Chpt. 3, Hellenic and Hellenistic Cultures

Question 1

helots

Answer 1

the agricultural laborers who were ruled over by a warrior elite and composed 4/5 of Spartan people; in order to keep them in check when men were away in battle, even Spartan women were trained for war

Question 2

Solon

Answer 2

one of the early Greek reformers, he established laws that prohibited enslavement for debt and allowed most citizens to vote

Question 3

Draco

Answer 3

another Greek reformer, he imposed extremely stringent laws; that is why today, if a law is very strict, it is referred to as “draconian”

Question 4

Cleisthenes

Answer 4

a Greek reformer who created an assembly of elected male citizens for the Greek people; his rule promoted equality before the law and freedom of speech, and he is known as the father of democracy

Question 5

satraps

Answer 5

governor’s of the provinces of the Persian Empire

Question 6

King’s Eyes and Ears

Answer 6

spies of the Persian Emperor who closely monitored the activities of the satraps; this was necessary because the empire was large and hard to control

Question 7

Darius 1

Answer 7

the greatest of the Achaemenid (Persian) rulers, he ruled Persia at it’s greatest extent, and introduced standard coinage and a standard calendar

Question 8

Xerxes

Answer 8

Darius successor who moved against Greece c.

480 BC

Question 9

Persian War

Answer 9

the war between Xerxes of Persia and the Greeks; although both sides had victories and the Persians at one point sacked the city of Athens, the Persians were unable to have a decisive victory against the Greek army, and since the war was very costly to them, they were forced to return unsuccessfully

Question 10

Royal Road

Answer 10

a system of roads in the Persian Empire that was used by merchants and couriers (of mail); the couriers were known for their speed

Question 11

Thermopylae

Answer 11

a narrow mountain pass in Greece; here the 200,000 strong Persian army was held off by 300 Spartan warriors, creating enough time for the Athenians and other fighters to get back to the defense of Greece

Question 12

Delian League

Answer 12

a union between Athens and neighboring poleis originally intended to take back certain territories from Persia; after this was accomplished, Athens used it for their own economic development

Question 13

Peloponnesian League

Answer 13

a league formed between Sparta and it’s allies in response to the growing power of the Athenian sea empire

Question 14

Peloponnesian War

Answer 14

a war that broke out between the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues, eventually the Spartans beat Athens, but overall this war led to the degradation of Greek power, and it’s ability to defend itself

Question 15

Oracle at Delphi

Answer 15

a well-known Greek oracle, or divine prophet

Question 16

Greek intellectualism

Answer 16

their emphasis on order and reason led them to many intellectual achievements, such as the development of theories of the motion of planets, the classification of elemental principles (fire, iair, water, earth), and mathematical theories such as the Pythagorean theorem, formulated by Pythagorus (500s B.C)

Question 17

Greek drama

Answer 17

this included tragedy and comedy; like Shakespearian drama, tragedies involved a great character with a tragic flaw, oftentimes hubris (pride)

Question 18

Greek art

Answer 18

the Greeks had great art, which focused on the golden mean (the concept of avoiding extremes in proportions); this concept of the golden mean was applied by the Greeks to life as well

Question 19

Greek architecture

Answer 19

this was the best in the world at the time, and most of it (in fact most of their accomplishments in general) was created in Athens when they prospered through economic control of the Delian League

Question 20

Parthenon

Answer 20

a fine example of Greek architecture; a temple to Athena (her statue is now missing, but the rest remains), it sits atop the Acropolis of Athens

Question 21

Philip 2 of Macedon

Answer 21

the ruler of Macedon to the north of Greece; after the Peloponnesian War when Greece was weak, he took it over, and died unexpectedly soon after

Question 22

Alexander the Great

Answer 22

the son of Philip 2, he was well educated, and had been personally tutored by Aristotle; he continued his father’s conquest, taking over the entire Persian Empire as well as parts of Asia

Question 23

Hellenic culture

Answer 23

Greek culture

Question 24

Hellenistic culture

Answer 24

the blending of Greek, Egyptian, Indian, and Persian culture that resulted from the brief unification of these areas by Alexander; under his encouragement, intellectual culture flourished to a much greater degree than it had during the Persian Empire; it was centered on the city of Alexandria, Egypt

Question 25

Aristarchus and Ptolemy

Answer 25

two Hellenistic astronomers who argued about the motion of the planets; the first person in history to propose that the earth revolved around the sun (the heliocentric theory) was Aristarchus, while Ptolemy believed that the planets revolved around the earth (geocentric theory)

Question 26

the 3 main eastern philosophies in the Hellenistic system

Answer 26

Cynicism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism

Question 27

Euclid

Answer 27

an Egyptian Greek in the 3rd century BC who wrote “Elements of Geometry,” considered the most significant mathematical argument ever written