The Eastern Roman world around 1355/6 after the collapse of the Serbian empire. One can see how the Ottomans found this divided land ripe for conquest.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov - The Empty Tomb

Model of Imperial Rome, c. 3-4th century AD

Carnelian intaglio depicting Hercules, Roman, 1st century BC. Collection: The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.

A Greek Late Classical silver Janus-headed rhyton, early 4th century BC, made from silver with partial gilding, currently in the George Ortiz Collection, Geneva, Switzerland.

Ceramic rhyton representing a male head, attributed to the Bruschi Group, from the Late Classical or Early Hellenistic Period, late 4th century BC, Etruscan culture. Collection: MFA Boston.

Alabastron with salamander and hens, from Corinth, Greece, 610-600 BC. Credit: The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.

Early Christian silver ring with green glass intaglio. Period: Early Byzantine - Late Roman, 4th-5th century AD. Collection & Credit: Bertolami Fine Antiques.

Ancient Roman mosaic depicting a rabbit driving a chariot pulled by geese. Date: Roman Period. Currently housed in the Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities at the Louvre Museum, Paris.

Chalice of Emperor Romanos, Byzantine, 10th century.

Garnet intaglio with Hermaphroditos, Greek, 2nd century BC. from The Michael C. Carlos Museum.

Constantinople, 19th Century, Michael Zeno Diemer.

Bloodstone figurine of a Roman man, late 4th-early 5th century AD, the case is from the 17th century. from The Hunt Museum.

Fragment from an Apulian red-figure volute-krater, depicting a woman's head (gorgoneion?) in relief. Artist unknown; ca. 350-320 BCE. Now in the Museum der Universität Tübingen, Germany. Photo credit: ArchaiOptix/Wikimedia Commons.

Seal-ring with an image of a saint found n the ruins of a huge basilica dating back 1,500 years in Marea, northern Egypt. [Credit: D. Majchrzak]

Roman trireme on the mosaic in Tunisia. Photo by Maciej Szczepańczyk. Mathiasrex / Wikimedia Commons

Plate with Eros, Hellenistic, ca. 340–320 BC, Ascoli Satriano Painter (active ca. 340–320 BC), Terracotta; red figure ,Italy, Apulia (Place of Origin). Collection: The Walters Art Museum.

Venus of Vienna. Date: 175-100 B.C. Place of origin: Sainte-Colombe-lèz-Vienne. Medium: Marble Collection: Louvre.

Cristal de Saint-Denis, Court of Charles the Bald, Third quarter of the 9th century. Polished and engraved rock crystal, rear gilded silver frame.

Polychrome terracotta sculpture of the god Dionysos, holding an egg and a rooster. The unusual attributes may hint at a connection to Orphism, which held that the first deity, Phanes or Protogonos ("First-Born"), was hatched from a cosmic egg. Adherents of Orphism saw humankind