The Stone Age : the beginning of mankind -- The first great civilizations -- Migration of peoples -- The early states of Mesopotamia -- Ancient Egypt -- The Hittites -- Kingdoms on the borders of the Fertile Crescent -- Syria and Palestine -- Judaism -- The Medes and the Persian Empire of the Achaemenids -- The nomads of the Eurasian steppes -- The religions of India, China, and Japan -- India from the beginnings to the invasion of Alexander the Great -- Early China up to the period of the "warring" states -- The ancient world - The culture of the Greeks and Romans -- Crete and Mycenae; the beginnings of the Greek culture -- Classical Greece from the culture of the polis to the end of independence. The rise and fall of a world power : from Macedonia to the Diadochoi -- Judea and Arabia before the Romans -- Carthage : world power and rival of Rome -- The Etruscans : the league to the Roman Empire -- Rome : from the beginnings to the end of the republic -- The rule of the generals and the imperial Rome -- From Constantine to the rise of Byzantium -- Christianity -- Armenia and Asia Minor from the Diadochoi to the Romans -- Persia under the Parthians and the Sassanians -- Celts, Slavs, and Germanic tribes -- The great migration of peoples -- The nomad empires of the Eurasian steppes -- Ancient India -- China's first emperors of the Qin and han dynasties -- The first kingdoms in North and Northeast Africa -- Glossary -- For more information -- For further reading -- Index.