Terms : Hide Images
| 314803804 | polis | sophisticated Greek city-states. | |
| 314803805 | monarchy | power in one person. (e.g. an all-powerful king) | |
| 314803806 | aristocracy | power with the leading elites and nobles of society. | |
| 314803807 | oligarchy | power with the economic elites of society. | |
| 314803808 | democracy | power with the people. | |
| 314803809 | phalanx | a formation where everyone creates a wall of shields and works together to protect each other. | |
| 314803810 | Sparta | a Greek city which is based on militia and is more inland. | |
| 314803811 | Athens | a Greek city which is on the coast and has a rich navy allowing fluent trade. | |
| 314803812 | Solon | he expands who can hold high office and creates the transition from an oligarchy to a democracy. | |
| 314803813 | tyrant | a person who takes office by force (dictator). | |
| 314803814 | Pericles | the leader at the height of Athenian democracy. | |
| 314803815 | Socrates | using a process now known as the Socratic method, he challenged the beliefs of citizens of Athens by posing a series of questions to help them seek truth and self-knowledge. brought before a jury of 501 citizens, he was condemned to death at 70 and drank a cup of hemlock. | |
| 314803816 | Plato | with the death of his teacher, he was left with a life-long distrust of democracy. he set up the Academy where he emphasized the importance of reason. through rational thought, one could discover unchanging ethical values, recognize perfect beauty, and learn best how to organize society. | |
| 314803817 | Aristotle | like Plato and Socrates, he was suspicious of democracy which he thought would lead to mob-rule. he favored rule by a single strong and virtuous leader. he believed in the golden mean, or a moderate course between extremes. set up the Lyceum for the study of all branches of knowledge. | |
| 314803818 | tragedies | plays that told stories of human suffering that usually ended in disaster. these, according to the Greeks, were to stir up and then relieve the emotions of pity and fear. | |
| 314803819 | Herodotus | often called "the Father of History". he collected primary accounts of the events he chronicled excluding biased ones. | |
| 314803820 | Thucydides | he wrote about the Peloponnesian War after he had lived through it and vividly described the war's savagery and corrupting influence on all those involved. | |
| 314803821 | patricians | members of the Roman landholding upper class. | |
| 314803822 | plebeians | members of the Roman lower class that included farmers, merchants, artisans and traders. | |
| 314803823 | consuls | two elected officials from the patricians who supervised the government and commanded the armies. | |
| 314803824 | dictator | a ruler, in a time of war, who had complete control over a government. | |
| 314803825 | tribunes | officials elected by the plebeians to protect their interests in the senate. | |
| 314803826 | veto | a block on a government action. | |
| 314803827 | latifundia | large estates bought up by the newly wealthy Roman citizens after the conquering of new land. | |
| 314803828 | Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus | two young plebeians among the first to reform in the Roman Empire who were killed along with many of their followers. | |
| 314803829 | Julius Caesar | an ambitious military commander who completed the conquest of Gaul. he became a very powerful dictator of Rome and spoke the famous words, "veni, vidi, vici" - "I came, I saw, I conquered." | |
| 314803830 | Augustus | grandnephew of Caesar who teamed up with Caesar's chief general, Mark Antony, to hunt down the murderer's of Caesar. in 31 BC, he defeated Antony and his ally Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. he laid the foundation of a stable government and chose officials based on skill as well as create a population census to make the tax system more fair. | |
| 314803831 | Pax Romana | during this time from the rule of Augustus to Marcus Aurelius is what is known as the "Roman Peace". roman rule brought peace, order unity and prosperity to lands stretching from the Euphrates River to Britain. |
