Unit 2 vocab honors world history

aqueduct

A pipeline or channel built to carry water to populated areas

Plebeian

In ancient Rome, one of the common farmers, artisans, and merchants who made up most of the population

Phalanx

A military formation of foot soldiers armed with spears and shields

Patrician

In ancient Rome, a member of the wealthy, privileged upper class.

Silk Road

A system of ancient caravan routes across Central Asia, along with traders carried silk and the other trade goods.

Diaspora

The dispersal of the Jews from their homeland in Palestine especially during the period of more than 1,800 years that followed the Roman’s destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in A.D 70

Mercenary

A soldier who is paid to fight in a foreign army

Aristocracy

A government in which power is in the hands of a hereditary ruling class or nobility

Civil Service

The administration of departments of a government- especially those in which employees are hired on the basis of their scores on examinations

Empire

A political unit in which a number of peoples or countries are controlled by a single ruler

Senate

In ancient Rome the legislative body originally made up only of aristocrats

Direct democracy

A government in which citizens rule directly rather than through representatives

Apostle

One pf the followers of Jesus who preached and spread his teachings

Hellenistic

Relating to the civilization, language art, science, and literature of the Greek world from the reign of Alexander The Great to the late second century B.C.

Bureaucracy

A group of government officials headed by an administrator.

Twelve Tables

Codification of Romans laws that became the basis for Roman Law. Established idea that all free citizens had a right to the protection of the law.

Autonomous

Having the right or power of self-government; The city-states of ancient Greece.

Legalism

A Chinese political philosophy based on the idea that a highly efficient and powerful government is the key to social order.

Oligarchy

A government in which power is in the hands of a few people- especially one on which rule is based on wealth.

Polis

Greek City-state the fundamental political unit of ancient Greece after about 750 B.C.

Philosopher

A thinker who uses logic and reason to investigate the nature of the universe, human society, and morality.

Republic

A form of government in which power is in the hands of representatives and leaders are elected by citizens who have the right to vote.

Dictator

In ancient Rome, a political leader given absolute power to make laws and command the army for limited time.

Caravan

A group of people, especially traders or pilgrims, traveling together across a desert in Asia or North Africa

Pax Romana

A period of peace and prosperity throughout the roman empire lasting from 27 B.C. to A.D. 180