Flo's History

  The Marathon is probably the most widespread sport event in the world. Most countries have at least one organized every year, like the New York Marathon or the Berlin Marathon, to name a few. A Marathon was first held during the re-inauguration of the Olympic games in 1896, and a Greek won. Marathons have a famous legend tied to them, and let's look at it further. The semi-mythical story states that during the first Greek-Persian war in 490 BC, the army of Athens crushed the Persians due to a Marathon. With the threats of the Persian fleet being very present, a soldier ran 42km or so back to Athene to tell the people not to surrender as their army was still standing. The runner eventually died of exhaustion on the spot of his arrival. Soon after, Hoplites, on the Athenian's side, arrived to threaten the Persians, who then retreated. Who was this runner? And is this story even real? First of all, the most well-known identity of the mysterious runner is Pheidippides, who was a ...

  During Rome's rise into power, it faced many threats from all around the Mediterranean world. None of them, however, came as close as the Great Hannibal. Where exactly does this man come from? In this post, I'll introduce you to the once-great city of Carthage, the birthplace of Hannibal The Phoenicians built Carthage 814 BC on the coastline of what is now Tunis. This location allowed for total control over ships coming from North Africa to Sicilia – making the city a major trading port. Its newfound power will, however, upset Rome. When the city-state conquered the Italian peninsula, the two forces confronted each other and came into armed conflict twice, known as the Punic Wars. Unfortunately for the trading city, Rome cannot be defeated. Despite Hannibal's legendary rampage across the Italian peninsula, annihilating two of Rome's largest armies, Carthage ultimately fell and was destroyed. The city will be re-established as a roman colony soon after, which later wil...

  This week's post will be a little bit special since we will explore a semi-fictive place, the House of Juliet. As many would know, Juliet is a protagonist in one of Shakespeare's most famous plays: Romeo and Juliet . If you haven't read the play, do that right after you read that post because you're missing out. Realistically, the House of Juliette isn't the house where Juliet Capulet lived. The main reason being that she, like the rest of the play's characters, never existed! Shakespeare never even set foot in Verona – where the story takes place. The city, however, is real and can be found in Italy between Milan and Venice. How on earth is this random house Verona called The House of Juliet? Well, it's not a random house at all. When Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet , he was inspired by an old Italian legend relating a love story between two opposing families. These families were real, and one of them owned the house in question; it was the house of De...