In a meadow by the Thames in 1215, armed barons surrounded a tyrant king with a list of demands written on parchment. What happened next—a royal seal pressed into wax—cracked the foundation of absolute power forever.
An emperor stands on a battlefield where 100,000 lie dead by his command. What Ashoka does next—carving his sorrow into stone pillars across India—will echo for 2,300 years. This is a story about the moment power sees its own horror.
A baked clay cylinder buried beneath Babylon for 2,500 years holds a secret: that a conqueror once chose mercy over vengeance. This is the story of the Cyrus Cylinder, and what happens when power chooses restraint.