Neil Middleton

For centuries, the Messenians were suppressed by the Spartans as a slave underclass until they threw off their shackles and created their own free Greek city-state.

In the 2nd century CE, the Greek writer Pausanias traveled around Greece writing a guide to its cities and monuments, creating a snapshot of ancient Greece.

In 197 BCE, at Cynoscephalae, the Macedonian phalanx and the Roman legion clashed in a battle that marked a turning point in the ancient world’s history.

Though considered one of the founders of democracy, little is known about the Athenian politician Cleisthenes. His story is integral to the origins of democracy.

Olympias played a significant role in the years of conflict following the death of her son, Alexander the Great. History would not remember her kindly.

The short and decisive battle of Magnesia in 190 BCE opened up Asia for the Romans and signaled the decline of the Seleucid Empire.

In 404 BCE, Athens’ famous democracy had fallen under the control of the Thirty Tyrants, but a group of democratic exiles would fight this oligarchy.

Pergamon rose on the edges of the great powers of the Hellenistic world to become a leading political and cultural force.