He inherited the kingdom of Macedonia (in modern-day Greece) at the age of 20. By the time of his death, just 13 years later, he had created an empire that covered two million square miles – stretching across three continents, from the Danube and the Nile to the Himalayas –…
According to the 12th-century cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth, the famous stones that make up the Stonehenge monument were erected originally in Ireland, before being moved to their current, more familiar home on Salisbury Plain. Geoffrey’s claim may seem fanciful, but almost a thousand years later, we can see that he…
The historic boundary-marker known as the London Stone, indicating the downstream limits of the City's jurisdiction, is located at which point on the Thames Estuary?…
Throughout history, writers and artists have used their imaginations to tell stories from former times. From The Iliad to A Tale of Two Cities, and from The Last Supper to the Sistine ceiling, the results have inspired countless millions down the centuries, opening a window that can never be shut.…
On which Scottish island would you find the Neolithic henge and stone circle known as the Ring of Brodgar?…
History, as we know, has been driven by the complicated love affair between humans and booze. Writing in the fourth-century BC, the Greek philosopher Plato summed it up for many, when he observed: ‘He was a wise man who invented beer.’ Nearly 3,000 years on, scientists now believe this ancient…
Which Old Testament figure is famed for his drunkenness?…
These days, the term ‘philhellenism’ (literally, the love of all things Greek) is perhaps most often associated with the Romantic poets and thinkers of the late 18th and 19th centuries – a period during which a ‘new cult of the antique’, as one scholar described it, won many disciples among…
At which battle in 490 BC did an Athenian army repulse the first Persian invasion of Greece?…
The Roman Empire was at its height when Hadrian came to power in AD 117, its territory encircling the Mediterranean, and reaching from Britain in the north as far as Egypt in the south.…
Hadrian was born in AD 76. In which year did he become emperor?…
When is the Iron Age usually said to have begun in Britain...?…
'Through a series of spectacular experiments, the archaeologist Peter Reynolds... told us more about Iron Age buildings and agriculture than most of the excavations of that period put together,' said The Guardian in its 2001 obituary of the first director of Butser Ancient Farm, the pioneering archaeological open-air museum nestling in…
Located in 1985, the wreck of the Titanic lies how far below the surface of the Atlantic?…
On 11 October 1982, an estimated global audience of 60 million people tuned in to watch one of the televisual events of the decade: the long-awaited raising of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's ill-fated Tudor flagship, from the seabed near Portsmouth, where it had rested since capsizing while fighting against…
Which Greek goddess was the personification of the Earth?…
Few figures in our culture have been so vilified as Lilith, the first wife of Adam – who, according to Jewish tradition, insolently refused to submit to her husband's desires, preferring to leave the perfection of the Garden of Eden, and become the consort of Satan instead.…
Throughout history, gold has captured the imagination – as a glittering symbol of money, sex, power, divine love, or whatever else our hearts desire. From the Greek myth of the Golden Fleece to Titian's Danae, and from the golden objects found in Ancient Egyptian tombs to the quest at the…
What is the writing material known as 'vellum' made from?…
What name is given to the chalk ridge that once provided a land connection between England and France?…
While the subject of immigration remains perennially high up the modern political agenda, there is a tendency still in Britain to view the movement of people to these shores as a relatively recent phenomenon – as if it only began in the post-war period, with the arrival of the 'Windrush…