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Historical Perspectives Midterm
Spring 2014, on Wed., March 19 (classical Athens - ancient Rome)
33
History
Undergraduate 1
03/17/2014

Additional History Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Solon
Definition
revised the constitution: 50|50 aristocrats|the common people - the aristocrats still got to run a bunch of things (e.g. the loans, banks [the $]), but they had to listen to a popular assembly, the ekklesia (the "called out people") - they were supposed to be equal in power, but the aristocrats still had more power
Term
(family of) Peisistratus
Definition

Peisistratus: a well-known military hero

- pushed the aristocrats out; brought them back & tried them if they needed $

(didn't listen to the constitution)

Term
Cleisthenes
Definition

invented a wildly popular style of gov't: anyone who wanted to be representative was recognized, those with the most votes (had a significant # relative to teh population) had their names put into bins [annual]:

5,000 chosen by lottery (lottery-->no fist fights), would go to the ekklesia

500 of them picked to be voting representatives

- some also chosen to be judges

50 picked  monthly to have the town jobs (prytaneis)

daily, 1 man chosen by lottery to be president (prytanis)

10 strategoi (land & sea commanders) picked annually: eventually chosen by competence

Term
Leonidas
Definition
commanded the 7,000 Greek allies in the Battle of Thermopylae, sent most home (having an undefendable position): he led the 300 Spartans who stayed
Term
Themistocles
Definition
played both sides in the Persian war (specifically the Battle of Salamis): used Xerxes' $ to feed him false info, pushes him to fight: Xerxes loads his soldiers onto the ships & pours out onto the shore; told by the oracle that the Greeks might win if they "fight behind wooden walls" --> convince the Athenians to use their $ to become a major sea-power (purchase timber for boats); was eventually thrown out
Term
Aristides
Definition
took over after Themistocles: formed the Delian League (Greek league of freedom, freeing still-oppresed Greek city-states - $ & boats from each city); thrown out
Term
Cimon
Definition
replaced Aristides (475); thrown out
Term
Pericles
Definition
replaced Cimon (471: strategos); "the greatest statesman of ancient Greece" (461-429): collected $ (extortion) --> paid for jobs for the poor, working-class (e.g. rebuilding boats) --> kept getting reelected; married the most famous madame of Samos, Aspasia
Term
Hesoid (poet)
Definition
a Boetian farmer who wrote the poems Works & Days (full of the hardship & farm-lore of Archaic Greek country life (a description of the annual round of labor on a Greek farm)) & Theogeny (a dovout, grumbiling commoner's handbook on the gods, who are far more jealous & dangerous to men than in Homers myths (a history of the Greek gods))
Term
Pythagoras (scientist, poet)
Definition

reasoned that the most important skill was to be able to take everyone's perceptions & make them see the same thing (his strategy for politics)

- became head of the school

- opened a conferece of sophists (didn't believe in the gods)

concluded from the mathematical relationships that exists between physical objects and sounds that mathematics provided the key to unlocking the universe

- famous for his teaching son astronomy, phyics, mathematics, politics, religious purity, healing

Term
Theseus
Definition
(Athens): felt confident & clever enough to let the people (Athens + Attica) vote
Term
Democritus (scientist)
Definition
argued the atomic theory, also for democracy (more rights for atoms)
Term
Thales (scientist)
Definition
explained the universe on priciples of fluids "all is water" (metaphysics)
Term
Sappho (poet)
Definition
greatest lyric poet (female) (short songs inspired by personal feelings)
Term
Homer (poet)
Definition
the Illiad (quarrel between Agamemnon & Achilles), the Odyssey (the adventures of Odysseus on his way home from the Trojan War) - the 1st major pieces of Greek literature (epics), read back into the period of the conditions of the Dark Age
Term
Hippocrates (scientist)
Definition

his medical research developed throughout the Peloponnesian War

- sought to natural causes for physical problems, sought to cure them with drugs, surgery, & lifestile changes

*alcohol problem w/ his students

Term
Archilochus (poet)
Definition
(poet)
Term
Socrates
Definition

a stone-cutter, invited people to the marketplace to interview: proved they were immoral

- said he learned important things from one of his 1st significant teachers, Domitia (a woman)

Term
Aeschylus
Definition

- a modernist who believed in progress

wrote political tragedies about life together (human sin of hubris is punished by suffering, but wisdom offers some hope): almost always happy endings

 

Term
Sophocles
Definition

saw the Deliean Leage turn into an oppressive rulling --> worried Athens was doing the wrong thing - you need to pay attention to what your polis is doing (not always right)

- anti-heroes were the main characters

"no one learns without suffering" (despite gaining wisdom from suffering (from hubris), there's no escape) [tragedies]

 

Term
Euripides
Definition

"You & your polis are doing something wrong" - not arguimg about what's right, but watchign the wrong thing develop --> tragic ending

- died in exile

Term
Aristophanes
Definition

(a comic)

came from a wealthy family who was thrown out of Athens --> grew up hating Athens --> wrote satires about Athens

- when children attended school in Athens & tired of hearing how cool Athens was, Aristophanes was their hero (--> Aristophanes famous, plays his written down)

- died in exile

Term
Plato
Definition

taught the ideal of having a town run by philosophers (gov't engineering)

- returned to Athens in 387 (was exiled), founded a school at the "Akademe" grove

Term
Xeno
Definition

thought of other cultures & their ideas, taught that all cultures were 1 continuous hull + moral responsibility (international moral responsibility)

- started the stoic school

Term
Aristotle
Definition

taught that people needed all the fields of study to deal with life (not only 1 skill/worldview) - "liberal arts" education

- had come to Athens to study under Plato

- left Athens for Macedon to tutor Alexander in 342

- began teaching at the grove of lyceum in 335

 

Term
Thucydides
Definition
an Athenian historian who wrote the story of the Peloponnesian War, also happened to serve as an Athenian general
Term
Diogenes
Definition
his followers were called Cynics ("dogs") b/c they - like animals - spurred social coventions & standards of decency
Term
Epaminados
Definition
the leader Thebes became strongest under: E was the only commander who really understood Thebes' new fighting style (a new, deceptive style of phalanx fighting)
Term
Trojan War
Definition

Troy commanded the entrance to the Hellespont, the waterway by which the greeks imported grain from the Black Sea --> treat to Mycenaea's food supply

- Troy sacked sometime after 1250 B.C., shortly before the Mycenaean kingdoms themselves fell 

Term
Ugarit
Definition

- a sailing & trading port

- smashed by the sea- & land-raiders together in 1200, never rebuilt

Term
Uru-Shalimum
Definition

place for religious practices & where they could talk 

- captured by the fighting clans to get along by forcing them to capture U-S in 1000

(was an old Egyptian fort in Thutmose III's empire of Canaan)

(--> Jerusalem)

Term
Byblos
Definition
the only Egyptian trading port: paper (were the only ones making paper)
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