General Introduction Flashcards
What is the practical limit of history?
The practical limit of history extends over a period of roughly 3,000 years.
How far back does the practical limit of history go?
Back to about 1,000 B. C.
What do we know of history beyond the practical limit?
Scraps of archeological evidence; names of pictures engraved on stone.
Who are the ancient people who were to set their imprint on later ages?
Untutored and unknown wandering tribes of Aryans.
How far did the ancient people travel, who were to set their imprint on later ages?
The tribes of Ayrans worked their way through the great plains of the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Danube, eventually forced their way into the Balkan and the Italian peninsulas.
Where did the ancient people first settle, who were to set their imprint on later ages?
In the Italian peninsulas, with the sea barring their farther progress.
Which two cities of the ancient people were to rise to the greatest celebrity?
Rome and Athens.
When did Greece emerge from obscurity?
About the year 1,000 B. C. or a little later.
What character made Greece emerge from obscurity?
Homer, about the year 1,000 B. C., or a little later.
Who are the Jews’ historical counterpart to Greece’s Homer? Why?
Joshua—who lead their conquest of Palestine whereby they, as the ancient Greeks, emerged from obscurity. For he comes close enough chronologically to Homer.
Who brought the alphabet to the ancient people who were to set their imprint on later ages and how?
Tyre, Phocaea, Carthage, and Marseille: for they were the early traders.
In whose writer’s verses did the Greeks weave their early legends?
Homer.
Who are the major dramatists of ancient Greece?
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Who were the major historians of ancient Greece?
Thucydides and Herodotus.
In which mode of thought did the Greek achieve their most important results?
Philosophy.
In which philosophers did ancient Greek philosophy find its supreme expression?
In Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno.
When did Greek begin to lose its vitality and to decay?
From the close of the Fourth Century B. C., the time of Aristotle and his pupil Alexander the Great.
How wide was the Greek empire as Alexander the Greek had created it?
It stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indus.
What happened to the Greek empire after Alexander’s death?
It was split into a number of monarchies, the Greek kingdoms of the East.
What was the last Greek kingdom to survive after Alexander’s death?
The kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt.
How did the last Greek kingdom perish?
The kingdom of the Ptolemies perished when Augustus defeated Antony and Cleopatra in B. C. 31, exactly 300 years after Alexander’s final victory over Darius at Arbela.
During the three hundred years between Alexander’s final victory over Darius and the victory of Augustus over Antony and Cleopatra in B. C. 31, what more western branch of the Aryans had forced their way to supremacy?
The Romans.
When did Rome break down the power of Carthage, get control of the Mediterranean, and then suddenly stretch out her hand over its eastern half?
About B. C. 200.
From about B. C. 200, how long did it take Rome to complete the conquest of the Balkans, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and make the Mediterranean a Roman lake?
Less than two centuries.
According to the outline of facts afforded by the legends and history of the Republic of Rome, how far back does the city go?
It goes back 500 B. C.
When did the Romans find literary expression?
Only after establishing contact with civilization and language of Greece.
To which period of Roman history do the early years of the Empire refer?
The age of Augustus.
Who was the Roman imitator of and counterpart to Greece’s Homer?
Virgil.
Who was the first Roman philosopher?
Lucretius.
On whom did Cicero model himself?
On Demosthenes.
In which only mode of thought did the Romans equal the Greeks?
History.
Who was Rome’s worthy rival to Thucydides?
Tacitus.
