The Ancient World Portal | Britannica (2025)

ancient Middle East

Ancient Middle East, history of the region from prehistoric times to the rise of civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and other areas. The high antiquity of civilization in the Middle East is largely due...

history of Mesopotamia

History of Mesopotamia, history of the region in southwestern Asia where the world’s earliest civilization developed. The name comes from a Greek word meaning “between rivers,” referring to the land between...

Han dynasty

Han dynasty, the second great imperial dynasty of China (206 bce–220 ce), after the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 bce). It succeeded the Qin dynasty (221–207 bce). So thoroughly did the Han dynasty establish...

ancient Rome

Ancient Rome, the state centred on the city of Rome. This article discusses the period from the founding of the city and the regal period, which began in 753 bc, through the events leading to the founding...

cuneiform

Cuneiform, system of writing used in the ancient Middle East. The name, a coinage from Latin and Middle French roots meaning “wedge-shaped,” has been the modern designation from the early 18th century...

Seleucid empire

Seleucid empire, (312–64 bce), an ancient empire that at its greatest extent stretched from Thrace in Europe to the border of India. It was carved out of the remains of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian...

sphinx

Sphinx, mythological creature with a lion’s body and a human head, an important image in Egyptian and Greek art and legend. The word sphinx was derived by Greek grammarians from the verb sphingein (“to...

pre-Columbian civilizations

Pre-Columbian civilizations, the Indigenous American urban cultures that developed in Mesoamerica (part of Mexico and Central America) and the Andean region (western South America) prior to Spanish exploration...

ancient Greek civilization

Ancient Greek civilization, the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended about 1200 bce, to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 bce. It was a period of political, philosophical, artistic,...

Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War, (431–404 bce), war fought between the two leading city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta. Each stood at the head of alliances that, between them, included nearly every Greek...

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh, the best known of all ancient Mesopotamian heroes. Numerous tales in the Akkadian language have been told about Gilgamesh, and the whole collection has been described as an odyssey—the odyssey...

Zhou dynasty

Zhou dynasty, dynasty that ruled ancient China for some eight centuries, establishing the distinctive political and cultural characteristics that were to be identified with China for the next two millennia....

Babylon

Babylon, one of the most famous cities of antiquity. It was the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium bce and capital of the Neo-Babylonian...

Aegean civilizations

Aegean civilizations, the Stone and Bronze Age civilizations that arose and flourished in the area of the Aegean Sea in the periods, respectively, about 7000–3000 bc and about 3000–1000 bc. The area consists...

ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt, civilization in northeastern Africa that dates from the 4th millennium bce. Its many achievements, preserved in its art and monuments, hold a fascination that continues to grow as archaeological...

Cleopatra

Cleopatra was an Egyptian queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty, famous in history and drama as the lover of Julius Caesar and later as the wife of Mark Antony. She became queen on the death of her father, Ptolemy...

Chichén Itzá

Chichén Itzá, ruined ancient Maya city occupying an area of 4 square miles (10 square km) in south-central Yucatán state, Mexico. It is thought to have been a religious, military, political, and commercial...

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor (161–180), best known for his Meditations on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius has symbolized for many generations in the West the Golden Age of the Roman Empire. When...

Trojan War

Trojan War, legendary conflict between the early Greeks and the people of Troy in western Anatolia, dated by later Greek authors to the 12th or 13th century bce. The war stirred the imagination of the...

Roman Empire

Roman Empire, the ancient empire, centered on the city of Rome, that was established in 27 bce following the demise of the Roman Republic and continuing to the final eclipse of the empire of the West in...

Attila

Attila was the king of the Huns from 434 to 453 (ruling jointly with his elder brother Bleda until 445). He was one of the greatest rulers among those groups that the Romans referred to as barbarians....

Greco-Persian Wars

Greco-Persian Wars, (492–449 bce), series of wars fought by Greek states and Persia over a period of almost half a century. The fighting was most intense during two invasions that Persia launched against...