The Journey of Theophanes
The Journey of Theophanes

Author: John Matthews

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 0300135246

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

At the outset of the twentieth century, malaria was Italy's major public health problem. It was the cause of low productivity, poverty, and economic backwardness, while it also stunted literacy, limited political participation and undermined the army. In this book Frank Snowden recounts how Italy became the world centre for the development of malariology as a medical discipline and launched the first national campaign to eradicate the disease. Snowden traces the early advances, the setbacks of world wars and Fascist dictatorship and the final victory against malaria after World War II. He shows how the medical and teaching professions helped educate people in their own self-defence and in the process expanded trade unionism, women's consciousness and civil liberties. He also discusses the antimalarial effort under Mussolini's regime and reveals the shocking details of the German army's intentional release of malaria among Italian civilians - the first and only known example of bioterror in twentieth-century Europe. Comprehensive and enlightening, this history offers important lessons for today's global malaria emergency.

From the Tetrarchs to the Theodosians
From the Tetrarchs to the Theodosians

Author: Scott McGill

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1139489690

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An integrated collection of essays examining the politics, social networks, law, historiography, and literature of the later Roman world. The volume treats three central themes: the first section looks at political and social developments across the period and argues that, in spite of the stress placed upon traditional social structures, many elements of Roman life remained only slightly changed. The second section focuses upon biographical texts and shows how late-antique authors adapted traditional modes of discourse to new conditions. The final section explores the first years of the reign of Theodosius I and shows how he built upon historical foundations while unfurling new methods for utilising, presenting, and commemorating imperial power. These papers analyse specific events and local developments to highlight examples of both change and continuity in the Roman world from 284–450.

The Terror of Constantinople (Death of Rome Saga Book Two)
The Terror of Constantinople (Death of Rome Saga Book Two)

Author: Richard Blake

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Published: 2010-01-21

Total Pages: 542

ISBN-13: 184894828X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

If you loved Gladiator and Spartacus, you'll love the second book in the DEATH OF ROME SAGA. 610 AD. Invaded by Persians and barbarians, the Byzantine Empire is tearing itself apart in civil war. Phocas, the maniacally bloodthirsty Emperor, holds Constantinople by a reign of terror. The uninvaded provinces are turning one at a time to the usurper, Heraclius. Just as the battle for the Empire approaches its climax, Aelric of England turns up in Constantinople. Blackmailed by the Papacy to leave off his career of lechery and market-rigging in Rome, he thinks his job is to gather texts for a semi-comprehensible dispute over the Nature of Christ. Only gradually does he realise he is a pawn in a much larger game.

Abraham
Abraham

Author: Bruce Feiler

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-10-13

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0061801836

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this timely, provocative, and uplifting journey, the bestselling author of Walking the Bible searches for the man at the heart of the world’s three monotheistic religions—and today’s deadliest conflicts. At a moment when the world is asking “can the religions get along?” one figure stands out as the shared ancestor of Jews, Muslims, and Christians. One man holds the key to our deepest fears—and our possible reconciliation. Abraham is that man. Bruce Feiler set out on a personal quest to better understand our common patriarch. Traveling in war zones, climbing through caves and ancient shrines, and sitting down with the world’s leading religious minds, Feiler uncovers fascinating, little known details of the man who defines faith for half the world. Both immediate and timeless, Abraham is a powerful, universal story, the first-ever interfaith portrait of the man God chose to be his partner. Thoughtful and inspiring, it offers a rare vision of hope that will redefine what we think about our neighbors, our future, and ourselves.

Two Romes
Two Romes

Author: Lucy Grig

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 019024108X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An integrated collection of essays by leading scholars, Two Romes explores the changing roles and perceptions of Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity. This important examination of the "two Romes" in comparative perspective illuminates our understanding not just of both cities but of the whole late Roman world.

Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur Liber quo Vita Basilii Imperatoris amplectitur
Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur Liber quo Vita Basilii Imperatoris amplectitur

Author: Ihor Ševcenko

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2011-12-23

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 3110227398

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The life of Emperor Basil I (867–886), the founder of the Macedonian Dynasty, is the only extant secular biography in Byzantine literature; in its importance and as an instance of the genre it is comparable to Einhard’s Vita Caroli Magni. Composed in the circle of scholars around Basil’s grandson Constantine VII Prophyrogennitos and at his instigation as early as 957 and 959, the Vita Basilii is one of the main sources for the cultural and political history of Byzantium and its neighbours in the 9th and 10th centuries. Previous editions (whether from the 17th or 19th centuries) were based on secondary manuscripts; they are not reliable, because of their arbitrary conjectures and a large number of unjustified additions from a parallel source. The present edition is based on Vaticanus gr. 167, the source of all extant manuscripts, and the insertions made by the earlier editors are removed. In producing the new text, the editor also had access to the draft edition he rediscovered which the famous Byzantinist Karl de Boor prepared around 1903.

The Fall of the Roman Empire
The Fall of the Roman Empire

Author: Peter Heather

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2007-06-11

Total Pages: 605

ISBN-13: 0195325419

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Shows how Europe's barbarians, strengthened by centuries of contact with Rome on many levels, turned into an enemy capable of overturning and dismantling the mighty Empire.

Debasement
Debasement

Author: Kevin Butcher

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 660

ISBN-13: 1789253993

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The debasement of coinage, particularly of silver, was a common feature of pre-modern monetary systems. Most coinages were issued by state authorities and the condition of a coinage is often seen (rightly or wrongly) as an indicator of the broader fiscal health of the state that produced it. While in some cases the motives behind the debasements or reductions in standards are clear, in many cases the intentions of the issuing authorities are uncertain. Various explanations have been advanced: fiscal motives (such as a desire to profit or a to cover a deficit caused by the failure to balance expenditure and revenues); monetary motives (such as changing demand for coined money or a desire to maintain monetary stability in the face of changing values of raw materials or labour costs); pressure from groups within society that would profit from debasement; misconduct at the mint; or the decline of existing monetary standards due to circulation and wear of the coinage in circulation. Certain explanations have tended to gain favour with monetary historians of specific periods, partly reflecting the compartmentalization of scholarship. Thus the study of Roman debasements emphasizes fiscal deficits, whereas medievalists are often more prepared to consider monetary factors as contributing to debasements. To some extent these different approaches are a reflection of discrepancies in the amount of documentary evidence available for the respective periods, but the divide also underlines fundamentally different approaches to the function of coinage: Romanists have preferred to see coins as a medium for state payments; whereas medievalists have often emphasized exchange as an important function of currency. The volume is inter-disciplinary in scope. Apart from bringing together monetary historians of different periods, it also contains contributions from archaeometallurgists who have experience with the chemical and physical composition of coins and technical aspects of production of base alloys