The Greek-Roman author Polyaenus was a younger contemporary of Arrian of Nicomedia, and published a book on the Stratagems of war that was to be used by the Roman emperor Lucius Verus. In this book, he also dealt with the…
Between 570 and 544, Phalaris was tyrant of Acragas, a newly founded city in southern Sicily, which he made very powerful. Our sources portray him as a clever man, and although many stories are probably untrue, they are nice to…
Polybius of Megalopolis (c.200 - c.118) is one of the most important historians from Antiquity. In his World History (a modern title) he describes the rise of Rome, but it contains digressions on other subjects. In the following lines, he…
Q is the name used by scholars to describe a lost source on Jesus' teachings.It can be reconstructed from the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which are based on two earlier sources: the gospel of Mark and Q. Stated differently,…
Q is the name used by scholars to describe a lost source on Jesus' teachings. It can be reconstructed from the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which are based on two earlier sources: the gospel of Mark and Q. Stated…
Septuagint: Greek translation of the Jewish Bible, made in the third century BCE for the Jews living in the Diaspora. The name means "translation by seventy men".
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Sozomen was a Christian author, who lived in the first half of the fifth century and wrote an Ecclesiastical History. The following story (5.10) may be true, although the remarks about sacred prostitution are probably innuendo. The translator is unknown.
In India, Alexander the Great (or his representative Onesicritus) had an interview with the Brahman sages, who lived near Taxila. One of these people, a man named Calanus (Indian Kalyana), followed the conqueror to the west, where he died. The…