A History of Europe

The Aegean Bronze Age

Writing, cities, and kingship appear first in Mesopotamia and Egypt, centuries before Europe has anything comparable. This history begins where Europe enters the story.

1. ✦ Peoples and Tongues An interactive atlas of who lived where and what they spoke, from Sumer to the Goths and Franks, in fourteen maps. c. 3300 BC–AD 476Atlas
2. 01 Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece Palaces, Linear B, and the first civilizations on European soil. c. 2000–1400 BCShort chapter
3. 02 The Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean Mycenae, the Hittites, and Egypt in diplomacy and war; the memory later told as the Trojan War. c. 1400–1200 BCShort chapter
4. 03 The Bronze Age Collapse The Sea Peoples, palace destruction, and the end of the Mycenaean world. c. 1200 BCShort chapter

Archaic Greece and the Persian Confrontation

1. ✦ The Greek World Three scroll-driven maps: the colonies from Spain to the Caucasus, Persia and the Athenian empire, and the struggle of Sparta, Thebes and Macedon. 750–323 BCAtlas
2. 04 Greece and the Aegean after the Bronze Age Dark Age Greece, and Greek and Phoenician colonies competing across the Mediterranean — the Phoenicians' colony at Carthage sets up the Punic Wars. c. 1200–750 BCShort chapter
3. 05 The Archaic Greek City-States Polis, Sparta, Athens, tyranny, and the beginnings of citizenship. c. 800–500 BCShort chapter
4. 06 Persia's Empire and the Ionian Revolt Cyrus and Darius build the empire that presses on the Greek cities. 550–499 BCShort chapter
5. 07 The Persian Wars Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea — told after Herodotus. 499–479 BCShort chapter

Classical and Hellenistic Greece

1. 08 Athens and the Peloponnesian War Democracy, empire, drama, and the Peloponnesian War — told after Thucydides. 478–404 BCShort chapter
2. 09 The Fourth-Century Struggle Spartan hegemony, Thebes, and the rise of Macedon — told after Xenophon. 404–336 BCMap study
3. 10 Alexander Conquest from Greece to the Indus, cultural fusion, and a king's early death. 336–323 BCMap study

Hellenistic Kingdoms and the Roman Republic

1. ✦ The Hellenistic World Narrative companion to the Heirs genealogy: the Successor wars, the three kingdoms, kings and cities, Alexandria and the philosophers, and the coming of Rome. 323–146 BCShort chapter
2. 11 The Heirs of Alexander The Successor wars carve a new Hellenistic, Greek-speaking world — traced on a dynasty tree from Philip II to Cleopatra. 323–30 BCGenealogy & map
3. ✦ The Rise of Rome Two scroll-driven maps: the conquest of Italy people by people, then the wars with Carthage and the Hellenistic kings that made the first provinces. 509–146 BCAtlas
4. 12 The Early Roman Republic and the Twelve Tables The kings fall, the plebs secede, and Rome writes its first public law. 509–390 BCRead chapter
5. 13 Rome and the Conquest of Italy Citizen armies, the Samnite Wars, and the costly victory over Pyrrhus. ✦ Interactive campaign map: Pyrrhus: The Restless Warlord (280–275 BC) — interactive map & campaign study 390–275 BCRead chapter
6. 14 Rome and Carthage Three Punic Wars, Hannibal in Italy, and Mediterranean supremacy. ✦ Tier-2 episode: The First African Front: Agathocles of Syracuse (310–307 BC) — short narrative & map 264–146 BCRead chapter
7. 15 Rome and the Hellenistic Kingdoms Macedon and Greece fall into Rome's orbit; empire reshapes Roman society. 200–133 BCRead chapter
8. 16 The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla The Gracchi to Sulla — political violence enters the Roman constitution. ✦ Deep edition: Tiberius Gracchus: The First Blood (133 BC) 133–78 BCRead chapter
9. 17 Pompey, Caesar, and the Civil Wars Pompey, Crassus, Cicero, Caesar, Gaul, and the road to civil war. ✦ Tier-2 episode: The Republic in Exile: Quintus Sertorius in Spain (80–72 BC) — interactive map & campaign study ✦ Atlas study: Caesar in Gaul, people by people (58–50 BC) — fifty peoples season by season, and the siege of Alesia 78–44 BCRead chapter
10. ✦ Socii: The Allies Who Made Rome, and the War That Made Them Roman An argued essay on Rome's Italian allies: the settlement of 338 and the ladder of citizen, Latin and ally; why it held against Hannibal; the Senate sending twelve thousand Latins home, halving the allies' booty and flogging their magistrates; the Polla stone and the land commission; Fregellae destroyed for asking — then Corfinium renamed Italica, the Julian law, ten tribes that voted last, and a nation enrolled under the constitution of a city. 338–49 BCDeep theme · Essay

The Roman Empire

1. ✦ The Roman Army How Rome's army changed from citizen levy to permanent frontier profession and late imperial field force—recruitment, command, legions, cavalry, equipment, stations, families, service, and pay. c. 500 BC–AD 395Deep theme
2. ✦ Roman Law and Society The laws that governed elections, military recruitment, corruption, taxation, coinage, and the late Roman workers—including the navicularii—whose public service became hereditary. 509 BC–AD 438Deep theme
3. ✦ Virtus: What Made Rome Great, and What It Lost An argued essay in the manner of Cato, Cicero, Machiavelli and Nietzsche: the ladder of offices that tested every consul, the crowns for the first man over the wall, grain and the alimenta, roads and bridges — then the provincial army, the soldier-emperors, the debased coin, and the eastern cult whose values inverted Rome's. 509 BC–AD 337Deep theme · Essay
4. ✦ Publicani: The Men Who Bought the Revenues of Rome An argued essay on tax farming: the censor's auction and the companies that bid at it, the frauds of the Hannibalic War, Cato's censorship, the Senate closing the Macedonian mines rather than admit a contractor — then Gaius Gracchus selling Asia at Rome and handing the contractors the courts, Rutilius' exile, the debt of Asia, Cicero's dilemma, and the emperor's salaried procurator who finally replaced the publicanus. 215 BC–AD 58Deep theme · Essay
5. ✦ The Dynasties of the Caesars Four family trees from Julius Caesar to Elagabalus — Julio-Claudian, Flavian, adoptive Antonine, and Severan. 44 BC–AD 222Genealogy study
6. 18 Augustus and the Principate Triumvirs, Actium, and Augustus — monarchy that insists it restored a republic. 44 BC–AD 14Read chapter
7. 19 The Julio-Claudian Dynasty Tiberius through Nero, and a dynasty that runs out of Caesars — the palace court, the Praetorian Guard, provincial integration, and the secret of empire. ✦ Companion genealogy study: The Dynasties of the Caesars (44 BC–AD 222) — interactive imperial family trees AD 14–68Read chapter
8. 20 Judaea and the Roman World From Pompey's breach and Herodian partition to the Great Revolt, Masada, and Bar Kokhba — with the unabridged Latin texts of Cicero and Tacitus. 63 BC–AD 136Read chapter
9. 21 Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian Nerva through Hadrian — adoption, frontiers, and the walls that define them. ✦ Tier-2 episode: The Immortals of the Haemus: Thrace, Dacia, and the Messenger to Salmoxis (c. 513 BC–AD 106) — the religion of the people Trajan destroyed ✦ Nested deep theme: The Open Door: Germania, Its Households and Its Hospitality (55 BC–AD 98) — Caesar and Tacitus on the guest, the gift, the kindred and the assembly AD 96–138Read chapter
10. 22 The Antonine and Severan Dynasties Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and the northern wars, Commodus, the year of five emperors, Septimius Severus and the Severan women — prosperity meets plague and frontier strain. ✦ Nested deep theme: The Year in Common: How Rome Kept Its Time and Its Company (c. 150 BC–AD 301) — the calendar, the Saturnalia, the burial clubs, Diocles and the Circus, price lists, letters, and the funeral of an emperor AD 138–235Short chapter
11. 23 The Birth and Spread of Christianity Judaea under the prefects, Jesus and Paul, Nero’s fire, Pliny and Trajan, the martyrs, and the church that took shape by 200. c. 4 BC–AD 200Short chapter
12. ✦ The Crisis of the Third Century, 235–270 Narrative for the years before the Aurelian map: Maximinus, Decius and the Goths, Valerian captured, the Gallic empire and Palmyra, Gallienus and Claudius Gothicus. AD 235–270Short chapter
13. 24 The Crisis of the Third Century Rapid emperors, invasion, and fragmentation — then a hard recovery. AD 235–284Map study
14. 25 Diocletian and Constantine The tetrarchy and the reforms, the Great Persecution and the abdication, the Milvian Bridge, Nicaea and Constantinople — with the map of four rulers becoming one. AD 284–337Chapter & map study
15. ✦ From Constantine’s Sons to Adrianople The massacre of 337, Constantius II and Magnentius, Julian in Gaul and Persia, Valentinian and Valens, the Goths admitted, and Adrianople. AD 337–378Short chapter
16. ✦ The Last Century of the West Theodosius, Stilicho and Alaric, the sack of 410, the Goths in Aquitaine and the Vandals in Carthage, Attila, Ricimer, and Odoacer. AD 378–476Short chapter
17. 26 The Later Roman Empire in the West Migrations and federates — 410, 455, and 476 without treating any as one day. AD 337–476Map study

Byzantium, Persia, and the Rise of Islam

1. ✦ Peoples and Nations An interactive atlas of who lived where and what they spoke, from the last western emperor to the nation-states, in fourteen maps. AD 476–1870Atlas
2. 27 Byzantium and Justinian Law, reconquest, plague, and the empire that refuses to fall. AD 476–565Map study
3. 28 Sasanian Persia Rome and Byzantium's great eastern rival, to the final Roman–Persian war. AD 224–628In preparation
4. 29 Muhammad and the Early Caliphates Arabia, revelation in historical context, and conquest reaching Byzantine Syria, Visigothic Iberia, and Sicily. c. 570–750In preparation

Medieval Europe

1. 30 Carolingians and the Making of Latin Europe Charlemagne's empire and the slow shaping of a new West. c. 750–900Map study
2. 31 Vikings, Steppe Powers, and New Kingdoms Raiders and traders reshape Europe's edges and river routes. c. 800–1050In preparation
3. 32 The Crusading Age Latin, Byzantine, and Islamic perspectives on two centuries of holy war. 1095–1291In preparation
4. 33 The Mongols Reach Europe The invasions of Rus, Poland, and Hungary bring the steppe to Europe's door. 1223–1242Map study
5. 34 The Black Death in Europe The Black Death moves through Europe and the Mediterranean and remakes society. 1347–1353In preparation
6. 35 Ottomans and the End of Byzantium A new gunpowder power rises as Constantinople's long twilight ends. 1300–1453In preparation

Early Modern Europe and Its Empires

1. 36 Print, Renaissance, and Reformation Movable type accelerates a revival of learning and a split in Western Christianity. c. 1450–1555In preparation
2. 37 European Maritime Expansion Columbus across the Atlantic, Vasco da Gama round Africa to Calicut, and the circumnavigation of Magellan and Elcano — the three voyages that opened the ocean routes. 1492–1522Read chapter
3. 38 The Scientific Revolution Contested knowledge — Copernicus to Newton, and how certainty was remade. c. 1543–1687In preparation
4. 39 The Thirty Years' War The Defenestration of Prague, the armies of Wallenstein and Gustavus, and the birth of the Westphalian sovereign state. 1618–1648Read chapter
5. 40 Enlightenment and Atlantic Revolution New political ideas and the war in Britain's American colonies that tests them. c. 1720–1789In preparation

Industry, Nation, and Empire

1. 41 The French Revolution and Napoleon A monarchy falls, a republic radicalizes, and a general remakes Europe's map. 1789–1815Map study
2. 42 Steam, Coal, and the Industrial Transformation Factories, railways, and cities change how most Europeans live and work. c. 1760–1870In preparation
3. 43 Nationalism and the Remaking of Europe Unification in Italy and Germany, and a new grammar of statehood. 1848–1871In preparation
4. 44 Europe's Empires The partition of Africa and colonial rule in Asia, including Britain's Opium Wars — European decision and consequence. 1839–1914In preparation
5. 45 Mass Politics and Labour Unions, strikes, and the widening claim to a political voice among European workingmen. c. 1870–1914In preparation

The World Wars

1. 46 The First World War Origins, industrial fronts, and the collapse of four empires. 1914–1918In preparation
2. 47 The Russian Revolution and Interwar Europe Russia's revolution, new states, fascism, and depression in Europe. 1917–1939In preparation
3. 48 The Second World War Europe at total war, genocide, and the atomic bomb that ends it — where this history closes. 1939–1945Map study