Lectures 5 - 8 Flashcards
Assyrians
A Semitic-speaking people who arose in Mesopotamia in the second millennium B.C. and, after about 900 B.C., built a large and cruel empire centered on Nineveh. Defeated by a coalition led by Neo-Babylonians and Medes.
Avesta
Holy scriptures of Zoroastrianism (q.v.). containing gathas (song; poems)
Medes
People who lived in the Zagros Mountains, aided in the fall of the Assyrians, and allied with the Persians.
Zoroastrianism
Principal religion of the ancient Persians. Revealed in songs (gathas) in the Avesta. Consisted of the teachings of Zarathustra, who stressed dualities.
Cyrus
(r. 559–529)
King (shah) of the Persians who began building the Persian Empire. He permitted the Jews to rebuild a temple in Jerusalem.
Nebuchadnezzar
(r. 605–562 B.C.)
Reigned as the greatest king of the Neo- Babylonians, one of the peoples who overthrew the Assyrians. Ruled from Babylon, which he built into a magnificent city.
Persians
People from the Persian (now Iranian) plains who allied with the Medes, built a huge empire, and provided many examples in government and culture.
Satrap
Persian administrator
Zoroastrian God
Ahura Mazda
Minoan
Name (from the legendary Minos) for the brilliant culture on the island of Crete between 2200 and 1500 B.C. Its main center was at Knossos.
Linear A
Name for writing found on Minoan Crete. Not yet deciphered.
Knossos
Site of huge palace complex built by Minoan kings of Crete.
Mycenae (my-see-nee)
City (flourished 1400–1200 B.C.) ruled by Agamemnon, leader of the Greek forces at Troy. Also gives its name to the earliest phase of Greek history.
Linear B
Name for writing found in Mycenean Greece. Deciphered by Michael Ventris in the early 1950s as a primitive form of Greek.
Mediterranean triad
Name for the three traditional and widely disseminated crops: cereal grains, olives, and grapes.
Dorians
Greek speakers who migrated from Thessaly to Peloponnesus after about 1200 B.C. and settled around Sparta. Greek legend remembered them as invaders.
The Greek Dark Ages
ca. 1100-800 b.c.e.
- A time of small illiterate communities
- A time of de-population, de-urbanization, and scant construction
Greek Transitional Time Period
ca. 800-700 b.c.e
Greek Archaic Time Period
ca. 750-500 b.c.e
helots
State-owned slaves in ancient Sparta, mainly Messenian people who lived to the west of Sparta and whom the Spartans conquered after 750 B.C.
acropolis
The elevated region of a polis used for civic celebrations and defense.
What is the polis “formula?” What are 4 common features of a polis?
-
asty + chora = polis
- asty: city proper, urban core
- chora: region, district; the agricultural hinterland that surrounded a polis
- Common features
- Agora
- Temples
- Entertainment facilities (theatres, stadiums, etc.)
- Fortifications
agoge
Name for the “training,” the traditional way of bringing up Spartan males.
- Babies inspected at birth, returned to parents until age 7
- Boys enrolled in military bortherhoods
- From 7 to 18, rigorous physical and military training
- From 18 to 20, service in Krypteia
- Service in regular army unit until 60
agora
The market; a key component of any Greek polis.
peroikoi
“Dwellers about”; resident aliens in ancient Sparta.
Lycurgus
Semi-legendary figure to whom the Spartans attributed their constitution
homoioi (ho-muhy-yuhy):
“the equals,” all adult Spartan males (above the age of 18)
Spartan Social Classes
- Homoioi
- Periokoi
- Helots
Who were they Lydians?
- Minor player in the conquering of Assyrians
- Invented coinage around 700 b.c.
Croesus
595 BC – c. 546 BC
The most famous Lydian king whose wealth was legendary.
fresco
a painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colors penetrate the plaster and become fixed as it dries.
Numa Pompilius
reigned 715–673 BC, was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus. Many of Rome’s most important religious and political institutions are attributed to him.
