Books in Biography from Ancient Civilizations: Legends, Folklore, and Stories of Ancient Worlds series

Siddhartha Gautama lived 2,500 years ago, but the effects of his life are still shaping the world today. The son of a king, he left a world of wealth and privilege to seek a better lifeand he found it in the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. After he had found what he was seeking, he did not retire to a quiet place where he could spend all his time in meditation. Instead, he devoted himself to sharing what he had discovered with others.His followers grew over the years, and during the centuries that have followed his death, his teachings have spread around the globe. Today, Siddhartha Gautama is known by countless millions as the Buddha. His wisdom and compassion are legendary, and many have followed the path that he identified, hoping to reach enlightenment as he did.

Cleopatra was a diva in every sense of the word. She used her charm and cunning wit to mesmerize some of the most powerful men in the ancient world. From Julius Caesar to Marc Antony, men adored her and women wanted to be her. She was born into royalty, but she had to fight for her throne every single day that she lived. A teen queen at 18, she learned quickly that being a female pharaoh wasn't an easy task. In this book, you'll discover how beauty and brains made Cleopatra a woman to be reckoned with, as well as an important part of history.

Few people recall the name of Eirik Thorvaldsson, who began life in Jaederen, Norway, around 950. When he was nine years old, his father killed a man or maybe two and was forced to flee with his family to Iceland. Young Eirik grew up in the harsh environs of that wind-swept isle in the North Atlantic. Harsh lands breed harsh men, and Eirik fit the mold. Like his father before him, he battled with neighbors and killed several men in blood feuds. Banished from Iceland for three years, he sailed west to seek refuge in an unexplored land. After three years in exile, Eirik returned to Iceland with tales of his discoveries in that new land to the west. He called it Greenland to entice others to join him there. Around 985, he sailed west again from Iceland with twenty-five ships of colonists. History records him as the founder of the first European settlement in Greenland and the father of Leif Eriksson. People remember him best as Erik the Red.

Few people in history have incited such debate and further examination as the French prophet known as Nostradamus. What manner of man was he? Was he really able to part the mists of time and see into the future? Was it possible that he could predict events and identify people separated hundreds of years from his own time? Or are his predictions just vague and ambiguous enough that they can be made to fit almost any occasion? Perhaps one way to find answers to these questions is to examine the entire life of this remarkable man not just the small portion that his predictions constitute. Read about the influences of his youth, his training as a physician, and the reasons he began making his predictions. You may then have the power to better understand who and what he actually was and the times in which he lived.

Pythagoras was a man of his times and for all times. So important to mankind was his birth that the gods sent his birth announcement via the Pythian oracle. Tradition holds that he studied with the greatest minds the ancients had to offer. Pherecydes taught him that the soul is immortal. Thales and Anaximander taught him to trust only what he experienced. He studied with the first recorded scientist. Egyptian priests taught him radical ideas about the human soul. From the Babylonians magi, he learned higher mathematics and about the cosmos. He probably had the most well rounded higher education of any other living person of his time, but when most men were done with life, Pythagoras was just making his mark. Around the age of fifty, he founded a school of higher mathematics, philosophy, music, and religion. His lessons still impact our scientific and moral communities today.

Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, was one of the world’s greatest military leaders. He became the leader of the Franks (who lived in modern-day France) in 768. Under his command, Frankish armies conquered most of Western Europe in the following decades. In 800, he was crowned emperor by Pope Leo XII. His greatness rested on more than military prowess. He was always interested in education, both for himself and for his subjects. He assembled many of the most noted scholars in Europe at his capital in Aachen, Germany and began the Carolingian Renaissance. This was a period of heightened learning, innovations in architecture, and the preservation of many priceless books from earlier centuries.

The Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II is often referred to as Rameses the Great. His reign lasted for 67 years, the second longest in Egypt's 3,000-year history. He had dozens of wives and more than 100 children, outliving many of them. He was a military leader who expanded the borders of his country, bringing decades of peace and prosperity for his people. He ordered huge statues of himself to be erected all over Egypt.Many historians believe that he was the pharaoh of the Exodus, the epic journey that the Jewish people made out of Egypt under the inspired leadership of Moses.Even after death, he remained important. After his mummy was discovered late in the nineteenth century, it became one of Egypt's main tourist attractions. A military honor guard and important government officials witnessed the mummy when it was flown to Paris in 1976.

Constantine is considered one of the most influential leaders of the Roman Empire. He spent his childhood in humble surroundings raised by a single mother before reuniting with his father, Constantius, a powerful military leader who eventually co-governed the Empire. Known as a brave soldier, Constantine followed in his father’s military footsteps and earned a reputation as a natural leader. His victory at Milvian Bridge against Emperor Licinius in 312 a.d. changed the course of not just Roman history but of the world. Constantine united Rome under one rule, moved the capital of the Empire to Byzantium, and legalized Christianity, proclaiming it the official religion of Rome. His other legacies include introducing a new currency that would be used for several centuries and instituting a system of having workers pay rent to landowners in exchange for growing crops, which set the foundation for the serf system in medieval European society.

William, the son of a duke and a peasant, spent his childhood in hiding, raised among the Norman peasantry. Lords owing fealty to him would have murdered him if they had found him. He spent his early adult years fighting rebel lords for his birthright. As Duke of Normandy, he claimed the throne of England after the death of Edward the Confessor, King of England, who William said had promised to name him heir. When England refused him, he built a huge fleet, sailed across the channel, and killed Harold, the newly crowned English king, at the Battle of Hastings. One by one, English towns fell to William and his Norman army as they marched toward London. Cowering in fear, Londoners had no choice they opened the gates and made William the Conqueror their first Norman king.

Considered one of the greatest female rulers, Catherine the Great was a German princess who ruled Russia for 34 years. She introduced reforms in government that led to widespread education, advances in medical care, and improvements in the legal system. Catherine was a voracious reader, and she took many ideas from her reading. She was particularly influenced by writers of the Enlightenment that focused on natural law and science. As one of Russia’s longest rulers, she introduced arts and culture to Russia. Today’s Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is one the greatest art museums in the world. Catherine the Great’s influence led to the development of Russia as a world power in the 19th and 20th centuries.