AP World History Unit 2 Classical Greece Vocab. – Flashcards

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Acropolis
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A fortress or fortified part of an ancient city of Greece usually built on a hill. Sentence: In Athens, the Parthenon sits on top of the acropolis.
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Agora
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The marketplace or public square of an ancient city of Greece Sentence: People of ancient Athens met at the agora to trade ideas.
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Alexander the Great
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The Successor of his father Philip II, and the conquerer of the Persian Empire that tried to combine Greek and Persian cultures. Sentence: Alexander the Great invaded India, and while he did not establish a durable empire, he made possible important Indian contacts with Hellenisitic culture.
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Aristocracies
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A form of government where the power is with a nobility. Sentence: Greece was ruled by an aristocracy.
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Aristotle
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A Greek philosopher who was the teacher of Alexander the Great and his knowledge was based on the observation of phenomena in the material world. Sentence: Greek and Roman moral philosophy, as issued by philosophers like Aristotle and Cicero, typically stressed the importance of moderation and balance in human behavior as opposed to the instability of much political life and the excesses of the gods themselves.
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Athens
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The capital of Greece named after the god Athena. Sentence: According to legend, a Greek soldier named Pheidippides ran 26 miles to bring the word of victory to Athens and, having delivered the message, collapsed and died.
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Classical Age of Greece
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A 200 year period in Greek culture. Sentence: There were a lot of new inventions in the classical age of Greece.
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Cleisthenes
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A noble Athenian of the Alcmaeonid family who reformed the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing. Sentence: In 510 BC, Cleisthenes introduced profound reforms which made democracy exist as a system of government for the first time in the world.
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Cyrus the Great
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They established a massive Persian Empire by 550 B.C. and was the successor state to Mesopotamian empires. Sentence: By 550 B.C., Cyrus the Great established a massive Persian Empire across the northern Middle East and into northwestern India.
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Delian League
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An alliance of ancient Greek states formed in 478-77 BC tto fight Persia. Sentence: Thucydides took over leadership of the Delian League.
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Democracy
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A government that is ruled by the people. Sentence: The infant of Democracy almost died in the time of ancient Greece because of the Persian Wars.
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Drama
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A composition in verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast of character. Sentence: Drama was born in Greece.
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Hellenic Culture
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The culture of Greece. Sentence: Hellenic Culture has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Mycenaean Greece.
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Hellenistic Culture
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The zenith of Greek influence in the years 323-146 BC. Sentence: The Hellenistic culture was before classicl Greek history from the death of Alexander the Great to the accession of Augustus.
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Hellenistic Synthesis
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Greek combination of ideas to form a theory. Sentence: It was common for Hellenistic Synthesis to occur at an agora.
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Helots
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Conquered indigenous population of Spartan city-states, provided agricultural labor for Spartan landowners, only semifree, and the largest population of Spartan city-states.
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Homer
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A Greek epic poet. Sentence: Homer wrote the Odyssey and Iliad.
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Hoplites
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A heavily armed foot soldier of ancinet Greece. Sentence: Many hoplites were Spartans.
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Marathon
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A city in Greece where Pheidippides ran 26 miles to Athens to tell them of the victory over the Persians. Sentence: The modern marathon is named after Marathon for the 26 miles Pheidippides ran.
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Minoans
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The ancient civilization of the island of Crete, from 3000 to 1100 BC. Sentence: The Minoans built one of the earliest Greek civilizations.
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Mycenaeans
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The earliest recorded Greek civilization. Sentence: The Mycenaeans were one of the first civilizations to make and use art.
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Natural Law
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An ethical belief or system of beliefs supposed to be inherent in human nature and discoverable by reason rather than revelation. Sentence: Greek philosophy emphasized the distinction between natural law, custom, or convention.
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Pericles
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An Athenian political leader during 5th century BC, guided development of Athenian Empire and died during early stages of Peloponnesian War. Sentence: It was during the 5th century BC that the most famous Greek political figure, Pericles, dominated Athenian politics.
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Persian Wars
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The wars fought between Greece and Persia in the 5th century bc, in which the Persians sought to extend their rule over the Greek world. Sentence: The Persian Wars was a series of conflicts fought between Greek states and the Persian Empire between 500 BC to 449 BC.
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Peloponnesus
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The peninsula that forms the Southern part of Greece. Sentence: The Peloponnesus was the seat of the early Mycenaean civilization.
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Peloponnesian War
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Wars from 431 to 404 BC between Athens and Sparta for dominance in southern Greece and resulted in Spartan victory but failure to achieve political unification of Greece. Sentence: Political decline soon set in, as Athens and Sparta vied for control of Greece during the bitter Peloponnesian Wars.
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Philosophy
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The rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct. Sentence: There were many people in Greece who did Philosophy.
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Plato
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A Greek philosopher whose knowledge is based on consideration of ideal forms outside the material world and proposed an ideal form of government based on abstract principles in which philosophers ruled. Sentence: Socrates' great pupil Plato accentuated the positive somewhat more strongly by suggesting that human reason could approach an understanding of the three perfect forms which he believed characterized nature.
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Polis
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A city-state form of government typical of Greek political organization from 800 to 400 BC. Sentence: Our word politics comes from the Greek word for city-state, polis, which correctly suggests that intense political interests were part of life in a city-state in both Greece and Rome.
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Satraps
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A governor of a province under the ancient Persian monarchy. Sentence: Mausolus, a local persian satrap, made halicarnassus his capital.
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Socrates
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An Athenian philosopher of later 5th century BC, the tutor of Plato, and who urged rational reflection of moral decisions, putting him to death for corrupting minds of Athenian young. Sentence: In Athens, Socrates encouraged his pupils to question conventional wisdom, on the grounds that the chief duty was "the improvement of the soul."
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Sparta
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The capital of Laconia and the chief city of the Peloponnesus, at one time the dominant city of Greece. Sentence: Sparta was the city where the Spartan soldiers were from.
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Xerxes
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The king of Persia from 486-465. Sentence: Xerxes won the battle of Thermopylae.
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