Platone | The Arts in education

The Republic (Greek: Πολιτεία, Politeia) is a Socratic dialogue, written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning the definition of justice (δικαιοσύνη), the order and character of the just city-state and the just man ecc..

It is Plato's best-known work, and one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically.

In the dialogue, Socrates discusses with various Athenians and foreigners the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man.

He considers the natures of existing regimes and then proposes a series of hypothetical cities in comparison, culminating in Kallipolis (Καλλίπολις), a utopian city-state ruled by a class of philosopher-kings.

Raffaello | Scuola di Atene - Platone / Raphael - The School of Athens (1509-1511)

Luigi Bazzani | Neo-Pompeian painter

Luigi Bazzani, also called Il Bazzanetto, was an Italian painter, illustrator and watercolorist.

He was born November 8, 1836, in Bologna, Italy.

Bazzani studied at Bologna's Accademia di Belle Arti then traveled to France, Germany and, eventually, Rome where he settled down in 1861 and began to specialize in genre and landscape subjects as well as set designs for theaters.

Many of his paintings featured the remains of the city's monuments from classical antiquity.

Babylon, the Gate of the Gods

Babylon was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about 85 kilometres (55 miles) south of modern day Baghdad.

Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-speaking region of Babylonia.

Its rulers established two important empires in antiquity, the 19th-16th century BC Old Babylonian Empire, and the 7th-6th century BC Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Babylon was also used as a regional capital of other empires, such as the Achaemenid Empire.

Babylon was one of the most important urban centres of the ancient Near East, until its decline during the Hellenistic period.

Nearby ancient sites are Kish, Borsippa, Dilbat and Kutha.

An artist's depiction of Ishtar Gate as it may have appeared around the time it was constructed in Babylon c. 575 BCE. From the game Old World

Socrate: "Wonder is the beginning of wisdom"

Socrates (Σωκράτης; c. 470 BC - 399 BC) was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy.

Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus.

The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand.

• "Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people".

• "Le menti forti discutono di idee, le menti medie discutono di eventi, le menti deboli discutono di persone".

• "I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think".

• "Non posso insegnare niente a nessuno. Posso solo fargli pensare".

Jacques-Louis David | The Death of Socrates, 1787 (detail) | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sphinx of Naxos

The Sphinx of Naxos, also Sphinx of the Naxians, now in the Archaeological Museum of Delphi, is a 2.22 meter tall marble statue of a sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a woman, the chest and wings composed of the impressive feathers of a prey bird turned upward, and the body of a lioness.

The Sphinx stood on a 10 meter column that culminated in one of the first Ionic capitals, and was erected next to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, the religious center of Ancient Greece, in 560 BCE.

The first fragments were excavated from the sanctuary of the Temple of Apollo in 1860. The remainder was found in 1893.

Pompeian red | Ancient colors

Pompeian red refers to the color of iron oxide-based mineral pigment with a hue close to red ochre, so named because of its common use in ancient Roman painting and the fact that it is abundant in the murals of Pompeii.

Studies have shown that walls with Pompeian red backgrounds were painted in various ways, of which the use of cinnabar was the most expensive.

This term also defines the ochre-red color of a plaster characteristic of Roman ceramics.

Pompeii roman freso

Egyptian blue | The first synthetic pigment in history

Egyptian blue, also known as calcium copper silicate (calcium copper tetrasilicate) or cuprorivaite, is a pigment that was used in ancient Egypt for thousands of years.

It is considered to be the first synthetic pigment.

It was known to the Romans by the name caeruleum.

After the Roman era, Egyptian blue fell from use and, thereafter, the manner of its creation was forgotten.

In modern times, scientists have been able to analyze its chemistry and reconstruct how to make it.

Tomb of Amunherkhepshef, son of Pharaoh Ramesses III

Petra | La Geologia della città rosa del Medio Oriente

Presso la cittadina araba di Ma’an, nel sud della Giordania, sorge Petra, nota anche come la Città delle Tombe o la Città Rosa, l’antica capitale del regno dei Nabatei, dichiarata dall’UNESCO Patrimonio Culturale dell’Umanità.

Petra fu l'imponente capitale del regno nabateo dal VI secolo a.C. circa.

Il regno fu assorbito dall'Impero romano nel 106 d.C. ed i Romani continuarono a espandere la città.