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| 15174776586 | Agricultural Revolutions | The change from food gathering to food production that occurred between about 8000 and 2000 B.C.E. Also known as the Neolithic Revolution. | 0 | |
| 15174776587 | australopithecines | The several extinct species of humanlike primates that existed from about 4.5 million years ago to 1.4 million years ago (genus Australopithecus). | 1 | |
| 15174776588 | bipedalism | The ability to walk upright on two legs, characteristic of hominids. | 2 | |
| 15174776589 | culture | Socially transmitted patterns of action and expression. | 3 | |
| 15174776590 | evolution | The biological theory that, over time, changes occurring in plants and animals, mainly as a result of natural selection and genetic mutation, result in new species. | 4 | |
| 15174776591 | foragers | People who support themselves by hunting wild animals and gathering wild edible plants and insects. | 5 | |
| 15174776592 | Great Ice Age | Geological era that occurred between about 2 million and 11,000 years ago. | 6 | |
| 15174776593 | hominid | The biological family that includes humans and humanlike primates. | 7 | |
| 15174776594 | Homo erectus | An extinct human species. It evolved in Africa about 1.8 million years ago. | 8 | |
| 15174776595 | Homo habilis | The first human species (now extinct). It evolved in Africa about 2.3 million years ago. | 9 | |
| 15174776596 | Homo sapiens | The current human species. It evolved in Africa sometime between 400,000 and 100,000 years ago. | 10 | |
| 15174776597 | megaliths | Structures and complexes of very large stones constructed for ceremonial and religious purposes in Neolithic times. | 11 | |
| 15174776598 | Neolithic | The period of the Stone Age associated with the ancient Agricultural Revolution(s). | 12 | |
| 15174776599 | Paleolithic | The period of the Stone Age associated with the evolution of humans. | 13 | |
| 15174776600 | Stone Age | The historical period characterized by the production of tools from stone and other nonmetallic substances. | 14 | |
| 15174776601 | amulet | Small charm meant to protect the bearer from evil. Found frequently in archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, amulets reflect the religious practices of the common people. | 15 | |
| 15174776602 | Babylon | The largest and most important city in Mesopotamia. It achieved particular eminence as the capital of the Amorite king Hammurabi in the eighteenth century B.C.E. | 16 | |
| 15174776603 | bronze | An alloy of copper with a small amount of tin (or sometimes arsenic), which is harder and more durable than copper alone. The term Bronze Age is applied to the era the dates of which vary in different parts of the world when bronze was the primary metal for tools and weapons. | 17 | |
| 15174776604 | city-state | A small independent state consisting of an urban center and the surrounding agricultural territory. A characteristic political form in early Mesopotamia, Archaic and Classical Greece, Phoenicia, and early Italy. | 18 | |
| 15174776605 | civilization | An ambiguous term often used to denote more complex societies but sometimes used by anthropologists to describe any group of people sharing a set of cultural traits. | 19 | |
| 15174776606 | cuneiform | A system of writing in which wedge-shaped symbols represented words or syllables. It originated in Mesopotamia and was used initially for Sumerian and Akkadian but later was adapted to represent other languages of western Asia. Literacy was confined to a relatively small group of administrators and scribes. | 20 | |
| 15174776607 | Hammurabi | Amorite ruler of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 B.C.E.). He conquered many city-states in southern and northern Mesopotamia and is best known for a code of laws, inscribed on a black stone pillar, illustrating the principles to be used in legal cases. | 21 | |
| 15174776608 | Harappa | Site of one of the great cities of the Indus Valley civilization of the third millennium B.C.E. It was located on the northwest frontier of the zone of cultivation (in modern Pakistan). | 22 | |
| 15174776609 | hieroglyphics | A system of writing in which pictorial symbols represented sounds, syllables, or concepts. It was used for official and monumental inscriptions in ancient Egypt. Because of the long period of study required to master this system, literacy in hieroglyphics was confined to a relatively small group of scribes and administrators. | 23 | |
| 15174776610 | ma'at | Egyptian term for the concept of divinely created and maintained order in the universe. The divine ruler was the earthly guarantor of this order. | 24 | |
| 15174776611 | Memphis | The capital of Old Kingdom Egypt, near the head of the Nile Delta. Early rulers were interred in the nearby pyramids. | 25 | |
| 15174776612 | Mohenjo-Daro | Largest of the cities of the Indus Valley civilization, centrally located in the extensive floodplain of the Indus River in contemporary Pakistan. | 26 | |
| 15174776613 | mummy | A body preserved by chemical processes or special natural circumstances, often in the belief that the deceased will need it again in the afterlife. | 27 | |
| 15174776614 | papyrus | A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. From it was produced a coarse, paperlike writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other peoples in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East. | 28 | |
| 15174776615 | pharaoh | The central figure in the ancient Egyptian state. Believed to be an earthly manifestation of the gods, he used his absolute power to maintain the safety and prosperity of Egypt. | 29 | |
| 15174776616 | pyramid | A large, triangular stone monument, used in Egypt and Nubia as a burial place for the king. The largest pyramids, erected during the Old Kingdom near Memphis, reflect the Egyptian belief that the proper and spectacular burial of the divine ruler would guarantee the continued prosperity of the land. | 30 | |
| 15174776617 | scribe | In the governments of many ancient societies, a professional position reserved for men who had undergone the lengthy training required to be able to read and write using cuneiform, hieroglyphics, or other early, cumbersome writing systems. | 31 | |
| 15174776618 | Semitic | Family of related languages long spoken across parts of western Asia and northern Africa. In antiquity these languages included Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician. The most widespread modern member of the Semitic family is Arabic. | 32 | |
| 15174776619 | Sumerians | The people who dominated southern Mesopotamia through the end of the third millennium B.C.E. | 33 | |
| 15174776620 | Thebes | Capital city of Egypt and home of the ruling dynasties during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Monarchs were buried across the river in the Valley of the Kings. | 34 | |
| 15174776621 | ziggurat | A massive pyramidal stepped tower made of mud bricks. It is associated with religious complexes in ancient Mesopotamian cities, but its function is unknown. | 35 | |
| 15174776622 | Akhenaten | Egyptian pharaoh (r. 1353-1335 B.C.E.). He built a new capital at Amarna, fostered a new style of naturalistic art, and created a religious revolution by imposing worship of the sun-disk. | 36 | |
| 15174776623 | Carthage | City located in present-day Tunisia, founded by Phoenicians ca. 800 B.C.E. It became a major commercial center and naval power in the western Mediterranean until defeated by Rome in the third century B.C.E. | 37 | |
| 15174776624 | Diaspora | Greek word meaning dispersal, used to describe the communities of a given ethnic group living outside their homeland. Jews, for example, spread from Israel to western Asia and Mediterranean lands in antiquity and today can be found throughout the world. | 38 | |
| 15174776625 | First Temple | A monumental sanctuary built in Jerusalem by King Solomon in the tenth century B.C.E. to be the religious center for the Israelite god Yahweh. The Temple priesthood conducted sacrifices, received a tithe or percentage of agricultural revenues, and became economically and politically powerful. | 39 | |
| 15174776626 | Hatshepsut | Queen of Egypt (r. 1473-1458 B.C.E.). She dispatched a naval expedition to Punt (possibly northeast Sudan or Eritrea), the faraway source of myrrh. There is evidence of opposition to a woman as ruler, and after her death her name and image were frequently defaced. | 40 | |
| 15174776627 | Hebrew Bible | A collection of sacred books containing diverse materials concerning the origins, experiences, beliefs, and practices of the Israelites. Most of the extant text was compiled by members of the priestly class in the fifth century B.C.E. and reflects the concerns and views of this group. | 41 | |
| 15174776628 | Hittites | A people from central Anatolia who established an empire in Anatolia and Syria in the Late Bronze Age. With wealth from the trade in metals and military power based on chariot forces, the Hittites vied with New Kingdom Egypt for control of Syria-Palestine before falling to unidentified attackers ca. 1200 B.C.E. | 42 | |
| 15174776629 | Iron Age | Historians' term for the period during which iron was the primary metal for tools and weapons. The advent of iron technology began at different times in different parts of the world. | 43 | |
| 15174776630 | Israel | In antiquity, the land between the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, occupied by the Israelites from the early second millennium B.C.E. The modern state of Israel was founded in 1948. | 44 | |
| 15174776631 | Library of Ashurbanipal | A large collection of writings drawn from the ancient literary, religious, and scientific traditions of Mesopotamia. It was assembled by the seventhcentury B.C.E. Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal. The many tablets unearthed by archaeologists constitute one of the most important sources of presentday knowledge of the long literary tradition of Mesopotamia. | 45 | |
| 15174776632 | Linear B | A set of syllabic symbols, derived from the writing system of Minoan Crete, used in the Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age to write an early form of Greek. It was used primarily for palace records, and the surviving Linear B tablets provide substantial information about the economic organization of Mycenaean society and tantalizing clues about political, social, and religious institutions. | 46 | |
| 15174776633 | mass deportation | The forcible removal and relocation of large numbers of people or entire populations. The mass deportations practiced by the Assyrian and Persian Empires were meant as a terrifying warning of the consequences of rebellion. They also brought skilled and unskilled labor to the imperial center. | 47 | |
| 15174776634 | Minoan | Prosperous civilization on the Aegean island of Crete in the second millennium B.C.E. The Minoans engaged in far-flung commerce around the Mediterranean and exerted powerful cultural influences on the early Greeks. | 48 | |
| 15174776635 | monotheism | Belief in the existence of a single divine entity. Some scholars cite the devotion of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten to Aten (sundisk) and his suppression of traditional gods as the earliest instance. The Israelite worship of Yahweh developed into an exclusive belief in one god, and this concept passed into Christianity and Islam. | 49 | |
| 15174776636 | Mycenae | Site of a fortified palace complex in southern Greece that controlled a Late Bronze Age kingdom. In Homer's epic poems, Mycenae was the base of King Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks besieging Troy. Contemporary archaeologists call the complex Greek society of the second millennium B.C.E. "Mycenaean." | 50 | |
| 15174776637 | Neo-Assyrian Empire | An empire extending from western Iran to Syria-Palestine, conquered by the Assyrians of northern Mesopotamia between the tenth and seventh centuries B.C.E. They used force and terror and exploited the wealth and labor of their subjects. They also preserved and continued the cultural and scientific developments of Mesopotamian civilization. | 51 | |
| 15174776638 | Neo-Babylonian kingdom | Under the Chaldaeans (nomadic kinship groups that settled in southern Mesopotamia in the early first millennium B.C.E.), Babylon again became a major political and cultural center in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E. After participating in the destruction of Assyrian power, the monarchs Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar took over the southern portion of the Assyrian domains. | 52 | |
| 15174776639 | Phoenicians | Semitic-speaking Canaanites living on the coast of modern Lebanon and Syria in the first millennium B.C.E. From major cities such as Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician merchants and sailors explored the Mediterranean, engaged in widespread commerce, and founded Carthage and other colonies in the western Mediterranean. | 53 | |
| 15174776640 | Ramesses II | A long-lived ruler of New Kingdom Egypt (r. 1290-1224 B.C.E.). He reached an accommodation with the Hittites of Anatolia after a standoff in battle at Kadesh in Syria. He built on a grand scale throughout Egypt. | 54 | |
| 15174776641 | shaft graves | A term used for the burial sites of elite members of Mycenaean Greek society in the mid-second millennium B.C.E. At the bottom of deep shafts lined with stone slabs, the bodies were laid out along with gold and bronze jewelry, implements, weapons, and masks. | 55 | |
| 15174776642 | Celts | Peoples sharing common linguistic and cultural features that originated in central Europe in the first half of the first millennium B.C.E. | 56 | |
| 15174776643 | Confucius | Western name for the Chinese philosopher Kongzi (551-479 B.C.E.). His doctrine of duty and public service had a great influence on subsequent Chinese thought and served as a code of conduct for government officials. | 57 | |
| 15174776644 | Daoism | Chinese school of thought, originating in the Warring States Period with Laozi. Daoism offered an alternative to the Confucian emphasis on hierarchy and duty. | 58 | |
| 15174776645 | Druids | The class of religious experts who conducted rituals and preserved sacred lore among some ancient Celtic peoples. | 59 | |
| 15174776646 | Herodotus | Heir to the technique of historia (investigation/ research) developed by Greeks in the late archaic period. He came from a Greek community in Anatolia and traveled extensively, collecting information in western Asia and the Mediterranean lands. He traced the antecedents and chronicled the wars between the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire, thus originating the Western tradition of historical writing. | 60 | |
| 15174776647 | Kush | An Egyptian name for Nubia, the region alongside the Nile River south of Egypt, where an indigenous kingdom with its own distinctive institutions and cultural traditions arose beginning in the early second millennium B.C.E. | 61 | |
| 15174776648 | loess | A fine, light silt deposited by wind and water. It constitutes the fertile soil of the Yellow River Valley in northern China. | 62 | |
| 15174776649 | Mandate of Heaven | Chinese religious and political ideology developed by the Zhou, according to which it was the prerogative of Heaven, the chief deity, to grant power to the ruler of China and to take away that power if the ruler failed to conduct himself justly and in the best interests of his subjects. | 63 | |
| 15174776650 | Meroë | Capital of a flourishing kingdom in southern Nubia from the fourth century B.C.E. to the fourth century C.E. In this period Nubian culture shows more independence from Egypt and the influence of sub-Saharan Africa. | 64 | |
| 15174776651 | nomads | People without permanent, fixed places of residence, whose way of life and means of subsistence require them to periodically migrate, often with their herds of domesticated animals, to a familiar series of temporary seasonal encampments. | 65 | |
| 15174776652 | Scythians | Term used by the ancient Greeks for the nomadic peoples living on the steppe north of the Black and Caspian Seas. | 66 | |
| 15174776653 | Shang | The dominant people in the earliest Chinese dynasty for which we have written records (ca. 1766-1045 B.C.E.). | 67 | |
| 15174776655 | steppe | An ecological region of grass- and shrub-covered plains that is treeless and too arid for agriculture. | 68 | |
| 15174776656 | yin/yang | In Chinese belief, complementary factors that help to maintain the equilibrium of the world. Yang is associated with masculine, light, and active qualities; yin with feminine, dark, and passive qualities. | 69 | |
| 15174776657 | Zhou | The people and dynasty that took over the dominant position in north China from the Shang and created the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to justify their rule. The Zhou era, particularly the vigorous early period (1045-771 B.C.E.), was remembered in Chinese tradition as a time of prosperity and benevolent rule. | 70 | |
| 15174776658 | Alexander | King of Macedonia in northern Greece. Between 334 and 323 B.C.E. he conquered the Persian Empire, reached the Indus Valley, founded many Greek-style cities, and spread Greek culture across the Middle East. Later known as Alexander the Great. | 71 | |
| 15174776659 | Alexandria | City on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt founded by Alexander. It became the capital of the Hellenistic kingdom of the Ptolemies. It contained the famous Library and the Museum, a center for leading scientific and literary figures. Its merchants engaged in trade with areas bordering the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. | 72 | |
| 15174776660 | Cyrus | Founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Between 550 and 530 B.C.E. he conquered Media, Lydia, and Babylon. Revered in the traditions of both Iran and the subject peoples, he employed Persians and Medes in his administration and respected the institutions and beliefs of subject peoples. | 73 | |
| 15174776661 | Darius I | Third ruler of the Persian Empire (r. 522-486 B.C.E.). He crushed the widespread initial resistance to his rule and gave major government posts to Persians rather than to Medes. He established a system of provinces and tribute, began construction of Persepolis, and expanded Persian control in the east (Pakistan) and west (northern Greece). | 74 | |
| 15174776662 | democracy | System of government in which all "citizens" (however defined) have equal political and legal rights, privileges, and protections, as in the Greek city-state of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. | 75 | |
| 15174776663 | Hellenistic Age | Historians' term for the era, usually dated 323-30 B.C.E., in which Greek culture spread across western Asia and northeastern Africa after the conquests of Alexander the Great. The period ended with the fall of the last major Hellenistic kingdom to Rome, but Greek cultural influence persisted until the spread of Islam in the seventh century C.E. | 76 | |
| 15174776664 | hoplite | A heavily armored Greek infantryman of the Archaic and Classical periods who fought in the close-packed phalanx formation. Hoplite armies & militias composed of middle- and upperclass citizens supplying their own equipment & were for centuries superior to all other military forces. | 77 | |
| 15174776666 | Pericles | Aristocratic leader who guided the Athenian state through the transformation to full participatory democracy for all male citizens, supervised construction of the Acropolis, and pursued a policy of imperial expansion that led to the Peloponnesian War. He formulated a strategy of attrition but died from the plague early in the war. | 78 | |
| 15174776665 | Peloponnesian War | A protracted (431-404 B.C.E.) and costly conflict between the Athenian and Spartan alliance systems that convulsed most of the Greek world. The war was largely a consequence of Athenian imperialism. Possession of a naval empire allowed Athens to fight a war of attrition, but ultimately Sparta prevailed because of Athenian errors and Persian financial support. | 79 | |
| 15174776667 | Persepolis | A complex of palaces, reception halls, and treasury buildings erected by the Persian kings Darius I and Xerxes in the Persian homeland. It is believed that the New Year's festival was celebrated here, as well as the coronations, weddings, and funerals of the Persian kings, who were buried in cliff-tombs nearby. | 80 | |
| 15174776668 | Persian Wars | Conflicts between Greek city-states and the Persian Empire, ranging from the Ionian Revolt (499-494 B.C.E.) through Darius's punitive expedition that failed at Marathon (490 B.C.E.) and the defeat of Xerxes' massive invasion of Greece by the Spartan-led Hellenic League (480-479 B.C.E.). This first major setback for Persian arms launched the Greeks into their period of greatest cultural productivity. Herodotus chronicled these events in the first "history" in the Western tradition. | 81 | |
| 15174776669 | polis | The Greek term for a city-state, an urban center and the agricultural territory under its control. It was the characteristic form of political organization in southern and central Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods. Of the hundreds of city-states in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions settled by Greeks, some were oligarchic, others democratic, depending on the powers delegated to the Council and the Assembly. | 82 | |
| 15174776670 | Ptolemies | The Macedonian dynasty, descended from one of Alexander the Great's officers, that ruled Egypt for three centuries (323-30 B.C.E.). From their magnificent capital at Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, the Ptolemies largely took over the system created by Egyptian pharaohs to extract the wealth of the land, rewarding Greeks and Hellenized non- Greeks serving in the military and administration. | 83 | |
| 15174776671 | sacrifice | A gift given to a deity often with the aim of creating a relationship, gaining favor, and obligating the god to provide some benefit to the sacrificer, sometimes in order to sustain the deity and thereby guarantee the continuing vitality of the natural world. | 84 | |
| 15174776672 | satrap | The governor of a province in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, often a relative of the king. He was responsible for protection of the province and for forwarding tribute to the central administration. Satraps in outlying provinces enjoyed considerable autonomy. | 85 | |
| 15174776674 | trireme | Greek and Phoenician warship of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. It was sleek and light powered by 170 oars arranged in three vertical tiers. Manned by skilled sailors, it was capable of short bursts of speed and complex maneuvers. | 86 | |
| 15174776673 | Socrates | Athenian philosopher (ca. 470-399 B.C.E.) who shifted the emphasis of philosophical investigation from questions of natural science to ethics and human behavior. He attracted young disciples from elite families but made enemies by revealing the ignorance and pretensions of others actions that culminated in his trial and execution by the Athenian state. | 87 | |
| 15174776675 | tyrant | The term the Greeks used to describe someone who seized and held power in violation of the normal procedures and traditions of the community. Tyrants appeared in many Greek city- states in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E. often taking advantage of the disaffection of the emerging middle class and, by weakening the old elite, unwittingly contributing to the evolution of democracy. | 88 | |
| 15174776676 | Zoroastrianism | A religion originating in ancient Iran that became the official religion of the Achaemenids. It centered on a single benevolent deity Ahuramazda, who engaged in a struggle with demonic forces before prevailing and restoring a pristine world. It emphasized truth-telling, purity, and reverence for nature. | 89 | |
| 15174776677 | aqueduct | A conduit, either elevated or underground, that used gravity to carry water from a source to a location, usually a city, that needed it. The Romans built many aqueducts in a period of substantial urbanization. | 90 | |
| 15174776678 | Augustus | Honorific name of Octavian, founder of the Roman Principate, the military dictatorship that replaced the failing rule of the Roman Senate. After defeating all rivals, between 31 B.C.E. and 14 C.E. he laid the groundwork for several centuries of stability and prosperity in the Roman Empire. | 91 | |
| 15174776679 | Chang'an | City in the Wei River Valley in eastern China. It became the capital of the early Han Empire. Its main features were imitated in the cities and towns that sprang up throughout the Han Empire. | 92 | |
| 15174776681 | equites | In ancient Italy, prosperous landowners second in wealth and status to the senatorial aristocracy. The Roman emperors allied with this group to counterbalance the influence of the old aristocracy and used the equites to staff the imperial civil service. | 93 | |
| 15174776682 | Gaozu | The throne name of Liu Bang, one of the rebel leaders who brought down the Qin and founded the Han dynasty in 202 B.C.E. | 94 | |
| 15174776680 | Constantine | Roman emperor (r. 312-337). After reuniting the Roman Empire, he moved the capital to Constantinople and made Christianity a favored religion. | 95 | |
| 15174776683 | Han | A term used to designate (1) the ethnic Chinese people who originated in the Yellow River Valley and spread throughout regions of China suitable for agriculture and (2) the dynasty of emperors who ruled from 202 B.C.E. to 220 C.E. | 96 | |
| 15174776684 | Jesus | A Jew from Galilee in northern Israel who sought to reform Jewish beliefs and practices. He was executed as a revolutionary by the Romans. Hailed as the Messiah and son of God by his followers, he became the central figure in Christianity, a belief system that developed in the centuries after his death. | 97 | |
| 15174776686 | Paul | A Jew from the Greek city of Tarsus in Anatolia, he initially persecuted the followers of Jesus but, after receiving a revelation on the road to Syrian Damascus, became a Christian. Taking advantage of his Hellenized background and Roman citizenship, he traveled throughout Syria-Palestine, Anatolia, and Greece, preaching the new religion and establishing churches. Finding his greatest success among pagans (gentiles), he began the process by which Christianity separated from Judaism. | 98 | |
| 15174776685 | patron/client relationship | In ancient Rome, a fundamental social relationship in which the patron, a wealthy and powerful individual, provided legal and economic protection and assistance to clients, men of lesser status and means, and in return the clients supported the political careers and economic interests of their patron. | 99 | |
| 15174776687 | pax romana | Literally, "Roman peace," it connoted the stability and prosperity that Roman rule brought to the lands of the Roman Empire in the first two centuries C.E. The movement of people and trade goods along Roman roads and safe seas allowed for the spread of cultural practices, technologies, and religious ideas. | 100 | |
| 15174776688 | Principate | A term used to characterize Roman government in the first three centuries C.E., based on the ambiguous title princeps (first citizen) adopted by Augustus to conceal his military dictatorship. | 101 | |
| 15174776689 | Qin | A people and state in the Wei River Valley of eastern China that conquered rival states and created the first Chinese empire (221-206 B.C.E.). The Qin ruler, Shi Huangdi, standardized many features of Chinese society and ruthlessly marshaled subjects for military and construction projects, engendering hostility that led to the fall of his dynasty shortly after his death. The Qin framework was largely taken over by the succeeding Han dynasty. | 102 | |
| 15174776690 | Republic | The period from 507 to 31 B.C.E., during which Rome was largely governed by the aristocratic Roman Senate. | 103 | |
| 15174776691 | Romanization | The process by which the Latin language and Roman culture became dominant in the western provinces. Indigenous peoples in the provinces often chose to Romanize because of the political and economic advantages that it brought, as well as the allure of Roman success. | 104 | |
| 15174776692 | Senate | A council whose members were the heads of wealthy, landowning families. Originally an advisory body to the early kings, in the era of the Roman Republic the Senate effectively governed the Roman state and the growing empire. Under Senate leadership, Rome conquered an empire of unprecedented extent in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. | 105 | |
| 15174776693 | Shi Huangdi | Founder of the short-lived Qin dynasty and creator of the Chinese Empire (r. 221-210 B.C.E.). He is remembered for his ruthless conquests of rival states, standardization of practices, and forcible organization of labor for military and engineering tasks. His tomb, with its army of life-size terracotta soldiers, has been partially excavated. | 106 | |
| 15174776694 | Sima Qian | Chief astrologer for the Han dynasty emperor Wu. He composed a monumental history of China from its legendary origins to his own time and is regarded as the Chinese "father of history." | 107 | |
| 15174776695 | Third-Century Crisis | Historians' term for the political, military, and economic turmoil that beset the Roman Empire during much of the third century C.E.: frequent changes of ruler, civil wars, barbarian invasions, decline of urban centers, and near-destruction of long-distance commerce and the monetary economy. After 284 C.E. Diocletian restored order by making fundamental changes. | 108 | |
| 15174776696 | Xiongnu | A confederation of nomadic peoples living beyond the northwest frontier of ancient China. Chinese rulers tried a variety of defenses and stratagems to ward off these "barbarians," as they called them, and finally succeeded in dispersing the Xiongnu in the first century C.E. | 109 |
