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Achaemenids

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name for Persian rulers because they traced their lineage back to an ancestor named Achaemenes. Married members of the Median court.

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Alexander

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king of Macedonia in northern Greece. Son and heir of Philip. Between 334 and 323 BCE, he conquered the Persian Empire, reached the Indus Valley, founded many Greek-style cities, and spread Greek culture across the Middle East. Very charismatic, had "Cult of Personality". He united Greece. Adopted elements of Persian culture and married Iranian women. Tutored by Aristotle. Not directly in line to be king, his mom schemed!

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Aristotle

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the third of the great classical philosophers (384-322 BCE) who studied at Plato's Academy and tutored Alexander. He founded his own school, the Lyceum. He collected and categorized a vast array of knowledge and lectured and wrote, laying the foundations for many modern disciplines. He pointed out that the Earth was round.

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Cyrus

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founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Between 550 and 530 BCE he conquered Media, Lydia, and Babylon. Revered in the traditions of both Iran and the subject peoples, he employed Persians and Medes in his administration and respected the institutions and beliefs of subject peoples. Died 522 BCE. Strong ruler.

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Darius I

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third ruler of Persian Empire, ruled from 521-486 BCE. He crushed the wide-spread initial resistance to his rule and gave all major government posts to Persians rather than to Medes. He established a system of provinces and tribute, began construction of Persepolis, and expanded Persian control in the east (Pakistan) and west (northern Greece). Strong ruler.

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Hellenes

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the term Greeks used to refer to the themselves, distinguishing themselves from the barbaroi (barbarians) or non-Greeks.

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Herodotus

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heir to the technique of historia ("investigation/research") developed by Greeks in the late Archaic period. He came from a Greek community in Anatolia and traveled extensively, collecting information in western Asia and the Mediterranean lands. He traced the antecedents and chronicled the wars between the Greek city-states and Persian Empire, thus originating the Western tradition of historical writing.

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Pericles

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Aristocratic leader who guided the Athenian state through the transformation to full participatory democracy for all male citizens, supervised construction of the Acropolis, and pursued a policy of imperial expansion that led to the Peloponnesian War. He formulated a strategy of attrition but died from the plague early in the war.

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Socrates

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Athenian philosopher (ca. 470-399 BCE) who shifted the emphasis of philosophical investigation from questions of natural science to ethics and human behavior. He attracted young disciple from elite families but made enemies by revealing the ignorance and pretentions of others, culminating in his trial and execution (by drinking hemlock) by the Athenian state. Was accused by Athenians of not honoring the gods. He was Plato's student. He wrote nothing.

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Themistocles

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famous Athenian general who led his troops to victory. Defeated Persians three times, then Athens fired him! He then worked for the Persians.

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Thucydides

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fifth-century BCE Athenian historian who remarked that in his day Sparta appeared to be little more than a large village and that no future observer of the ruins of the site would be able to guess its power.

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Xerxes

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Darius's son and successor who set out with a huge invasionary force consisting of the Persian army, contingents from all the peoples of the empire, and a large fleet of ships drawn from maritime subjects, descending into central and southern Greece. Demanded tokens of submission from Greek states.

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Zoroaster

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founder of Zoroastrianism, wrote the Gathas (hymns)

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Acropolis

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a defensible plateau on a hilltop that offered refuge in emergencies for the Greeks; means "top of the city"

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Agora

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an open area where citizens came together to ratify decisions of their leaders of to assemble with their weapons before military ventures. Government buildings located there, but it developed into a marketplace as well. Means "gathering place"

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Alexandria

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city on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt founded by Alexander. It became the capital of the Hellenistic kingdom of the Ptolemies. It contained the famous Library and the Museum, a center for leading scientific and literary figures. Its merchants engaged in trade with areas bordering the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Linked Egypt and the Mediterranean world. There are 12 cities named this, but the one in Egypt was the main one.

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Anatolia

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peninsula on which present-day Turkey is located. Home of the Byzantine Empire.

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Anthropomorphic gods

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gods that are human-like in behavior and appearance.

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Antigonid kingdom

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compact and ethnically homogeneous kingdom in Macedonian homeland and northern Greece. There were garrisons at strong points. Southern Greece felt threatened by the them and formed the Achaean League.

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Caucasus mountains

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northwestern/northern boundary of Iran that offered protection. Iran's mountains provided fuel and materials for building and crafts because they were heavily wooded.

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Helot

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state-owned serfs; the most abused and exploited population in the Greek mainland; when Spartans conquered other lands, they made the native population helots; fear of these people uprising caused Sparta to become a military camp

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Hoplite

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heavily armored (helmet, breastplate, leg guards, round shield, sword, thrusting spear) Greek infantryman of Archaic and Classical periods who fought in the close-packed phalanx formation. Their armies were militias of middle- and upper-class people supplying their own equipment and were superior to all other military forces. No special training was needed to be one of these.

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Persepolis

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a complex of palaces, reception halls, and treasury buildings erected by the Persian kinds Darius I and Xerxes in the Persian homeland. It is believed that the New Year's festival was celebrated here, as well as the coronations, weddings, and funerals of the Persian kings, who were buried in cliff-tombs nearby. It was very fitting of the Persian empire.

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Polis

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the Greek term for city-state, an urban center and the agricultural territory under its control. It was the characteristic form of political organization in southern and central Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods. Of the hundreds of city-states in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions settled by Greeks, some were oligarchic, others democratic, depending on the powers delegated to the Council and the Assembly.

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Ptolemaic kingdom

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the kingdom of the Ptolemies, mostly one ethnic group (Egyptian). Periodic insurrections due to the resentment of the Greeks held by the Egyptians. They did not plant Greek-style cities throughout the Egyptian countryside. The last ruler was Cleoparta (r. 51-30 BCE).

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Ptolemies

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the Macedonian dynasty, descended from one of Alexander the Great's officers, which ruled Egypt for three centuries (323-30 BCE). From their magnificent capital at Alexander on the Mediterranean coast, they largely took over the system created by Egyptian pharaohs to extract the wealth of the land, rewarding Greeks and Hellenized non-Greeks serving in the military and administration.

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Satrap

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governor of an Achaemenid Persian Empire province, often a king's relative. Responsible for the protection of the province and forwarding tribute to the central administration. In outlying provinces, these enjoyed autonomy. They sometimes overcharged people for taxes.

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Seleucid kingdom

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faced the greatest challenges of the three major Macedonian empire divisions, because it ruled many ethnic groups and was open to attack from all directions. It lost the Indus Valley and Afghan because they split away, and Iran was taken by the Parthians. The kingdom controlled Mesopotamia, Syria, and parts of Anatolia. The capital was Syrian Antioch. It maintained the Persian administrative system in the countryside and made Greek-style cities throughout.

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Trireme

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Greek and Phoenician warship of 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Sleek and light, powered by 170 oars arranged in three vertical tiers. Manned by skilled sailors, it was capable of short bursts of speed and complex maneuvers.

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Tyrant

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someone who seized and held power in violation of normal community procedures and traditions. Appeared in many Greek city-states in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, taking advantage of the disaffection of the emerging middle class and contributing to democracy's evolution by weakening the elite.

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Zagros mountains

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formed the protective western border of Iran. Formed by tectonic plate movement, making it a seismically active zone. Iran's mountains provided fuel and materials for building and crafts because they were heavily wooded.

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Delian League

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formed in 477 BCE, this was initially a voluntary alliance of Greek states to prosecute the war against Persia. It was led by Athens and swept the Persians from the waters of the eastern Mediterranean and freed all Greek communities except those in distant Cyprus.

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Democracy

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system of government in which citizens have equal political and legal rights, privileges, and protections, as in the Greek city-state of Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE.

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Hellenistic Age

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Historians' term for the era, usually dated 323-30 BCE, in which Greek culture spread across western Asia and northeastern Africa after Alexander the Great's conquests. This period ended with the fall of the last major Hellenistic kingdom to Rome, but Greek cultural influence persisted until the spread of Islam in the 7th century BCE. Large kingdoms with heterogeneous populations, great cities, powerful rulers, pervasive bureaucracies, and vast disparities in wealth are main qualities. Long-distance trade and communications, new institutions like libraries and universities, new scholarship and science, art, and literature were also present.

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Peloponnesian War

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a long-drawn-out (431-404 BCE) and costly conflict between Athenian and Spartan alliance systems that convulsed most of the Greek world. It was largely a consequence of Athenian imperialism and arrogance. Possession of a naval empire allowed Athens to fight a war of slow destruction. Ultimately, Sparta prevailed because of Athenian errors and Persian financial support. Athens lost and became Sparta's subject.

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Persian Wars

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conflicts between Greek city-states and the Persian Empire, ranging from the Ionian Revolt (great Greek and other people uprising from 499-494 BCE) through Darius's punitive expedition that failed at Marathon (26.2 miles from Athens) in 490 BCE and the defeat of Xerxes's (Darius's son) massive invasion of Greece by Spartan-led Hellenic League (480-479 BCE). This first major setback for Persian arms launched the Greeks into their period of greatest cultural productivity. Herodotus chronicled these events in the first history in the western tradition.

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Thesmophoria

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three-day festival where Athenian women lived together and managed their own affairs in a great encampment and carried out rituals

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Zoroastrianism

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a religion originating in ancient Iran with the prophet Zoroaster. It centered on a single benevolent deity, Ahuramazda, who engaged in a twelve-thousand-year struggle with demonic forces before prevailing and restoring a pristine world. Emphasizing truth-telling, purity, and reverence for nature, the religion demanded that humans choose sides in the struggle between good and evil. Those whose good conduct indicated their support for Ahuramazda would be rewarded in the afterlife. Others would be punished. The official religion of the Achaemenid and Sasanid Persians (although other religions were still present), it may have spread within their realms and influenced Judaism, Christianity, and other faiths. Parsees, today's follows of this religion, live in Iran and India.

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Augustus

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honorific name of Octavian, founder of Roman Principate, the military dictatorship that replaced the failing rule of the Roman Senate. After defeating all rivals, between 31 BCE and 14 CE he laid the foundation for several centuries of stability and prosperity in the Roman Empire. Very popular. Died in 14 CE.

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Ban Zhao

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at the end of the first century CE, she wrote "Lessons for Women", instructing them to conform to the traditional expectations of obeying males, maintaining their husbands' households, performing domestic chores, and raising children.

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Constantine

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Roman emperor (r. 312-337). After reuniting the Roman Empire, he moved the capital to Constantinople and made Christianity a favored religion.

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Diocletian

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a commoner by birth who gained power in 284. Resigned in 305. Ruled for more than 20 years and died in bed. To halt inflation, he made an edict specifying max prices for things. Froze people into essential professions and made them train their sons. Under his rule, a "black market" arose and people saw the government as oppressive. Vehement anti-Christian. Divided empire into east and west.

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Emperor Wu

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came to the throne as a teenager in 141 BCE and began one of the longest and most eventful reigns in the history of the dynasty. Increased the power of the emperor by launching military operations into Fujian, Guangdong, and northern Vietnam, and north into Manchuria and North Korea. Stopped appeasing Xiongnu. Built up military and cavalry. Used religious pageantry to boost his own power.

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Empress Lü

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Gaozu's formidable wife who held the power after he died and the throne passed to a child.

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Gaozu

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the throne name of Liu Bang, one of the rebel leaders who brought down Qin and founded Han dynasty in 202 BCE. Modest background and peasant qualities; denounced harshness and laws of Qin but was a Legalist; frugal to cut taxes; stored excess grain

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Jesus

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Jew from Galilee in northern Israel who sought to reform Jewish beliefs and practices. Executed as a revolutionary by the Romans. Hailed as the Messiah and son of God by his followers, he became the central figure in Christianity, a belief system that developed in the centuries after his death.

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Julius Caesar

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Rome's most brilliant general, between 59 and 51 BCE led to Rome's first territorial acquisition in Europe's heartland. His army was more loyal to him than to the state. His grandnephew and heir was Octavian.

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Justinian

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emperor of Byzantium (eastern) portion of Roman Empire from 527-565. He ordered Corpus Juris Civilis to be created and for the Hagia Sophia cathedral to be built.

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Mencius (Mengzi)

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a Confucian philosopher whose mother's biography preserves traditional beliefs about the conduct appropriate for women

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Paul

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a Jew from the Greek city of Tarsus in Anatolia, he initially persecuted the followers of Jesus, but, after receiving a revelation on the road to Syrian Damascus, became a Christian. Taking advantage of his Hellenized background and Roman citizenship, he traveled throughout Syria-Palestine, Anatolia, and Greece, preaching the new religion and establishing churches. Finding his greatest success among pagans ("gentiles"), he began the process by which Christianity separated from Judaism.

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Shi Huangdi

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founder of short-lived Qin dynasty and creator of Chinese Empire (r. 221-210 BCE). He is remembered for his ruthless conquests of rival states, standardization of practices, and forcible organization of labor for military and engineering tasks. His tomb, with its army of life-size terracotta soldiers, has been partially excavated. Legalist methods. His name means "1st emperor". Built Great Wall of China.

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Sima Qian

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chief astrologer for the Han dynasty emperor Wu. He composed a monumental history of China from its legendary origins to his own time and is regarded as the Chinese "father of history". Presents a generally negative view of Wu, who had him castrated. His writings were in five parts: dynastic histories, accounts of noble families, bios of important people and groups, chart of historical events, and essays on the calendar, astronomy, and religious ceremonies. Could not openly criticize the government.

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Trajan

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soldier-emperor who added Romania to the Roman Empire in early second century; erected a marble column 125 ft. in height to commemorate his campaign of Romania (then called Dacia)

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Wang Mang

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seized power 9-23 CE and implemented major reforms, but a flood changed the Yellow River's course, killing people. He was killed by Red Eyebrows, then a Han royal family member came into power.

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Aqueduct

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a conduit either elevated or underground, that used gravity to carry water from a source to a location - usually a city - that needed it. The Romans built many aqueducts in a period of substantial urbanization.

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Chang'an

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city in the Wei Valley in eastern China. The capital of the Qin and early Han empires (202 BCE-8 CE). Its main features were imitated in the cities and towns that sprang up throughout the Han empire. Protected by a ring of hills. It had a wall of pounded earth and brick 15 mi. in circumference. In 2 CE, the population was 246,000. There was a university located on its outskirts.

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Constantinople

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the city that Constantine moved the capital to from Rome in 324. Formerly called Byzantium.

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Equites

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in ancient Italy, prosperous landowners second in wealth and status to the senatorial aristocracy. Roman emperors allied with this group to counterbalance the influence of the old aristocracy and used the equites to staff the imperial civil service.

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Gentry

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in China, the class of prosperous families, next in wealth below the rural aristocrats, from which the emperors drew their administrative personnel. Respected for their education and expertise, these officials became a privileged group (no taxes/compulsory service) and made the government more efficient and responsive than in the past.

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Latifundia

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ranches using cheap slave labor that replaced peasant farms. They produced cash crops (ex: wine grapes) rather than grain, so Italy had to rely on expensive imported grain. The farms were taken from the peasants by investors while they were away for military service.

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Patricians

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Roman elite

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Plebeians

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Roman poor

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Red eyebrows

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Chinese insurgents who killed Wang Mang

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Roman Senate

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council whose members were the heads of wealthy, landowning families. Originally an advisory body to the early kings, in the era of the Roman Republic it effectively governed the Roman state and empire. Under its leadership, Rome conquered an empire of unprecedented extend in lands around the Mediterranean Sea. The members of this stayed for life.

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Xiongnu Confederacy

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a confederation of nomadic peoples living beyond the northwest frontier of ancient China. Chinese rulers tried a variety of defenses and stratagems to ward off these "barbarians," as they called them, and finally succeeded in dispersing them in 1st century CE.

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Corpus Juris Civilis

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"Body of Civil Law", compiled in Latin by 17 legal scholars at the behest of emperor Justinian (r. 527-565)

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Edict of Milan

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ended persecution of Christianity and guaranteed freedom of worship to Christians and all others; made by Constantine after believing that the Christian God that helped him achieve a battle victory

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Han

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a term used to designate (1) the ethnic Chinese people who originated in the Yellow River Valley and spread throughout regions of China suitable for agriculture and (2) the dynasty of emperors who ruled from 202 BCE to 220 CE.

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Pax romana

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literally, "Roman peace". It connoted the stability and prosperity that Roman rule brought to the lands of the Roman Empire in the first two centuries CE. The movement of people and trade goods along Roman roads and safe seas allowed for the spread of cultural practices, technologies, and religious ideas.

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Punic Wars

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conflict between Phoenicians and Carthage. Phoenicians came into contact with Carthage because they were a seafaring society.

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Qin

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a people and estate in the Wei Valley of eastern China that conquered rival states and created the first Chinese empire (221-206 BCE). The ruler of this empire, Shi Huangdi, standardized many features of Chinese society and ruthlessly marshaled subjects for military and construction projects, engendering hostility that led to the fall of his dynasty shortly after his death. Its framework was largely taken over by the succeeding Han Empire. "China" derives from this term. Used compulsory labor.

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Rise of Christianity

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starting with Jesus and Paul, it spread slowly but steadily, attracting women, slaves, and the urban poor. Developed a hierarchy of priests and bishops. Early believers in this faith were persecuted by Romans for refusing to worship to emperor. A number of cults gained popularity by claiming to provide secret information about the nature of life and death and promising a blessed afterlife to their adherents. Under Constantine's rule, followers of this religion had clear advantages over those who did not follow it.

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Roman Principate

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a term used to characterize Roman government in the first three centuries CE, based on the ambiguous title princeps ("first citizen") adopted by Augustus to conceal his military dictatorship.

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Republic

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the period from 509-31 BCE, during which Rome was largely governed by the aristocratic Roman Senate.

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Romanization

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the process by which the Latin language and Roman culture became dominant in the western provinces. Indigenous peoples in the provinces often chose to take part in this because of the political and economic advantages that it brought, as well as the allure of Roman success.

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Sui

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China was in disarray after the fall of the Han Empire, until this empire and the Tang Empire arose

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Tang

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empire unifying China and part of Central Asia, founded in 618 and ended in 907. Their empire's capital was at Chang'an.

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