Ancient & Medieval History Chapter 3 Vocab – Flashcards
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Peloponnesus
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was the location of Sparta, was virtually an island, and site of Olympia
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Olympia
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where the famous athletic games were held
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Attica
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also known as the Attic Peninsula, and the home of Athens
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Macedonia
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north of Thessaly and wasn't important until King Philip II conquered the Greeks
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Crete
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earliest civilization in the Aegean region ; southeast of the Greek mainland
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Arthur Evans
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the man who discovered Crete and named it "Minoan" after Minos the legendary king of Crete
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Minos
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a legendary king of Crete
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Knossus
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an enormous palace complex near modern Heracleion, that was most likely the center of a far-ranging "sea empire", probably largely commercial
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Mycenae
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a remarkable fortified site first excavated by the amateur German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann
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Heinrich Schlieman
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the amateur German archaeologist that discovered Mycenae
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Dark Age
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after the collapse of Mycenaean civilization, Greeks entered a difficult period in which the population declined, and food production dropped; historians know little about this period
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Ionia
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an island on the western shores of Asia Minor, which people went to during the Dark Age
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Dorians
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a people in southwestern Greece, especially in the Peloponnesus, as well as some on the islands in the south Aegean Sea, including Crete
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Homer: Illiad & Odyssey
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the great epic poems of early Greece that had been passed down orally from generation to generation
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arete
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a hero who strives for excellence
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polis
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a "city" as the central institution in Greek life and the Greeks' colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Seas
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acropolis
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a place of refuge during an attack and later in some situations came to be the religious center on which temples and public monuments were erected
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agora
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an open space that served both as a place where citizens could assemble and as a market
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hoplites
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a new military order came into being that was based on heavily armed infantrymen who wore bronze or leather helmets, breastplates, and greaves (shin guards)
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phalanx
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a rectangular formation (for a battle unit) in tight order, usually eight ranks deep
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Hellespont
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Greek settlements along the shores of the Black Sea, _____, and Bosporus
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Byzantium
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an important, secured, Greek settlement that was along the shores of Bosporus
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tyrant
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rulers who seized power by force and who were not subject to the law
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oligarchy
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domination of political power by aristocrats
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Laconia
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located in the southeasternPeloponnesus, the Spartans had originally occupied four small villages that eventually became unified into a single polis: it enabled the Spartans to conquer the neighboring Laconians
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periokoi
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free inhabitants who were required to pay taxes and preform military service for Sparta but were not citizens
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helots
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Laconian people who were bound to the land and forced to work on the farms and as household servants for the Spartans
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Messenia
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a place that neighbored Sparta, that they took over because it had a spacious, fertile plain ideal for growing grain
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ephors
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a group of five men who were elected each year and were responsible for the education of youth and the conduct of all citizens
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Peloponnesian League
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Sparta used its military might and the fear it inspired to gain greater control of Peloponnesus by organizing an alliance of almost all the Peloponnesian states: Sparta's strength enabled it to dominate _____ and determine its policies
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archon
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nine people who assisted aristocrats
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Solon
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a person who was chosen to avoid tyranny; he was a reform-minded aristocrat who was sole archon (given all the power) and made many changes
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Pisistratus
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an aristocrat who seized power in 560 B.C.E. and pursued foreign policies that helped with Athenian trade
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Cleisthenes
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an aristocratic reformer who opposed the plan to go back to an oligarchy and established the basis for Athenian democracy
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demes
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villages and townships of Attica, the basic units of political life
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democracy
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the Athenian political system in 500 B.C.E.
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Darius
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a Persian ruler who sought revenge by attacking the mainland Greeks who led an unsuccessful revolt against the Persian Empire
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Marathon
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a plain only 26 miles from Athens where a clearly outnumbered Athenian army went on the attack and crushed the Persian forces
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Xerxes
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the new Persian monarch after the death of Darius who vowed revenge and renewed the invasion of Greece
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Thermopylae
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the main road into central Greece which they hoped to stop the Persians at
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Leonidas
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a Spartan king who lead a contingent of nine thousand against the Persians at the pass of Thermopylae
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Salamis
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an island in which the Greek fleet remained off shore of and challenged the Persian navy to fight
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Plataea
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defeated the Persians at this place with the largest Greek army seen up to that time
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Delian League
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Athens formed a new leadership/confederation against the Persians, organized in the winter of 478-477 B.C.E.
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Delos
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the main headquarters of the Delian League
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Strategoi
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a board of ten officials known as generals
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Ostracism
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a tactic that consists of members of the assembly could write on a broken pottery fragment the name of the person they most disliked or considered most harmful to the polis. A person who received the majority was exiled for ten years
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Tribute
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members of the Delian League were charged a fee or _____ for the Athenian claim of protection
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Thucydides
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the great Greek historian who pointed out that the fundamental, long-range cause of the war that began in 431 B.C.E. was the fear that Athens and its empire inspired in Sparta
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Aegospotami
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the place where the Athenian fleet was destroyed on the Hellespont
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Thebes
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a city-state in Boeotia, north of Athens that began to exert its influence
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Epaminondas
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the city-state of Thebes' leader who dramatically defeated the Spartan army at the Battle of Leuctra
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Battle of Leuctra
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Epaminondas defeated the Spartan army at this battle; Spartan power declined, but Theban ascendancy was short-lived
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Herodotus
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the author of The Persian Wars, a work commonly regarded as the first real history in Western civilization
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Aeschylus
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the first tragedian who plays are known to us; wrote 90 tragedies, only 7 survived
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Sophocles
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great Athenian playwright whose most famous play is Oedipus the King
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Euripides
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Athenian playwright who moved beyond his predecessors in creating a more realistic characters and complex plots
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Aristophanes
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a playwright who used both grotesque masks and obscene jokes to entertain the Athenian audience, are examples of Old Comedy
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Parthenon
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a temple built and consecrated to Athena, the patron goddess of Athens
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Polyclitus
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a fifth-centry sculptor who wrote a treatise on a canon of proportions that illustrated in a work known as the Doryphoros
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Doryphoros
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a sculpture built by Polyclitus, a fifth-century sculptor
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Philosophy
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a Greek word that literally means "love of wisdom"; early Greeks were concerned with the development of critical or rational thought about the nature of the universe and the place of divine forces in it
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Sophists
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group of philosophical teachers in the fifth-century Athens who rejected such speculations (early Greek philosophy) as foolish; argued that understanding the universe was beyond the reach of he human mind
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rhetoric
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the art of persuasive speaking in winning debates and swaying an audience, a skill that was especially valuable in democratic Athens
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Socrates
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a critic of the Sophists; left no writings behind and we only know about him from his pupils, especially Plato
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Plato
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considered by many the greatest philosopher of Western civilization; wrote a lot and was fascinated with the question of reality
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The Republic
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a writing in which Plato's ideas of government were set out in a dialogue; distrusted the workings of democracy
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The Academy
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the school that Plato established in Athens
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Aristotle
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pupil of Plato; didn't accept Plato's theory of ideal Forms -> believed that by examining individual objects, we can perceive their form and arrive at universal principles
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Politics
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Aristotle examined the constitutions of 158 states and arrived at general categories for organizing government
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Zeus
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chief god and father of the Olympian gods
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Athena
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goddess of wisdom and crafts
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Apollo
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god of the sun and poetry
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Aphrodite
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goddess of love
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Poseidon
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brother of Zeus and god of the seas and earthquakes
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Patron Goddess
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a god who specifically look favorably on one's activities like Athena did for Athens
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Oracle
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a sacred shrine dedicated to a god or goddess who revealed the future
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Croesus
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the king of Lydia in Asia Minor who was known for his vast wealth; sent messengers to the oracle at Delphi, asking whether he should go to war with the Persians -> said that a great empire would fall -> Lydia fell
