Key Terms Ancient Mediterranean History

Key Terms for History 4a Midterm

Herodotus of Halicarnassus

wrote much about the Persian wars, known as the father of history, first writer we know of to declare explanation as the purpose of the work

Ionian revolt against the Achaemenid Empire

Ionia was subject to the Persian king, revolt was eventually crushed by Persians, people of Ionia sent out a call to the Greek world for help

Marathon

Persians attack the Athenians in Marathon, Athenians charge the Persians (first time people have done that), Athenians won despite their small numbers

Xerxes

king of Persia during this time (around marathon/persian Greco wars), plans to launch full scale invasion of Greece

Delian league into “empire”

Greeks decided to stick together after the Persian wars for protection (originally wanted the Spartans to lead but they didn’t want to so Athens offered to lead, over the years Athens manage to convert Delian league from protective alliance to empire)

arche

rule

First Punic War

(264-241 BCE), Carthage v. Rome, Rome wins (Incorporates some of Carthage’s islands)

Hannibal

Raised to seek vengeance against Rome

Second Punic War

(218-202 BCE), Rome wins (Due to manpower, Loses several big battles but is able to come back bc they can keep refilling the field, Incorporates big parts of Carthage’s  territory in the Iberian peninsula), Carthage is permanently weakened, From then on Rome is dominant power in the wes

Gloria

high praise, glory

Auctoritas

leadership, influence, authority

Dignitas

excellence, rank, status, standing, esteem, importance (Gaining status is a means to an end to reach these three points)

Demography

From demos, “people,” and graphe, “writing, description,” Can help us understand the quantity of populations, Can also tell us birth rates, death rates, qualities of the people

Dendrology

study of trees

Economy

Greek: oikos (household) + nemo (distribute/allocate: manage) = household management, A working definition: “the structure and process by which goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed,” Fundamental to and connects with and influences politics, society, culture, the environment, etc

MEANS of production

the tools, technologies, and resources necessary for the process of production (People who control the means never contribute their own labor, People who control means are the ruling class)

FORCES of production

the means of production AND the physical labor required to power them (Those who are laboring do not control the means of production, People who provide labor are working class)

MODE of production

the specific set of social relations within which the forces of production operate

Status GROUP

aggregate of persons with common status position

ACHIEVED status

social position held as a result of accomplishments in open competition

ASCRIBED status

social position held by birth or family background

Social STRATIFICATION

status level is fluid and nuanced

Manus

legal power, especially of husband over wife (Eventually manus was an optional power, Marriages without manus gave women independence)

Potestas

power, legal power, especially of father over members of household (Lost power over daughters once daughters married into another family)

Familia

Household, extended family, immediate family

Paterfamilias

Father at the center of the familia

Patria potestas

Wielded by the paterfamilias, Gave him complete authority over everyone in the household, Has legal power over the people in the family

Partible inheritance

inheritance distributed amongst all children

Assembly

system by which members of the Athenian demos voted on issues and passed laws (dealt with small city issues to warfare, anybody there could raise their hand and question)

Jury-courts

resolutions to issues, no judges, Athenian citizens heard, delivered, and rendered verdict on a case

Council of 500

a council & assembly in most Greek city-states, set agenda for the system, formed of citizens, membership was determined by lot, terms lasted one year

Ager Romanus

Roman land

Stipendium

introduces pay for the soldiers (Does this through the tributum)

Tributum

property tax (funds the military)

Civitas sine suffragio

Citizenship without the vote, Given to  the conquered people, Requirement to supply troops to roman army, Rome Not gonna meddle in internal affairs of other states, Conquered states don’t have to pay tax

Magistrates

Consuls (2 per year); imperium

Assemblies

Organizations of people that voted for things, Electing magistrates, Voted yes and no on legislature given to them, Only roman men

Senate

Senatus consultum (“decree of the senate”), No legal authority, Lifelong body of ex magistrates, Somehow in practice this was a dominating power (Depended not on formal powers, but on political experience and high social status of senators)

City-state

nucleated (as opposed to dispersed) settlement with an urban center and control of a rural hinterland, various governing institutions 

Multipolar world

highly competitive with lots of small units

Corvee labor

a system of unpaid labor, often required by the state, where individuals work on public projects or infrastructure in lieu of taxes

Torah

(“Law”) = Pentateuch = Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers (the five books of the Torah)

Coercion

application and threat of armed force, this by itself never enough to control territory for long

Consensus

some degree of belief and legitimacy needed for true stability, religion, architecture, visual culture

The State

A set of centralized institutions and associated personnel, backed up by armed force, that wields ultimate decision-making authority over a particular territory

Alluvial civilizations

societies that developed in fertile river valleys, relying on agriculture and irrigation for sustenance

ma’am

cosmic order, combination of truth, right behavior, and balance

Hatshepsut

rules on behalf of son Thutmose III when her husband Thutmose II dies, soon begins to rule in her own right and reigns effectively for 21 years, still called king and wore male ceremonial dress

kleos

fame and glory

panhellinism

pan (all) and hellas (Greek)

aretē

excellence, valor, prowess, virtue (hows transfer of early concept of kleo from war to athletic competition)

agōn

contest

polis

city, governing institutions, city-state

citizenship

Set of rights and obligations that defined one’s formal membership as part of the community

Tyranny

absolute rule exercised contrary to customary law and in the interests of the ruler himself, contrasted with kingship which is absolute rule exercised in accordance to customary law and in the interests of the community

Demography

From demos, “people,” and graphe, “writing, description,” statistical understanding of populations

city in antiquity

A point in the landscape where there is a concentration of non-primary producers

economy

oikos (household) + nemo (distribute/allocate: manage) = household management, “the structure and process by which goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed”

complex agrarian economy

Division of labor, Specialization in labor, Mediating institutions that govern life, Use of money, Existence of market, All sources of power available to perform labor were organic, Manufacturing things by hand was on a small scale, Transport of goods is slow and expensive, Agricultural production is the biggest part of the economy

Argos

field, tilled land, countryside

Oikos

household

Kleros

lot, assigned portion, share

Latifundium

large estate

Doulos

slave

Oiketes

From oikos (household), Domestic slave

Andropodon

being with two feet (slave)

doero/doera (unfree person)

Linear B tablets

Homeric poems

dmos/dmoe (unfree person)

Verna

a person born into slavery

Infant exposure

People would find abandoned babies and raise them as slaves and then sell them

Slave trade

Captured people and brought them to the market and sold them

piracy/kidnapping

Kidnapped people and sold them in markets

Self-slave into slavery

If things got so desperate that they couldn’t even get the basic necessities they would go into slavery

Slave Resistance

Low-level spontaneous actions aimed at ameliorating slave conditions (Ex: physical violence, running away)

slave rebellion/revolt

Large-scale actions going against the slave-owning class with goal of freeing some slaves, Often out of vengeance

Slave Revolution

Huge action seeking to overthrow the system of slavery, Not out of vengeance

Manumission

Technical term which refers to emancipating a person from slavery and transferring them from slave status to free status

Closed slave system

Slavery serves as a mechanism for the permanent exclusion of certain individuals from political, economic, and social experience

Open slave system

Integration of outsiders, defined by use of manumission

Peculium

allowance, Money paid to slaves by their masters to use as they wish

Obsequium

Owed obedience of a freed slave to former owner (Need to defer to them socially, Need to give x amount of days to them in labor)

Sanctuary of Zeus

constructed during renaissance of Greek world in 8th century BCE

Birth

ascribed status, one’s status derived from one’s parents

wealth

achieved status, one can rise to this status

Patricians

CLOSED circle of aristocratic family

Plebeians

• everybody else (ranges from poor, to less poor, all the way to wealthy families who just happened to not be Patricians) 

concilium plebis

“Council of the Plebs”

Practice of asceticism

(from Greek askhēsis, “training”): living a humble life in the pursuit of closeness with God, turning away from physical comforts (induced poverty, sexual abstinence, fasting)

Money

Money is a store of wealth, a measure, of value, a means of payment, or a medium of exchange

coin

a piece of money made of metal that conforms to a standard and bears a design, Represented a standardized object that measured value and mediate exchange in many different spheres

intrinsic value

value of coins held in its metal

fiduciary value

money holds not real value, worth determined by people’s belief

Distribution

the circulation and allocation of goods and services

Agora

market, marketplace

Agoranomoi

market overseers