Greece & Rome Flashcards
Describe the geography of Greece and Italy…
Italy: Peninsula, into the Mediterranean Sea, low mountains, broad plains, dry, temperature climate, fertile land.
Greece: rocky, mountainous, thousands of islands, not many regions have fertile land.
Athens vs Sparta
Values: Athens was educational, Sparta was fitness.
Women: Athens inferior, Sparta cornerstone
Economy: Athens trade & the arts, Sparta farming and conquest
Political System: Athens is democracy, citizen voting. Sparta was ruled by two kings and elders. Militaristic power.
Compare Athens and Sparta
Both had their own governments, laws, and currency. Both competed in the Olympic games. Both used slavery to support their economy.
What are humanistic values?
People can be good and improve the world: people have the potential to grow. Greek art and literature really explored what it means to be human, understanding ourselves and the world around us.
How did the Romans build upon the Greek to create Hellenistic culture?
Greek art, built temples that resembled Greek architecture, adopted the Greek alphabet, were inspired by greek plays and poems, took ideas from Greek philosophers when developing government. For example, the shift from classical to Hellenistic culture.
Typical features of Greek Architecture.
A focus on balance and harmony, pillars, symmetrical.
Alexander the Great’s Achievements
Greek Empire that stretched from Greece to India, military genius, spread Greek culture and ideas -> forming Hellenistic culture.
Why is Alexander the Great a Villian?
His brutality of conquest, his armies were ruthless. He spread Greek culture, but this was more about domination than sharing ideas.
How was Hellenistic culture differ?
A lot more widespread, culture was more varied. More about emotion, innovation, and abstraction (as seen in Hellenistic sculpture)
4 Scientific Accomplishments of the Hellenistic Age
- Euclid’s geometry: Elements
- Archimedes: principle of buoyancy, pulley systems.
- Socrates: Questioning everything, examine and think.
- Plato: Wrote “The Republic” how a society should be run
How did the ideas and accomplishments of Greeks influence western culture?
Check-and-balance government. Math (geometry) and science since Greeks were the first people to think about the world in logical ways and spread their ideas around the world. Greek architecture is also mimicked.
How were checks on power built into the Roman Republic
Romans had a system of checks and balances: 2 co-presidents who had a 1-year term limit, a senate, and officials, and citizens could vote in an assembly.
What did Romans do for spare time and who paid?
Gladiator fights, chariot races, plays, public baths. The wealthy and government would pay for entertainment to improve their reputation.
Boy-girl dynamic in Rome
Boys: citizenship and work: education.
Girls: cooking, weaving, household.
Roman women had limited rights, could not vote or hold public office, couldn’t fully own and control property, always under the control of a male relative.
Golden Age of Athens
480 - 430 BCE
Alexander the Great (date)
330 BCE
What did pythagora do
Pythagorean theorum
Who were helots?
enslaved peoples, often prisoners of wars common in Sparta.
Sparta had an _____chy.
Oligarchy
Who was homer?
A blind poet
Who was Herodotus?
Father of history, the first person to write about history intricately.
Direct Democracy where?
Citizens decide on laws themselves, without representatives (ATHENS)
Who was Pericles?
He led the Athens assembly, politician and general, oversaw the construction of the Parthenon, etc…
People of the first triumvirate
Julius Caesar became so powerful he ruled as a dictator. Started as a group of 3 leaders (a triumvirate made of Pompey and Crassus), but Caesar. The political system became unstable and they started fighting which led to the downfall of the two, making him “dictator for life” he was then assassinated, which led to an outburst of political conflict that resulted in Octavian taking power and renaming himself Augustus Caesar, the first emperor.
tyrant
someone who takes power and rules by force.
Who fought who in the Persian Wars?
Darius the Great started the conflict and Xerxes (his son) continued it vs. Primarily Athenian and Spartan militaries
Primary cause of the Persian War?
Greek city states that wanted independence from Persian control (Ionians).
Cause of Peloponnesian war
A “slow motion power struggle” between Athens and Sparta
How did the Peloponesian war end?
Sparta won, but all of Greece was now weakened, ended the Golden Age of Greece.
Hippocrates
Father of medicene (hypocratic oath) tried to find logical explanations of disease rather than the Gods
Significant city founded by Alexander the Great
Alexandria, Egypt
Etruscans
Civilization that was in Italy before Rome. Fought a series of wars Impacted Roman art, religion and alphabet.
Latins
Closest neighbors of Romans that shared a lot of the culture/language. The Romans ended up conquering these tribes and brought them into the empire.
Patrician/Plebeian dynamic
Patrician: super wealthy aristocrats, all the important religious and political positions.
Plebians: the 99%. Couldn’t hold important political offices like the senate or praetor, so they were constantly fighting for more rights and social mobility.
