The pre-Socratics were the first philosophers in the West and possibly the world, living in the 500s - early 400s BC. They asked questions about the world and tried to answer them by applying human reason, knowledge, and science rather than mere myth. While some of their answers were wrong, the nature of their discourse... Continue Reading →
The classical Greeks are considered the founders of Western civilization, but what made them significant and set them apart from others? They were the first to think about thinking. They tried to understand the structure of the universe, and to master it using reason. They also posited absolute moral values for all people to follow.... Continue Reading →
Mycenaean Greece was the late Bronze Age period of Greek history from around 1750 to 1050 BC, when the first advanced civilization emerged in mainland Greece. It is named after the city of Mycenae. The Mycenaean Greeks made significant advances in engineering, architecture, and military infrastructure. They created the first Greek script, Linear B, and... Continue Reading →
The Aeneid is an epic poem by Virgil that tells an origin story of the Romans and was Rome’s national epic. One of the most famous episodes of the work is Aeneas’ tragic affair with Dido, which ends with Dido’s suicide. This essay will argue that Aeneas’ staunch inclination to following his pietas most strongly... Continue Reading →
The Glorious Revolution was one of the most significant events in English history. It was the last successful invasion of England and saw the replacement of the Stuart monarch James II with his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, who became King William III. This paper will argue that Jews played a crucial... Continue Reading →
St. Hortensius was born in Toulouse, southern Gaul, in 334 AD to a wealthy and prominent pagan family. Hortensius always had the light of intelligence, and read the poetry of Virgil, Ovid, and Cicero. Hortensius was full of energy and liked to wrestle. But he was also boisterous and arrogant: as soon as he reached... Continue Reading →
Late antique monks and nuns believed their true utopia would come later in heaven, while on Earth they had to strive for perfection through virtue. One of the things this involved was being free of material possessions that could distract them so they could imitate Christ. Monks were often wealthy people who sold their possessions... Continue Reading →
Queen Elizabeth I was one of England’s greatest monarchs, staying in power for 45 years, one of the longest reigns of any English monarch. But her rise to power was not easy, and she wasn’t even the first in line. Carole Levin’s Heart and Stomach of a King tells us the ways Elizabeth navigated the... Continue Reading →
Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarch were Florentine thinkers active in the 13th and 14th centuries. But their worldviews were very different, and two of their most famous texts reflect this. Dante’s On Monarchy uses Aristotelian scholasticism to argue that the Holy Roman Emperor has the right to rule over Europe. Meanwhile, Petrarch’s On His Own... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMIzcrVXY9c&t=938s Video Script Hello, my name is Diego De la Parra and this video is on “A Glimpse into the Life Cycle of Medieval Novgorod Through the Eyes of Birchbark”. In the 1950s archeologists discovered hundreds of birchbarks documents near Novgorod, Russia. They were letters, notes and receipts dating from the 11th to 15th centuries,... Continue Reading →
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