260 AD. - After a long and luminous military career, which led him from a simple recruit to becoming governor of Germania Inferior, Marcus Cassianus Latinus Postumus finds himself at a crossroads. Fraternally bound to the legionnaires but bound to obey the orders of the august Gallienus and his despotic son Saloninus, he is forced to make a choice from which he has long fled: listen to his heart and dareleveraging the support of the troops, or continue to live as a servant.Hi...

In the darkness of a hut in a village in Thrace, a woman dies.She has just given birth to a fatherless child, who seems as destined as anyone in those distant lands, to suffer the usurpations of the barbarians who have long threaten the Eastern Roman Empire.But an old soldier snatches him from misery and takes him with him, raising him in the ranks of the army.That child destined for poverty will become a centurion, and then, accomplice a twist of fate, he will come to...

714 AD - Finally exiled in Bulgaria, Anastasia, former basilissa of the Romans, jealously guards an heirloom.An handwritten manuscript, penned by none other than her late son, basileus Justinian II, also known as the Rhinotmetus. In those posthumous pages is recounted the tumultuous existence of an emperor who rose to power when he was very young, and was able to hold it for most of his life.Between those lines is traced an honest and uncensored portrait of one of the crueles...

Ready to take a deeper dive into your discovery of Rome? Beyond the most famous sites, countless adventures await. History tells a unique story around every corner, and astounding countryside scenery is within easy reach. The first section of this book explores over 2,500 years of history, from Etruscan villages to ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the post-unification era. The second section guides you on artistic adventures, with chapters on the classics, modern art, an...

An indispensable survey of methods in ecocritical art histor****y.Ecocriticism is one of the most important and exciting developments in current art history. This is the first book to provide a survey of its methods, showing what they can offer art historians. It also indicates what the interdisciplinary project of ecocriticism stands to gain from art historians, their methods and practices.The book assembles twenty-three essays written by international sch...

590 AD - Pope Gregory I has only one goal in mind: the conversion of the last remaining pagan communities and going down in history as the Pontiff capable of unifying the empire under Christendom. With the military support of the augustus Maurice, a war campaign is therefore launched to subdue and evangelize the closest pagan kingdom to Italy, that Sardinian hinterland known as Barbaria. This, however, is ruled by the dux Hospiton, a warrior committed for decades to protecting his compatri...

494 AD. - Almost twenty years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula are now part of the vast kingdom of the Visigoths.Their ruler himself, Alaric II son of the famous Euricus, reigns with an iron fist over a population as submissive as it is heterogeneous, consisting indeed of barbarians butalso by Romans now devoid of pride and patriotism. But despite his reprisals and his continual oppressive taxation, one of the surviving Romans of Hisp...

In the 19th century, Catherine Beaumont, a young woman from a good family, finds herself caught between duty and desire. Her engagement to Henry Beaumont, a man of high social standing, is meant to elevate her status but also trap her in a life of apparent security and appearances. The wedding is approaching, and with it, the promise of a life governed by the rules and expectations of high society.The calm of her life is disrupted when Edward Blackwell, an old rival of Henry's, rea...

411 AD. - Attila only knows his own people, the Huns ruled by his uncle Rua.Along with his brother Bleda, he is raised in a violent world in which his people migrate from one areato another leading an existence of nomadism and hardship. But he does not yet know that Rua has relationswith the Western Roman Empire, the one really responsible for their predicament.At a time when barbarian peoples are revolting in mass against an authority now weakenedand una...

96 AD. - After a lifetime spent defending the borders of the Chinese empire, General Ban Chao finds himselfwearing entirely new shoes. At the behest of Emperor Han Hedi, he will be assigned to lead a diplomatic expeditionto the West in order to establish contacts with a vast and distant domain,the one they call Da Qin and which in truth is none other than the Roman Empire. First, however, he will have to penetrate intoChina, in search of a village apparently bor...

Clinical case studies have long been recognized as a useful adjunct to problem-based learning and continuing professional development. They emphasize the need for clinical reasoning, integrative thinking, problem-solving, communication, teamwork and self-directed learning - all desirable generic skills for health care professionals. This volume contains a selection of cases on assisted reproduction that will inform and challenge reproductive medicine practitioners at all stages in their ca...

Glimmering meditations on time, memory, imprisonment, human connection, life and death by the preeminent Italian language poet, Milo De AngelisAn arrow hits a grape and carries it through the air, a hand untangles a knot, a voice emerges from a stone to speak about life. In his poems, Milo De Angelis attends to the experience of confinement. Since 1996, he has taught poetry in a high-security prison on the outskirts of Milan. He sees poetry as a daily salvation; wh...