HIST midterm

Athens: democracy, focused on knowledge and philosophy

Sparta: focused on military, women more independent

Persian wars: Persian empire invaded Greece twice, Greece fought back, if Persian Empire won, Athenian democracy would have disappeared 

Peloponnesian war: Sparta declared war on Athens, Sparta won, both sides weakened significantly, most brutal war in Greek history

Democracy: citizens have a say in government

Tyranny: “take power by force”, not a negative term in Athens

Helot: enslaved Spartans who would take over when Spartans went to war to keep things moving

Cleisthenes: founder of Athenian democracy

Lycurgus: law maker for Sparta

Solon: work off your debt to the person your indebted to

Hoplite: lightly armed soldiers, arm yourself

Phalanx: fighting square of hoplites

Socrates: father of western philosophy, focused on morals and ethics

Plato: Socrates’ pupil, founder of the academy

Sophists: deals in wisdom for money, was looked down on

Hellenism: spread of Greek culture across the Persian Empire and Egypt during Alexander’s reign

Stoicism: logic helps to decide what is best, virtue is sufficient for happiness

Epicureanism: pleasure is the highest good

Cosmopolitanism: individual’s identity not tied to polis anymore, polis is not the center anymore

Euclid: wrote the 2nd most influential book in history of geometry, still used today

Eratosthenes: head of library of Alexandria, used documents to calculate Earth’s axis

Archimedes: invented language of numbers

Philip II: king of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great, gave soldiers a salary, changed the shape of the phalanx

Alexander the Great: undefeated in battle, king of Macedonia, Persian Empire and Pharaoh of Egypt

Paterfamilias: One person in charge of family (even extended family and clients), usually the man

Republic: consuls (two men ruling, can veto one another), senate and assembly, still a hierarchy of wealth status

Twelve Tables: Roman rules written down

Romulus and Remus: Founded Rome, Romulus killed Remus and became the first king of Rome

Punic Wars: Rome vs Carthage, Rome won, gained land and sea supremacy 

Hannibal: general of Carthage during 2nd punic war, tried to seize Rome but lost half his army and his equipment from hiking through the Alps

Consuls: dual-kingship, two men ruling, can veto each other

Julius Caesar: excellent military general, became dictator of Rome, crossed Rubicon river and started civil war

Rubicon River: boundary between Rome and Po Valley, crossing it symbolizes never being able to go back

Paleolithic: people were hunter-gatherers, made tools out of stone, wood, and bone, old stone age

Neolithic age: New stone age, agriculture and domestication of animals, Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia: Bronze Age, modern day Iraq, huge advancements in writing, math, astrology, religion and language

Cuneiform: Sumerians invented it, first writing script, Bronze Age

Polytheistic: worship many gods, origin in Mesopotamia religion, focused on eternal, supernatural gods

Monotheism: Hebrews, worship 1 God, new to other civilizations

Hebrews: Bronze age, influenced ethical monotheism and scripture

Hieroglyphs: ancient Egyptian system of writing

Hammurabi: Bronze Age, Mesopotamia, wrote the first laws, written down and can be referred to, Hammurabi’s code of laws

Pharaoh: a divine man who rules over Egypt (basically a God)

Assyrians: military expansion, Mesopotamia, 24 BC

Persian Empire: irrigation system, freed Jews from Babylon, 580 BC

Egypt: Nile river good for agriculture, flooding, reliable, mummification, polytheistic

Hatshepsut: Egypt, first woman pharaoh, 1500 BC

Rosetta Stone: found in Egypt, had Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic script, and Greek, key to deciphering hieroglyphics 

Minoan influence: Greek bronze age, Crete, thrived through economics, Linear A

Mycenaean influence: Greek bronze age (after Minoans), Crete, Linear B and military conquest

Linear B: the deciphered script of the Mycenaean civilization, found in Crete Bronze Age of Greece

Sea People: collapse of Bronze Age Greece, said to be pirates/people in the sea who terrorized the Mycenaeans

Iliad and Odyssey: passed through oral composition in the Dark Ages of Greece, Homer composed them, Iliad is the story of the Trojan War while the Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus in the aftermath of the war

Homer: Dark Ages of Greece, composed poems through oral composition, first masterpieces of ancient Greek society

Oral composition: Dark Ages of Greece, kept Homer’s poems alive