocarbon-dated ice sheets on the Col du Dôme glacier, 4,300 meters above sea level in the Mont Blanc massif, provided researchers with a record of atmospheric conditions in Roman times. The analyzed ice comes from the Ice Memory project , promoted by French and Italian glac