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Venice, City in the Sea 1350 – 1590
The houses of Venice are “like sea-birds half on sea and half on land,” said Cassiodorus. An officer of a
Rome, the City of the Pope 1492-1564
In 1492, young Giovanni de’ Medici bade farewell to his father, Lorenzo the Magnificent and left Florence to take his
Gentlemen, Scholars and Princes 1400 – 1507
One day in the fifteenth century, the Turkish potentate of Babylonia decided to send gifts to the greatest ruler in
Early Civilizations to Modern Age
Cracks in the Wall of Islam A.D. 656-750
THE FIRST three caliphs — Abu Bakr, Omar and Othman — had all known — Mohammed well. In 656, Othman,
The Abbasids: Glory and Decay 750 -1258 A. D.
UNDER THE Omayyads, who ruled from 661 to 750, Islam had grown into a mighty empire. Arabic had become its
Rival Caliphs and Amirs in the West A.D. 750-1492
IN 750, when the first Abbasid caliph ordered a wholesale massacre of the family that had ruled before him, hardly
Distant Past and New Challenges
Milestones of History
The Roman Republic is Reborn with Imperial Splendour (73 – 31 B.C.)
The happy judgment of the historian Polybius on the strength of the Roman constitution, because of its mixture of popular,
The Emperor Augustus (B.C. 31)
The assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. initiated thirteen years of bloodshed, during which the people who had plotted
Octavian and the New Roman Empire (B.C. 31 – 9 A.D.)
Octavian delivers the state from that was plunged into depression. A few weeks after January 1 in the year 29 B.C. the
