HIST 105: Western Civilization Exam #2 Master Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman history from the Persian Wars through the Early Roman Empire, prepared for Exam #2.

First Persian Invasion

A military campaign launched in 490 BCE by King Darius I of Persia to punish Athens for aiding the Ionian revolt, culminating in a decisive Athenian hoplite victory at the Battle of Marathon.

Battle of Marathon

A 490 BCE battle where Athenian hoplites routed King Darius I's invading Persian forces without Spartan assistance, proving that Persia could be defeated on land.

Themistocles

An Athenian statesman and general who persuaded the city to invest silver revenues from the Laurion mines into building 200 triremes, leading the Greek navy to victory at Salamis (480 BCE).

Peloponnesian War

A protracted conflict (431–404 BCE) between the Athenian Delian League and the Spartan Peloponnesian League that ended in Sparta's victory and left all Greek city-states severely weakened.

Thucydides

An Athenian historian and former naval commander known as the father of scientific history and political realism; authored the History of the Peloponnesian War based on human causation, politics, and evidence rather than divine intervention.

Philip II of Macedonia

King of Macedonia (r. 359–336 BCE) who revolutionized the military with professional standing soldiers and 18-foot sarissa pikes, conquered Greece at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE), and formed the Corinthian League.

Sarissa

An 18-foot (ranging from 14 to 20 feet) pike introduced by Philip II of Macedonia to equip his reformed phalanx.

Battle of Chaeronea

A decisive 338 BCE battle where Philip II of Macedonia defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes, ending the independence of Greek poleis and establishing Macedonian hegemony.

Corinthian League

An alliance of Greek city-states formed in 338 BCE by Philip II of Macedonia following the Battle of Chaeronea, uniting mainland Greece (except Sparta) under Macedonian leadership.

Alexander the Great

Macedonian king who succeeded Philip II at age 20 in 336 BCE, conquered the Persian Empire across battles at Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela, pushed eastward to India, and initiated the Hellenistic Era before dying in Babylon in 323 BCE.

Diadochi

The rival generals of Alexander the Great who fought over and partitioned his vast empire into four successor monarchies after his death in 323 BCE.

Four Hellenistic Kingdoms

The major states carved out of Alexander the Great's empire: the Antigonid Dynasty (Macedonia and Greece), Seleucid Kingdom (Syria, Mesopotamia, and the Near East), Pergamene Kingdom (Asia Minor), and Ptolemaic Dynasty (Egypt).

Ptolemaic Dynasty

The longest-lasting Hellenistic monarchy, ruling Egypt from the partition of Alexander's empire until its fall to Rome in 30 BCE with the death of Cleopatra VII.

Epicureanism

A Hellenistic philosophical system founded by Epicurus teaching that the ultimate goal of life is tranquility and happiness achieved through the pursuit of pleasure and freedom from fear, pain, and emotional turmoil.

Stoicism

A Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno asserting that genuine happiness and peace of mind derive from virtue, duty, and living in accordance with the rational order of natural law.

Aristarchus

A Hellenistic astronomer and mathematician based in Alexandria, Egypt, who proposed the heliocentric theory of the universe.

Etruscans

An advanced urban civilization located north of Rome in Etruria that ruled early Rome and contributed structural arches, the Forum, Circus Maximus, the toga, the alphabet, and religious augury.

Aeneas

A mythical Trojan prince and son of Venus who escaped the sack of Troy, migrated to Italy, and was celebrated in Virgil's Aeneid as giving Rome a divine foundation and prestigious ancestry.

Romulus & Remus

Mythical twin sons of Mars suckled by a she-wolf; according to tradition, Romulus killed Remus and founded the city of Rome on the Palatine Hill in 753 BCE.

The Consuls

The two chief executive magistrates of the Roman Republic, elected annually from the aristocracy to hold imperium (supreme military command) and mutual veto power to prevent tyranny.

Imperium

The supreme executive and military command power held by high magistrates in the Roman Republic, including the authority to lead armies.

Struggle of the Orders

A two-century social and political conflict (c. 500–287 BCE) between Patrician aristocrats and Plebeian commoners, resulting in the creation of the Tribunate, the Twelve Tables, and the Lex Hortensia.

Twelve Tables

The earliest written code of Roman civil and criminal law (c. 449 BCE), published as a concession to Plebeian demands during the Struggle of the Orders.

Lex Hortensia

A Roman law passed in 287 BCE providing that measures enacted by the Plebeian Assembly were binding upon all Roman citizens, including Patricians.

First Punic War

A 23-year military conflict (264–241 BCE) between Rome and Carthage over Sicily; Rome developed a fleet equipped with boarding bridges (corvus), defeated Carthage, and acquired Sicily as its first overseas province.

Corvus

A Roman-invented boarding bridge used on warships during the First Punic War to grapple Carthaginian vessels and transform sea combat into infantry battles.

Hannibal Barca

Carthaginian military commander who invaded Italy during the Second Punic War (218–202 BCE) by crossing the Alps with war elephants, won at Cannae (216 BCE), and was ultimately defeated at Zama (202 BCE).

Battle of Cannae

A 216 BCE battle during the Second Punic War in which Hannibal Barca used a double-envelopment tactic to encircle and annihilate a larger Roman army.

Battle of Zama

The decisive 202 BCE battle in North Africa where Roman general Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal Barca, concluding the Second Punic War in Rome's favor.

Latifundia

Extensive agricultural estates in Roman Italy worked by conquered slave labor that undercut small independent farmers and forced impoverished citizens to migrate into Rome.

Tiberius & Gaius Gracchus

Two aristocratic brothers and Tribunes who championed land redistribution to poor veterans and price-controlled grain; both were murdered by senatorial elites, introducing political violence into the Roman Republic.

Gaius Marius

A Roman general who reformed military recruitment by accepting landless urban poor into the legions, shifting the soldiers' primary loyalty from the Republic to their individual commander.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

A conservative Roman general who became the first to march his legions directly on Rome (88 BCE), seized power, ruled as dictator, and instituted bloody proscriptions against political enemies.

First Triumvirate

An informal political pact formed in 60 BCE between Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus to bypass constitutional senatorial controls.

Julius Caesar

Roman general and statesman who conquered Gaul, crossed the Rubicon (49 BCE), defeated Pompey, established himself as dictator for life, instituted the Julian calendar, and was assassinated on the Ides of March (44 BCE).

Cleopatra VII

The last Ptolemaic monarch of Egypt who formed political and romantic partnerships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony to safeguard Egypt's independence, committing suicide after being defeated at Actium (31 BCE).

Caesar Augustus (Octavian)

The grandnephew of Julius Caesar who defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium (31 BCE), founded the Principate as Rome's first emperor (r. 27 BCE–14 CE), organized a standing army, and ushered in the Pax Romana.

Principate

The Roman imperial governmental system established by Augustus in 27 BCE that preserved the outward illusion of the Republic while vesting monarchical authority in the 'First Citizen' (Princeps).

Pax Romana

A 200-year period of relative peace, imperial stability, and administrative consolidation across the Mediterranean world initiated under the reign of Caesar Augustus.

Battle of Teutoburg Forest

A disastrous military defeat in 9 CE where Germanic tribes destroyed three Roman legions led by General Varus, compelling Augustus to halt territorial expansion into northern Europe.

Tacitus

A Roman senator and historian whose works, Annals and Histories, critically documented the imperial autocracy, moral corruption, and loss of republican liberties under early emperors.

Livy

A Roman historian who authored an extensive, moralizing narrative tracing the history of Rome from its early legendary foundations.