The Histories is commonly thought of as the classic chronicle of the great 5th century BCE wars between the underdog confederacy of Greek city-states and the mighty Persian Empire. To the modern reader of military history, this implies an o...

Isocrates, an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. In his time, he was probably the most influential rhetorician in Greece and made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works....

The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta...

Xenophon of Athens was an Athenian-born mercenary, philosopher and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected a commander of the Ten Thousand, a force of Greek mercenaries in the service of Cyrus the Younger. He wrote the Anabasis, which r...

"Oedipus the King" (or, "Oedipus Rex") is probably Sophocles' most famous work, first performed about 429 B. C. It should be required reading for every college Freshman. As had been prophesied, Oedipus unknowingly kills his father, Laius, a...

Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, especiall...

Diogenes, also known as Diogenes the Cynic, was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea coast of modern day Turkey, in 412 or 404 BC and died at Corinth in 32...

Petra, originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu, is a historical and archaeological city in southern Jordan. Petra lies on the slope of Jabal Al-Madbah in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of the Arabah valley tha...

History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, is an account of a war that happened centuries ago between Athenas and Sparta. Of course, you might think that the subject is trivial to you. After all, how important can a book like that be?...

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven (c. 347 BC). His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphys...

Demosthenes, Athenian politician, has always been regarded as the greatest orator of Antiquity, and it is not exaggerated to say that his death marked the end of Greek political speech. Many of his speeches have survived, because in the thi...

Philip II of Macedon was a Greek king of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was the father of Alexander the Great and Philip III. In 340 BC, Philip started the siege of Perinthus. Philip began another siege in 339 of...

The last Persian Great King of the Achaemenid dynasty - Darius III Codomannus - is remembered in history as the premier enemy who was beaten by Alexander. Darius had to abandon his commanding battlefield position twice, both at Issus and Ga...

Theophrastus, a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Ar...

Ptolemy I Soter I, was a Greek Macedonian general under Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt (323–283 BC) and founder of both the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Dynasty. In 305/4 BC he demanded the title of pharaoh. His mo...