The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields opposed two worlds:that of Attila king of the Huns leading his formidable hordes through Western Europe and that of Gallo-Roman Gaul, former territory of the Roman Empire. This decisive fight did not take place near Châlons-en-Champagne as tradition reports, but
The Battle of Actium is a naval battle which took place off the promontory of Actium at the southern tip of the Gulf of Ambrace (northwestern Greece), on September 2, 31 BC. It opposed the Roman fleet of Octavian (future Augustus), commanded by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and the Egyptian-Roman fleet
In the context of the Second Punic War, the bloody Battle of Cannes ( August 2, 216 BC) opposed a Roman army to that of Hannibal, near ancient Cannae (Apulia). In the summer of 216 BC. J.-C., the troops of the Carthaginian general, after having crossed the Alps, establish their camp close to Cannes,
The Battle of Marathon pitted the Athenians against the Persians in 490 BC. To extend the hegemony of the Persian Empire to the Mediterranean, King Darius I launched an attack against mainland Greece in 490 BC. AD Led by Mithridates, the Athenian army manages to defeat the Persians on the very site
Epilogue to the Gallic Wars, the Battle of Alesia ends in August 52 BC with the victory of the Roman legions of Julius Caesar over a Gallic coalition commanded by Vercingetorix. Despite his previous success at Gergovie, the young Gallic leader was forced to take refuge in Alesia by a skillful Roman
The Battle of Poitiers (September 19, 1356) is a decisive English victory in the Hundred Years War, won by the Black Prince over the three times larger army of the King of France. The meeting took place in Maupertuis, southeast of Poitiers. Believing to learn from the rout of the French knights at C
The Great Sphinx of Tanis welcomes you at the entrance to the Egyptian Antiquities department created at the Musée du Louvre , in 1826 by Charles X. This imposing statue of pink granite, weighing twelve tons, measuring four meters eighty in length, one meter fifty in width and height of one meter ei
The Bonchamps Pardon is a tomb to the glory of the Vendée chef , which was paradoxically made in the 19th century by David dAngers (1788-1856), the descendant of one of his enemies. As a sign of reconciliation it was under the hammer blows of the son of a republican soldier that this block of marble
Found in the House of the Faun of Pompeii, where it decorated the floor of a small room, the mosaic of the Battle of Issus is now kept in the Naples Museum. A magnificent work, it has also become a classic in the teaching of art history for sixth graders, as part of the study of Alexander the Great
Carved in marble, the David is a statue of more than four meters, made by Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504. A work of the Renaissance, he is the incarnation of the ideal of the man of the time:a perfect aesthetic like the statues of Antiquity, but also a citizen-warrior who puts his strength in th
Discovered around 1901 in Mesopotamia by Jacques de Morgan, the Code of Hammurabi is the oldest legal corpus known in its entirety. This block of black diorite more than two meters high represents on its upper part, Shamash, the sun god, presenting to Hammurabi a ring symbolizing the legislative pow
The Venus de Milo is a marble statue from Paros which probably represents the goddess Aphrodite. A masterpiece of the Hellenistic period, it is one of the most famous Greek sculptures. After two millennia of oblivion, the broken marble was unearthed in 1820 in the ruins of ancient Milos, a Greek isl
The Tower of Babel, major work of the Flemish painter Lucas van Valckenborch , is the symbol of the pride of man who claims to be able to do without God. This theme, borrowed from utopia and vanity, literally fascinated many artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. Valckenborch painted at least half
The Enervés de Jumièges , this curious romantic painting is so realistic that it is easy to imagine hearing the lapping of the water around this raft carrying two young people in the wind, resting after a good evening! Well no, this scene is not so happy! Evariste-Vital Luminais (1822-1896), “firefi
Exhibited at the Louvre, the painting Massacres of the Triumvirate » refers to the triumvirate composed of Antony, Octave and Lepidus in the year 43 BC. J.-C., after their march on Rome. It is also a parallel with the massacre of Protestants during the religious wars of the 16th century:on April 6,
Hero of the Vendée revolt of 1793, nicknamed by some the saint of Poitou, Louis- Marie de Ségales, Marquis de Lescure was for his contemporaries a model of temperance, courage and piety. A charismatic figure who truly achieves heroic status after the death of the Marquis in 1794, carried off by a Re
Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) was the French portrait painter of the Court and of Kings in the Grand Siècle, described thus by Madame La Palatine “There is a painter here, Rigo, who stutters so horribly that it takes him a quarter of an hour for each word. He sings perfectly and while singing he does
Under the Restoration, from 1816, King Louis XVIII commissioned a dozen paintings representing the great leaders of the revolt Vendée who in 1793 took the lead of a makeshift army made up of peasants to defend the Faith and the king. It is indeed the image of an active resistance, with its martyrdom
Symbol of the first English industrial revolution , Coalbrookdale, by night (1801) was painted by the French painter Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg (1740-1812). The artists most famous and most reproduced painting, this oil on canvas is not very representative of his work. The theme of this painti
The medieval world is also – and above all – a universe made up of images that must catch the eye of passers-by. In these societies where religion constitutes the cement of mentalities, iconography is there so that everyone can see and understand the world. Thus, each element, each physical trait, h
They had to fight for their rights, take care of the home, and ... priests had the most say about their bodies. Sounds familiar? The everyday life of medieval women in some respects differed little from the reality known to modern women. Two respected historians take us on a fascinating journey
In the years 1943–1945 in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, Ukrainian nationalists murdered 100,000 Poles. Where was the Home Army then? Where was the Polish Underground State? Why was nothing done to save the Polish civilian population? Why did the Volhynians die alone? Piotr Zychowicz in the book
Retell classic fiction in modern contexts Retoldings of stories in the public domain such as fairy tales such as Cinderella, classical literature such as Sherlock Holmes and plays such as Romeo and Juliet are a popular storytelling practice due to the excitement of creativity and innovation to de
500 years ago a Polish princess married a Bavarian prince. Their fairy-tale wedding is celebrated to this day, although the bride and groom were not destined to live happily ever after. Every four years, Bavarias Landshut hosts one of the largest medieval festivals on the continent. Thousands of p