WEST CIV UNIT 2 Flashcards
Which nation emerged first?
The Assyrians
What were some good features of the Assyrian empire?
Good military and infantry
Good geographic position
What made the Assyrian empire fall?
Their nobility revolted
The Chaldeans and the Persian attacked them & overthrew their government
What did the Neo-Assyrians change to when the Persians and the Chaldeans took over?
The NeoBabylons
What were the Chaldeans known for?
Astronomy
What is the Jewish religion known to be?
A syncretic religion- they combined many belief systems together to form this
What is the talament?
A commentary of the Torah
Moral Dualism
There is an ongoing struggle between good & evil
& good & evil are evenly matched
Ahuramasda
The good influence
Ahriman
The bad force
What is all religion the result of?
Human interaction with environmental factors
Diaspora
Dispersion of the population (when the Jews were exiled from their homeland)
What happened to most of the area the Greeks were inhabiting?
They became city-states
What became a source more common than farming?
Herding
Who did the Greeks have a revival of trade with?
The Phoenicians & Canaan
How did the Greeks learn to write again?
They applied the Phoenician alphabet to their Greek dialect
What is arête?
The Greek ideology
Achieving individual excellence
How could males achieve arête?
Through achievement in war and persuasiveness in speech
How could women achieve arête?
Smart and wise management of their household
What would nations do if they were in war at the times of the Olympics?
Make a truce
Which God did the Olympic honor?
Zeus
Which goddess did the women honor at the Olympics?
Hera
What was the goal of the Olympics?
To glorify arête
What did homer believe in?
The gods were anthropomorphic
They were powerful gods who engaged with humans
They were hard to predict
Warriors went to the alysian fields for afterlife
What did Hesiod believe of the Greek gods?
There is a natural force in the universe that leans toward justice
Gods struggled as well as humans
The gods were born out of the earth & chaos coming together
Thought people should strive to be just to the class below them
What was the main reason for city states?
Geography
Which city had the first form of direct democracy?
Athens
When was the archaic age?
750-500 BC
Democracy
The male aristocrats could vote
Oligarchy
A few people governed the city state
Monarchy
A king
Tyranny
A single ruler
Which city was in North Africa set up by Phoenicians?
Carthage
What did the Greeks believe about religion?
It was cooperate
The whole city had to be right in their participation of religion or the whole city suffered
What is reciprocity?
The human obligation is to show gratitude to gods for all they received and the gods would bless them
Why were Christians punished?
The people did not care so much that they didn’t believe in the Greek gods, but they were punished because they did not participate in the religious festivals & put the whole city in danger of punishment
More Hesiod beliefs
The gods favored those who practiced justice
The community that supported justice has the support of the gods
The rich had to be fair to the poor to keep the gods happy
His beliefs were very uncommon to the rest of society
What was the most innovative idea in this era?
The extension of political rights to the poor people
What was a hoplite?
A soldier who had to be wealthy enough to provide his own armor & weapons
They got more political rights
Which type of governments were Sparta Corinth and Athens?
Oligarchy
Tyrrany
Democracy
What were the three parts of the Spartan government?
2 parts heridetary & 1 part elected
What were The two hereditary parts of the government?
2 kings
Head of military and then the priestly head
Council of elders
What was the elected part of the Spartan government?
The ephors
They administered policies
What was the male purpose in Spartan society?
To be a soldier
What were helots?
Slaves from nations the Spartans conquered that did all of the other work in Spartan society besides fighting battles
What was the main function of women in Spartan society?
To have children
Which society had strange sexual relationships between older & much younger men?
Spartan
At what age were boys taken from their homes to go learn to be a warrior & when were they done with their training?
7
30
What type of government did the Spartans have?
Tyranny
Most tyrants came to power by tricking & getting support of the poor
What type of government did the Athenians have?
Democracy
Who could vote in Athenian society?
Aristocratic males
Why was Athens the first place to have a democracy?
They were the first place to have a growing middle class & more people needed to state their opinions
Who was Cleisthenes?
The father of Greek democracy
What did Solon decide?
The top social ranking should be based on wealth, not bloodline
What is meritocracy?
Wealth showed merit & in most cultures people were given power because of their bloodline, but it should be earned not inherited
What were magistrates?
Archons
People voted for these
Anyone could vote for these, but only the rich could run
Who was drako?
A Greek tyrant who tried to help Greece out of their depression
Who was Solon?
A Greek ruler after drako with revolutionary new ideas
What were some of the things Solon did?
Made it illegal to sell a citizen because of debt
Freed all of those who were already enslaved because of debt
Cancelled all of the debts of the poor
Did not redistribute wealth
Divided citizens based on wealth
What type of council did Solon set up?
He set up s council of 400 men who decided what the assembly would meet on & talk through.
How were the men in solon’s council decided?
By lottery
Any man could be chosen no matter social rank
Who took over solon’s rule?
A tyrant
Then the tyrant’s son
Then Cleisthenes
How did Cleisthenes balance power?
Between urban & countryside
What did Pythagoras believe had the power to explain natural forces in the universe?
Mathematics
What did Thales & Anaximander believe could explain things?
Theorized that there were natural laws that explained the universe
What empire was the first to emerge after the dark ages?
Neo-Assyrian
How did neo-Assyrian Kings demonstrate their skill, strength, and courage?
Hunting lions
Who founded the Persian empire?
Cyrus
What is the basis of the Israelite kingdom’s wealth?
International trade
Who did God reveal Himself to on mount Sinai?
Moses
When did the Greek dark age occur?
1000-750 BC
What is one of the most startling indications of the severity of life in the Greek dark age?
Greeks lost their knowledge of writing
The lord of the trade in tin as a result of the period of violence led Greeks to do what?
Mine & smelt iron ore
How was a new social elite established in Greece after the Mycenaean collapse?
Competitive individual excellence produced a new social elite
In works & days, how does Hesiod describe Zeus?
The source of justice in human affairs
How were political rights generally distributed in Greek city states?
Male citizens of Greek city states enjoyed rough legal and political equality regardless of their wealth
During the archaic age, how many city-states were there in Greece?
Hundreds
A core belief of Greek religion was that
Humans must honor the gods to thank them for blessings received and to receive more blessings in return
What limited the number of slaves working in agriculture in archaic Greece?
They system of agriculture in Greece made owning large numbers of slaves impractical
What was the status of Greek women with regard to citizenship?
Free women could be citizens, but they could not vote or participate in politics
Spartan society depended on the helots who were they?
Greek slaves taken captive in regions conquered by the Spartans
What were Spartan women best known for?
Their high degree of personal freedom
Who were Athenian democratic reformers?
Solon & Cleisthenes
What important reorganization of society did Solon undertake in Athens?
He made the top ranking social division based on wealth, not birth
Pythagoras, an Ionian philosopher living in the city-state of Croton, taught that
Numerical relationships explained the world
What was the neo-Assyrian military strength rooted in?
A warrior culture
Which peoples joined forced to defeat the weakened new-Assyrian empire?
The Chaldeans & the Medes
What role did the satraps play in the Persian empire?
They were regional governors
The religion of the Persian empire is bed t known today as
Zoroastrianism
Who was the last ruler of a unified Israelite kingdom?
Solomon
What did the Greek economy shift from early in the Greek dark age?
One based on settled agriculture to one based on herding
What does homer’s epic poem the Iliad tell the story of?
The Greek army in the Trojan war
What was a characteristic of the early Olympic Games?
Individual athletes demonstrating the competitive value of arête
Who was allowed to compete in the Olympic Games?
Any socially elite Greek male accomplished enough to compete
What did the Greek poet Hesiod believe that a leader should demonstrate excellence by?
Employing persuasion instead of force
How did the mountainous geography of Greece shape its society?
By isolating communities, concentrating resources, and contributing to often hostile relationships between the city states
Why did the ranks of the hoplite, once filled exclusively by elites, expand to include no elites in the eighth century BC?
More men were able to afford the necessary equipment
As freedom expanded for Greek citizens, how was slavery in the region affected?
Slavery expanded and harsh lines were drawn between free persons and slaves
Women in archaic Greece
Had legal, social, and religious rights as citizens
Weddings in archaic Greece typically occurred
When the bride was in her early teens and the groom was ten to fifteen years older
In the Spartan political system, the Kings
Were just one part of the ruling oligarchy
Who established a tyranny in Corinth by overthrowing the city’s harsh oligarch in 657 BC?
Cypselus
Between 800 & 700 BC, the Athenian economy
Expanded steadily, spreading wealth & strengthening the middle class
Which Athenian leader made it illegal to sell a citizen into slavery to settle a debt?
Solon
What did the Greeks create out of the near eastern traditions of poetry?
Psalms, or prayers to the gods set to music
Why did the near eastern emerge from the dark ages first?
They had a monarchy system.
