Classical Greece through Justinian Flashcards
The birth of the Roman Republic
510 BC
The citizens of Rome overthrow the Etruscan King and creat a republic governed by a complex and unwritten constitution. Most power is vested in the senate. Day-to-day administration is vested in the two consuls, who answer to the senate. All free citizens are represented in the Assembly and by a tribune, who has the power to defend against arbitrary senate action.
The commencement of democracy in Athens
510
The citizens of Athens revolt against the tyrant Isagoras and return Cieisthenes to power. He builds the Athenian assembly, where the free men exercise direct democracy by voting with black and white pebbles on all state issues.
The Persian Wars begin
499 BC
King Darius I attacks mainland Greece in retaliation for the Greeks fomenting the Ionian Revolt by the Greeks living on the Aegean Sea coast of Asia Minor.
The Persian Wars last 50 years and are recounted by Herodotus in his Historia.
The Battle of Marathon
490 BC
Athens defeats King Darius I. Phydipidies runs from the port city of Marathon to Athens to deliver the news and then falls down dead.
Athens repels the third Persian invasion
480 BC
Athens and Sparta defeat King Xerxes and his army of 2 million Persians. Victory is secured by Themistocles, who lures the Persian fleet into a straight off the island of Salamis where he rams the Persian ships with triremes.
The victory leaves Athens in control of the Delian League; Athens becomes the capital of trade in the eastern Mediterranean.
The death of Confucious
478 BC
Confucius (551-478 BC) advocates right living and respect for ancestors. He does not proclaim himself a god.
Pericles becomes the First Citizen of Athens
448 BC
He leads Athens to its Golden Age and commissions Phidias to build the Parthenon as part of the rebuilding of the Acropolis. He also, however, leads Athens into the Peloponnesian Wars.
The Peloponnesian Wars
431-404 BC – recounted by Thucydides.
In 431 Pericles leads Athens into war with Sparta after walling the city.
In 430 a plague ravages Athens, killing Pericles in 429
In 413 Sparta destroys Athens’ fleet at Sicily
In 404 Athens surrenders to Sparta, which becomes the leading power of Greece.
The life of Buddha
c. 485-405 BC
The four noble truths of Buddhism
There is suffering
There is the origination of suffering
There is the cessation of suffering
There is a path to the cessation of suffering
The Celts settle in Britain
400 BC
The Celts become the Britons
Socrates is convicted in the Assembly
399 BC
Socrates is convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens. The trial is held in the Agora. Socrates’ arguments are recounted in Plato’ Apologia of Socrates. He drinks hemlock.
Plato writes The Republic
380 BC
Celtic tribes sack Rome
390 BC
Rome is not sacked again until 410 AD
Celts from Iberia displace the native inhabitants of Ireland
350 BC
The life of Aristotle
384-22 BC
His Metaphysics encourages a rational view of God as the Great Mechanic, who creates the world and then allows it to function according to rules which can be discovered through observation of the natural world.
The battle of Chaeronea
338 BC
King Philip II of Macedonia conquers the Greek city states, gaining control over Greece.
The conquests of Alexander the Great
334-23 BC
He creates the Hellenistic world through a series of conquests covering much of the Balkans, Egypt, the Persian empire, and parts of India.
The battle of Gaugamela
331 BC
Alexander defeats Darius III, leading to the demise of the Persian empire. In 330, Alexander sacks the Persian capital, Persepolis.
The death of Alexander the Great
323 BC
His empire is split into four parts, each governed by one of his generals. Ptolemy becomes Pharaoh of Egypt and makes his capital at Alexandria.
Epicurus founds his school in Athens
310
Epicurus taught that all things are composed of the same atoms. There are no gods; there is a natural order subject to laws whose discovery brings pleasure. Fear of gods or hell is superstition. One should strive to live a life that is simple, honorable, temperate, social, and philanthropic.
Schools of Hellenistic philosophy
Cynicism:
Epicureanism: rejects superstition and seeks pleasure through reason and temperance
Stoicism: Zeno teaches mastering emotions.
The construction of the Library of Alexandria
300 BC
Also known as the Mouseion. It becomes the intellectual and cultural center of the Hellenistic world. Scholars include Euclid, Claudius Ptolemy, Archimedes, etc. The Septuagint is written.
The First Punic War
264-241 BC
Between Rome and the Phoenician empire ruled by Carthage, a plutocracy of merchants. Rome prevails by occupying Sicily, allowing it to impose heavy penalties against Carthage.
The Second Punic War
218-201 BC
Rome occupies Sardinia to secure copper; Carthage occupies southern Spain to secure silver. Battle erupts when Carthage conquers the Roman ally Saguntum on the east coast of Spain.
Hannibal crosses the Alps with 50,000 men and war elephants.
Hannibal crosses the Alps
216 BC
Hannibal crosses the Alps with 50,000 soldiers. After a series of victories, in which he kills tens of thousands of Roman soldiers, he reaches the gates of Rome in 212 BC, but never takes Rome and is forced to return to defend Carthage in 202 when Scippio attacks there.
Scippio defeats Hannibal at the battle of Zama
202
Scippio drew Hannibal from Italy, which he had occupied for 15 years, back to Carthage, where he defeated him in battle, ending the last threat to the Roman empire for 600 years.
