CLASSICS 103 Terms

Bronze Age

the period in ancient human culture when people began to make and use bronze

Mesopotamia

"land between the rivers" which is now Iraq

Dark Age

A period when palaces were burned, writing disappeared from Greece, and the country's population shrank

Polis

small city-states in Greece

the Greek problem

A set of conditions with which Greek thinkers struggled

Demokratia

Greek word meaning "power of the people"

Archaic Period

7th and 6th century BC

Classical Period

5th and 4th century BC

Hellenistic Period

time period where Greek influence reached its peak

Hellenes

Greek speakers who lived in cities scattered from Spain to Ukraine

Hellas

The ancestral home for Hellenes, laid around Aegean Sea

autochthonous

"born from the soil" (believed by Athenians)

Pelasgians

"peoples of the sea"

Ionians

descendants of legendary ancestor Ion who sided with Athens

Dorians

descendants of Heracles who supported Sparta

Hesiod

Poet who wrote Works and Days

Demography

The study of the biological aspects of human societies (size, distribution, growth, etc.)

Thucydides

Historian of Peloponnesian War

Hippocrates

The most famous Greek doctor who lived in the late 5th century

Mediterranean triad

Core Greek diet (bread, olives, wine)