|
|
 |
|
 |
|
History
Free Online Custom Essays, Research Papers, Admission Essays, Thesis, College Papers, English Papers, Analyzed Essays, Essay Papers, Non-Plagiarized Essays, Term Papers, Coursework Essays, Custom Papers
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|  Essay, Research Paper: Ancient Babylon |
|
| Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu, an ancient city in Mesopotamia, modern Al Hillah, Iraq). It was the capital of the Babylonian empire from ca. 600 BC. In the Hebrew Bible, the name appears as Babel, interpreted by popular etymology to mean "confusion". Akkadian bab-ilu, which means "Gate of God", translating Sumerian Kadingirra.
The earliest mention of Babylon is in a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (24th century BC short chr.), who made it the capital of his empire. Over the years its power and population waned. For centuries it was just another provincial town, until it became the capital of Hammurabi's empire (18th century BC).
|
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Essay, Research Paper: Caesar's Legions |
|
| Caesar's legionary was no longer a citizen-soldier, as in the Punic wars; he was a professional, or a mercenary. He served for a livelihood, not as a duty. The legion was no longer set up in three lines according to property rating; it was marshaled in two or three lines of cohorts, the cohort being a body of four to six hundred men, ranked according to military qualities, and ten cohorts went to the legion. The men retained substantially the old equipment; they occupied in line a space of but three feet front instead of five. The intervals between cohorts had sensibly decreased. The camp and camp-followers, musicians, standards and petty details of all kinds remained much as before. Light troops and cavalry were recruited from conquered tribes. Each legion had six tribunes who commanded it in turn under a legate. The general staff of the army had quartermasters, aides, engineers, lictors, scouts and a body-guard. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Essay, Research Paper: Caius Julius Caesar |
|
| Caius Julius Caesar was born in 100 B. C. (some authorities hold 102 B. C.), of an old patrician family which had come from Alba under the reign of Tullus Hostilius, and which had enjoyed many public trusts. His father had been praetor and had died when Caesar was about sixteen years old. His mother, Aurelia, was of good stock of plebeian origin, and was a woman of exceptionally fine character. Caesar was proud of his forbears. In pronouncing the funeral oration of his aunt Julia, who had married Marius, Suetonius tells us that he thus spoke of his descent: "My aunt Julia, on the maternal side, is of the issue of kings; on the paternal side, she descends from the immortal gods; for her mother was a Marcia, and the family Marcius Rex are the descendants of Ancus Marcius. The Julia family, to which I belong, descends from Venus herself. Thus our house unites to the sacred character of kings, who are the most powerful among men, the venerated holiness of the gods, who keep kings themselves in subjection." |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Essay, Research Paper: Egyptian Religion |
|
| Egyptian mythology (or Egyptian religion) is the name for the succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt until the coming of Christianity and Islam. The timespan involved is nearly three thousand years, and beliefs varied considerably over time. As the leaders of the different groups gained and lost power, so the dominent beliefs merged and mutated. First, Ra and Atum became Atum-Ra, with Ra the dominant of the two, and then Ra became absorbed in his turn by Horus into Ra-Herakty. Ptah, on the other hand, after having become Ptah-Seker, was absorbed into Osiris, becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. The goddesses fared no better, with Hathor initially absorbing the details of the other goddesses, but ultimately being absorbed into Isis. Meanwhile, the villains similarly amalgamated, with Set, who was initially a hero, absorbing all the aspects of the other evil gods, which he was doomed to do after having been chosen as the favoured god of the Hyksos.
At the end of this, all that remained, by the time of hellenic influence over Egypt, was the trinity of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and their enemy, Set, as exemplified by the Legend of Osiris and Isis. The trinity had absorbed so many of the prior cults, that each was worhipped at their own cult centre - Abydos for Osiris, Dendara for Isis, and Edfu for Horus. Even by this stage, the amalgamation was continuing, with Osiris all but an aspect of Horus (and vice-versa), heading rapidly towards monotheism. Nethertheless, monotheism had briefly existed before, as, in the 13th century, Akhenaten had attempted to introduce the monotheistic worship of Aten, the sun-disc itself, although it was subsequently rejected.
According to the Turin Royal Canon, ten gods ruled Egypt, each for long (but finite) periods, prior to the First Dynasty: Ptah, Ra, Su, Seb, Osiris, Set, Horus, Thoth, Ma'at, Horus. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Essay, Research Paper: Fertile Crescent |
|
| The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Middle East incorporating present-day Israel, West Bank, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, south-eastern Turkey and south-western Iran. The term "Fertile Crescent" was coined by University of Chicago archeologist James Henry Breasted.
The Fertile Crescent has an impressive record of past human activity. As well as possessing many sites with the skeletal and cultural remains of both pre-modern and early modern humans (e.g. at Kebara Cave in Israel), later Pleistocene hunter-gatherers and Epipalaeolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers (the Natufians), this area is most famous for its sites related to the origins of agriculture. The western zone around the Jordan and upper Euphrates rivers gave rise to the first known Neolithic farming settlements (referred to as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)), which date to around 9,000 BC (and includes sites such as Jericho). This region, alongside Mesopotamia (which lies to the east of the Fertile Crescent, between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates), also saw the emergence of early complex societies during the succeeding Bronze Age. There is also early evidence from this region for writing, and the formation of state-level societies. This has earned the region the nickname "The Cradle of Civilization."
Since the Bronze Age, the region's natural fertility has been greatly extended by irrigation works, upon which much of its agricultural production continues to depend. The last two millennia have seen repeated cycles of decline and recovery as past works have fallen into disrepair through the replacement of states, to be replaced under their successors. Another ongoing problem has been salination - the seepage of salt water into irrigated farmland.
As crucial as rivers were to the rise of civilization in the Fertile Crescent, they were not the only factor in the area's precocity. The Fertile Crescent had a climate which encouraged the evolution of many annual plants, which produce more edible seeds than perennials, and the region's dramatic variety of elevation gave rise to many species of edible plants for early experiments in cultivation. Most importantly, the Fertile Crescent possessed the wild progenitors of the eight Neolithic founder crops important in early agriculture (i.e. wild progenitors to emmer, einkorn, barley, flax, chick pea, pea, lentil, bitter vetch), and four of the five most important species of domesticated animals - cows, goats, sheep, and pigs - and the fifth species, the horse, lived nearby.
|
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Essay, Research Paper: Greco-Persian Wars |
|
| The Greco-Persian Wars or Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Greek world and the Persian Empire that started about 500 BC and lasted until 448 BC.
At the end of the 6th century BC, Darius the Great ruled over an immense realm, from Western China to Eastern Europe. In 513 BC Darius for the first time conquered Thrace and Macedonia. Macedonian king Alexander I became his vassal. But the conquest of Asia Minor (546 BC) left the Ionian Greeks under Persian rule, while the other Greeks were free, a state of affairs that was going to cause trouble sooner or later. Persian satraps (governors) of Asia Minor installed tyrants in most of Ionian cities and forced Greeks to pay taxes for the "King of Kings".
In 499 BC, instigated by Aristagoras in Miletus, the Ionian Revolt broke out; Ionian cities threw out the "tyrants" that the Persians had set over them, formed a league, and applied for help from the other Greeks. Athens sent twenty ships and Eretria five, and the fleet helped spread rebellion all along the coast. In 498 BC the Greeks captured and burnt Sardis, thereby requiring a Persian response in the form of an invasion. The Greek fleet was crushed at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC, and the Ionian cities sacked, although they were permitted to have democratic governments afterwards.
In 492 BC, an army commanded by Darius's son-in-law Mardonius overran Thrace and Macedonia, followed in 490 BC by the punitive expedition of Datis and Artaphernes. The islands of the Cyclades surrendered, Eretria was captured, and the expedition landed in Attica near Marathon. Phidippides got the message for help to Sparta in record time, but in the end the Athenians and Plataeans alone defeated the Persians in the battle of Marathon. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Essay, Research Paper: History of Babylonia |
|
| Babylonia was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. Its capital was Babylon. The earliest mention of Babylon can be found in a tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad, dating back to the 23rd century BC.
During the first centuries of the "Old Babylonian" period (that followed the Sumerian revival under Ur-III), kings and people in high position often had Amorite names, and supreme power rested at Isin.
A constant intercourse was maintained between Babylonia and the West - with Babylonian officials and troops passing to Syria and Canaan, while "Amorite" colonists were established in Babylonia for the purposes of trade. One of these Amorites, Abi-ramu or Abram by name, is the father of a witness to a deed dated in the reign of Hammurabi's grandfather.
The city of Babylon was given hegemony over Mesopotamia by their sixth ruler, Hammurabi (1780–1750 BC; dates highly uncertain). He was a very efficient ruler, giving the region stability after turbulent times, and transforming it into the central power of Mesopotamia.
|
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Essay, Research Paper: Joan of Arc |
|
| St. Joan of Arc (French Jeanne d'Arc) (1412 – 30 May 1431), is a national heroine of France and a Saint of the Catholic Church. This deeply religious young woman from a humble background believed she had visions from God telling her to recover her homeland. In early 1429 she convinced the uncrowned king Charles VII to give her a suit of armor and permission to relieve the siege at Orleans. At first treated as a figurehead by veteran commanders, she gained prominence by lifting the siege in only nine days.
After several other engagements and an important victory at Patay she led a bloodless expedition to Rheims for Charles VII's coronation. This settled the disputed royal succession and recovered important territory. The renewed French confidence outlasted her own brief career. Wounded during an unsuccessful attempt to recover Paris, she participated in minor actions until her capture outside Compiegne the following spring.
Her Burgundian captors delivered her to the English, who selected clergymen to convict her of heresy. John, Duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had been the heroine of her country at the age of seventeen. She died at just nineteen.
Some twenty-four years later Pope Callixtus III reopened the case at the request of Joan's surviving family members and the Inquisitor-General. Citing testimony in her favor and illegalities in the original trial, the new finding reversed the original conviction.1 Her piety to the end impressed this court. Support from the Catholic League in the 16th century and renewed interest in the 19th led to her canonization by Pope Benedict XV on May 16, 1920.
Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in the collective imagination of Western culture. From Napoleon to the present French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who created works about her include Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovski, Twain, Shaw, and Brecht. Depictions of her continue in songs, films and on television. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Essay, Research Paper: Sparta |
|
| Sparta was an ancient city in Greece, the capital of Laconia and the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. Tradition relates that Sparta was founded by Lacedaemon, son of Zeus and Taygete, who called the city after his wife, the daughter of Eurotas. But Amyclae and Therapne (Therapnae) seem to have been in early times of greater importance than Sparta, the former a Minoan foundation a few miles to the south of Sparta, the latter probably the Achaean capital of Laconia and the seat of Menelaus, Agamemnon's younger brother. Eighty years after the Trojan War, according to the traditional chronology, the Dorian migration took place. A band of Dorians united with a body of Aetolians to cross the Corinthian Gulf and invade the Peloponnese from the northwest.
Sparta was the main power in ancient Greece before the rise of Athens after the Persian Wars. Initially, Sparta and Athens were reluctant allies, but soon became rivals. The second and third conflicts between the two states, which resulted in the dismantling of the Athenian Empire, is generally known as the Peloponnesian War. Spartan attempts to take over the Athenian role of 'guardian of Hellenism' ended in failure, and the first ever defeat of a Spartan hoplite army at full strength at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. By the time of the rise of Alexander the Great, Sparta was a shadow of its former self, and was eventually forced into the Achaean League.
Spartans continued their way of life even after the Roman conquest of Greece. The city became something of a "tourist trap" for the Roman elite who came to observe the "unusual" Spartan people. Following the disaster that befell the Roman Imperial Army at the Battle of Adrianople, Spartan phalanges met and defeated a force of raiding Visigoths in battle. This is considered the last noteworthy deed of the Spartans. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Copyright © CustomTermPapers.org, 2004-2010. All rights reserved |
| Our keywords: custom essay, buy essay, custom essays, essay papers, custom term papers, paper writing services, custom book reports, research papers, research papers, essay writing help, buy term paper |
|
|
