The Fires of Faith

The fires of faith, the bright lights of destruction, the explosion of fanaticism, the everlasting wars and feuds that filled this era – was there even one year when their reigned a peace comparable to the pax romana that Augustus had envisaged or the pax mongolica that the great Mongolian khans created at the height of their power? All the undoubted devastation should not make us forget that the fires of faith brought life as well as destruction.

– Frederich Heer, editor
(from the introduction)

312: In This Sign Thou Shalt Conquer – Robert Browning

Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge ensures the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire

Continue reading →

Ancient Empires

The great German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) defined the historian’s task as being that of describing the past “as it really happened” (wie es eigentlich gewesen). His definition will doubtless always stand as the ideal of scientifically objective history, and as a warning against the writing of history as propaganda or apologia for some nationalist, political, or religious end. But it has come to be realized that this represents an ideal that can never be wholly achieved…. History inevitably implies selection and interpretation of the facts considered to be relevant. Both activities ultimately depend on human minds, which are conditioned by many factors such as education, religion, and nationality, quite apart from personal interests and consciously conceived aims.

– S.G.F. Brandon, editor
(from the Introduction)

3000 BC: The Gift of the Nile – Leonard Cottrell

The lands of the Delta and the lands of the cataracts are united to form the first political state Continue reading →