Classical Civilization: China, Classical Civilization: India
221931572 | Alexander the Great | Successor of Philip II; successfully conquered the Persian Empire prior to his death in 323 B.C.E.; attempted to combine Greek and Persian cultures. | 0 | |
221931573 | Himalayas | Mountain region marking the northern border of the Indian sub-continent; site of the Aryan settlements that formed small kingdoms or warrior republics. | 1 | |
221931574 | Monsoon | Seasonal winds crossing Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia; during summer bring rains. | 2 | |
221931575 | Aryan | Indo-European nomadic pastoralists who replaced Harappan civilization; militarized society. | 3 | |
221931576 | Sanskrit | The sacred and classical Indian language. | 4 | |
221931577 | Vedas | Aryan hymns originally trasmitted orally but written down in sacred books from the 6th century B.C.E. | 5 | |
221931578 | Mahabharata | Indian epic of war, princely honor, love, and social duty; written down in the last cenutries B.C.E.; previously handed down in oral form. | 6 | |
221931579 | Ramayana | One of the great epic tales from classical India; traces adventures of King Rama and his wife, Sita. | 7 | |
221931580 | Upanishads | Later books of the Vedas; contained sophisticated and sublime philosophical ideas; utilized by Brahmans to restore religious authority. | 8 | |
221931581 | Varnas | Clusters of caste groups in Aryan society; four social castes-Brahmans (priests), warriors, merchants, and peasants; beneath four Aryan castes was a group of untouchables. | 9 | |
221931582 | Indra | Chief diety of the Aryans; depicted as a colossal, hard-drinking warrior. | 10 | |
221931583 | Chandragupta Maurya | Founder of the Maurya dynasty; established first empire in Indian subcontinent; first centralized government since Harappan civilization. | 11 | |
221931584 | Mauryan | Dynasty established in Indian subcontinent in 4th century B.C.E. following invasion by Alexander the Great. | 12 | |
221931585 | Ashoka | Grandson of Chandragupta Maurya; completed conquests of Indian subcontinent; converted to Buddhism and sposored spread of new religion throughout his empire. | 13 | |
221931586 | Dharma | The caste position and career determined by a person's birth; Hindu culture required that one accept one's social position and perform occupation to the best of one's ability to have a better situation in their next life. | 14 | |
221931587 | Kushans | Dynasty that succeeded the Mauryans in northwestern India; sponsors of Buddhism; empire did not extend to the Ganges River valley. | 15 | |
221931588 | Guptas | Dynasty that succeeded the Kushans in the 3rd century B.C.E.; built empire that extended to all but the southern regions of Indian subcontinent; less centralized than Mauryan. | 16 | |
221931589 | Kautilya | Political advisor to Chandragupta Maurya; one of the authors of Arthasashtra; believed in scientific application of warfare. | 17 | |
221931590 | Gurus | Brahmans who served as teachers for the princes of the imperial court of the Guptas. | 18 | |
221931591 | Vishnu | The Brahman, later Hindu, god of sacrafice; widely worshipped. | 19 | |
221931592 | Shiva | The Brahman, later Hindu, god of destruction and reproduction; worshipped as the personification of cosmic forces of change. | 20 | |
221931593 | Reincarnation | The successive attachment of the soul to some animate form according to merits earned in previous lives. | 21 | |
221931594 | Buddha | Creator of major Indian and Asian religion; born in 6th century B.C.E. as son of local ruler among Aryan tribes located near Himalayas; became an ascetic; found enlightenment under bo tree; taught that enlightenment could be achieved only by abandoning desires for all earthly things. | 22 | |
221931595 | Nirvana | The Buddhist state of enlightenment, a state of tranquility. | 23 | |
221931596 | Kamasutra | Written by Vatsayana during Gupta era; offered instructions on all aspects of life for higher caste males, including grooming, hygiene, etiquette, selection of wives, and instruction on lovemaking. | 24 | |
221931597 | Stupas | Stone shrines built to house pieces of bone or hair and personal posessions said to be relics of the Buddha; preserves Buddhist architectural forms. | 25 | |
221931598 | Scholar-gentry | Chinese class created by the martial linkage of the local and land-holding aristocracy with the office-holding shi; superseded shi as governors of China. | 26 | |
221931599 | Cyrus the Great | Established massive Persian Empire by 550 B.C.E.; successor state to Mesopotamian empires. | 27 | |
221931600 | Zoroastrianism | Animist religion that saw material existence as battle between forces of good and evil; stressed the importance of moral choice; righteous lived on after death in "House of Song"; chief religion of the Persian empire. | 28 | |
221931601 | Olympic Games | One of the pan-Hellenic rituals observed by all Greek city-states; involved athletic competitions and ritual celebrations. | 29 | |
221931602 | Pericles | Athenian political leader during 5th century B.C.E.; guided development of Athenian Empire; died during early stages of Peloponnesian War. | 30 | |
221931603 | Peloponnesian Wars | Wars from about 431 to 404 B.C.E. between Athens and Sparta for dominance in southern Greece; resulted in Spartan victory but failure to achieve political unification of Greece. | 31 | |
221931604 | Philip II of Macedon | Ruled Macedon from 359 to 336 B.C.E.; founder of centralized kingdom; later conquered rest of Greece which was subject to Macedonian authority. | 32 | |
221931605 | Hellenistic period | That culture associated with the spread of Greek influence as a result of Macedonian conquests; often seen as the combination of Greek culture with eastern political forms. | 33 | |
221931606 | Alexandria | One of the many cities of that name founded by Alexander the Great; site of Mediterranean's greatest library; center of literary studies. | 34 | |
221931607 | Roman Republic | The balanced constitution of Rome from 510 to 47 B.C.E.; featured an aristocratic Senate; a panel of magistrates and several popular assemblies. | 35 | |
221931608 | Carthage | Originally a Pheocian colony in northern Africa; became major port and commercial power in the western Mediterranean; fought the Punic Wars with Rome for dominance of the Western Mediterranean. | 36 | |
221931609 | Hannibal | Great Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War; sccessfully invaded Italy but failed to conquer Rome; finally defeated at the Battle of Zama. | 37 | |
221931610 | Augustus Caesar | First emperor of Rome | 38 | |
221931611 | Diocletian | Roman emperor from 284 to 305 C.E.; restored later empire by improved administration and tax collection. | 39 | |
221931612 | Constatine | Roman emperor from 312 to 337 C.E.; established second capital at Constantinople; attempted to use religious force of Christianity to unify empire spiritually. | 40 | |
221931613 | polis | City-state form of government. | 41 | |
221931614 | Direct democracy | Literally rule of the people; as interpreted in Athens, all decisions emanated from popular assembly without intermediation of elected representatives. | 42 | |
221931615 | Senate | Assembly of Roman aristocrats; advised on policy within the republic; one of the early elements of the Roman constitution. | 43 | |
221931616 | Consuls | Two chief executives or magistrates of the Roman republic; elected by an annual assembly dominated by aristocracy. | 44 | |
221931617 | Cicero | Conservative Roman senator; Stoic philosopher; one of great orators of his day; killed in reaction to assassination of Julius Caesar. | 45 | |
221931618 | Aristotle | Greek philosopher; teacher of Alexander the Great; knowledge based on observation of phenomena in material world. | 46 | |
221931619 | Stoics | Hellenistic group of philosophers; emphasized inner moral independence cultivated by strict discipline of the body and personal bravery. | 47 | |
221931620 | Socrates | Athenian philosopher of later 5th century; tutor of Plato; urged rational reflection of moral decisions; condemned to death for corrupting minds of Athenian young. | 48 | |
221931621 | Plato | Greek philosopher; knowledge based on consideration of ideal forms outside the material world; proposed ideal form of government based on abstract principles in which philosophers ruled. | 49 | |
221931622 | Sophocles | Greek writer of tragedies (woman) | 50 | |
221931623 | Iliad | Greek epic poem attributed to Homer; defined gods and human nature that shaped Greek mythology. | 51 | |
221931624 | Odyssey | Greek epic poem attributed to Homer; defined gods and human nature that shaped Greek mythology. | 52 |