by Helen Kain | Jul 19, 2026 | Act V - Civilization Compounds, Fascinating People, Victorians (1837–1901)
Why do some buildings move us while others leave us completely unmoved? It is a deceptively simple question, yet one that occupied John Ruskin for much of his life. He wrote about paintings, cathedrals and architecture, but he was never really writing about art...
by Helen Kain | Jul 18, 2026 | Act I - Inheritance, Fascinating People
The ancient Greeks loved a good origin story, and Herodotus gives Cyrus one of the best. According to the historian, Cyrus survived an order for his execution as an infant, was secretly raised by a shepherd, and first revealed his true nature while playing...
by Helen Kain | Jul 18, 2026 | Act I - Inheritance, Fascinating People
Some people change history by conquering kingdoms. Others change it by deciding what is worth preserving. Ptolemy I Soter managed to do both. Most people first meet him as one of Alexander the Great’s generals, standing somewhere in the background while...
by Helen Kain | Jul 18, 2026 | Act I - Inheritance, Fascinating People
Alexander the Great never seemed content to stand still. Before he reached the age of thirty, he had marched farther than any king before him, defeated the greatest empire of his day, founded cities across three continents, and begun imagining a world unlike anything...
by Helen Kain | Jul 17, 2026 | Act I - Inheritance, Fascinating People
Some rulers are remembered for the battles they fought. Others for the laws they wrote. Nebuchadnezzar II is remembered for something rather different. More than 2,500 years after his death, the very name Babylon still conjures images of towering walls, magnificent...
