Flashcards: World History Midterm Exam Terms
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dustinhavens on September 28, 2010
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Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Aristotle | This man was the star pupil of Plato who founded his own school called the Lyceum. He studied teleology or the evidence of design in nature. |
| imperium | The Roman right to command an army. |
| res novae | Latin term for "new things;" this was akin to revolution in Roman politics because it supposedly undermined the mos maiorum. |
| patria potestas | As the head of a Roman nuclear family, the paterfamilias had this power over the people living in his household. |
| Philip II | As king of Macedonia, he conquered Greece and began planning an invasion of the Persian Empire. |
| Draco | Appointed sole archon in c.621 BC, his most important achievement was the codification of Athenian law. |
| Comitia Tributa | The Roman assembly, organized into 35 tribes, most often used for general legislation. |
| extispicium | The act of interpreting the entrails of sacrificed animals in order to divine the will of the gods. |
| Cleisthenes | This Greek reformer instituted the system of tribes and demes along with other reforms completed the evolution of the Greek democracy. |
| Tribunes of the Plebs | As advocates of the plebeian order, these magistrates could veto any legislation but were required to remain on-call in the city of Rome for the duration of their term. |
| Concilium Plebis | As the plebeian assembly, this body passed laws (plebiscita), elected tribunes of the plebs, and elected the plebeian aediles. |
| Mare Nostrum | The Latin term for what the Romans called the Mediterranean Sea, "Our Sea." |
| Thucydides | His history of the Peloponnesian War involved careful research, interviews, and a rational analysis of the causes of the war. |
| Senate | Though technically only an advisory body, this institution, with its 300 lifetime members had very real power in the Roman Republic. |
| assemblies | By definition, these are the voting meetings of the citizen body that were responsible for making law. |
| Comitia Centuriata | The Roman assembly responsible for, among other things, determining whether or not Rome would go to war. |
| Xerxes | As king of the Persian Empire, he invaded Greece but his army was ultimately defeated at the decisive naval battle at Salamis. |
| censor | The Roman magistrate responsible for keeping the lists of Roman citizens and determining who will be admitted in to the Senate. |
| amicitia | Latin term for "friendship;" this describes the First Triumvirate between Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus. |
| ager publicus | The Latin term for "public land;" patricians took a larger share of this than the plebeians. |
| Socrates | This middle-aged Athenian stone mason applied reason to important questions such as morality, religion, law and democracy. Engaging strangers in conversation in public places, he often embarrassed people by logically destroying their arguments. |
| dictator | A temporary, six-month magistracy, this office was designed to deal with emergency situations and came with imperium maius. |
| cursus honorum | The sequence of Roman magistracies through which an ambitious Roman must progress in order to advance his political career. |
| Solon | As sole archon, this Athenian reformer instituted a new, timocratic class system based on income not property holding in c.594 BC. |
| Alexander | Son of Philip II, this Macedonian king conquered the Persian Empire and heralded a new age, called the Hellenistic Age. |
| Plato | This man was a pupil of Socrates who founded his own school called the Academy. He studied metaphysics or the realm beyond the physical world. |
| Tiberius Gracchus | As Tribune of the Plebs in c.133 BC, this man passed a law limiting the amount of public land a wealthy Roman could possess. |
| Gaius Gracchus | This Republican reformer followed in his brother's footsteps as an innovator and, like his brother, was killed as a result of gang violence. |
| Sulla | After winning at the Battle of the Colline in c.82 BC, this man declared himself dictator for life. |
| Pompey | Having been granted imperium maius to deal with pirates, this Roman later joined the First Triumvirate. |
| Caesar | Murdered on March 15, 44 BC, this man had declared himself dictator for life after defeating Pompey. |
| Antony | Julius Caesar's closest associate, this man joined the Second Triumvirate with Octavian and Lepidus. |
| Octavian | Although both Antony and the Senate believed they could manipulate him, this nephew of Julius Caesar ultimately triumphed at Actium and ushered in a whole new era in Roman history. |
| Tarquinius Superbus | Having been expelled from Rome in c.509 BC, this was the last of the Roman kings in the period of monarchy. |
| quaestor | The first step in the cursus honorum, this magistrate was responsible for the Roman treasury and for soldiers' pay in the military. |
| aedile | The second, but not technically required, step in the cursus honorum, this magistrate was responsible for running the city of Rome. |
| praetor | As second in command to the consuls, these magistrates had imperium and within the government they served as judicial officers. |
| consul | One of two chief executive officers in the Roman Republic, these magistrates were also the top generals in the army. |
| secession | During the Conflict of the Orders the plebeians protested against the patricians by doing this: leaving the city of Rome as a group. |
| plebeian | All Romans not classified as patricians |
| patrician | Romans from old, prestigious families. Early in the Republic these Romans dominated the state but eventually were forced to share power with the plebeians. |
| Xerxes | Avenging his father Darius I's failed invasion of Greece, this Persian king saw his fleet defeated at the Battle of Salamis. |
| Kylon | His failed tyranny in c.632 BC spooked the eupatrids into reforming Athens. |
| barbaroi | An onomatopoetic Greek word for foreigners, or all those who did not speak the Greek language. |
| teleology | The study of design in nature; pioneered by Aristotle |
| metaphysics | The object of Plato's inquiries, this is the study of things beyond the physical world. |
| deme | A basic unit of organization in the Athenian political system, the introduction of which allowed Cleisthenes to a truly participatory government. |
| Boule | The Council of 500. |
| Ecclesia | The Athenian assembly. |
| Spartiates | Constituting on 10% of the population, these were the Spartan citizens. |
| perioikoi | In Spartan society, these were those residents who were neither helots nor Spartiates. |
| hoplite | An individual soldier in the Greek phalanx, so named because of the round shield he carried. |
| phalanx | A style of Greek warfare in which infantrymen lined up in a tightly packed formation and success was determined not only by individual bravery but by collective discipline. |
| eupatrid | Those Greeks who were "well-fathered," or came from the oldest, most prestigious families. |
| oligarchy | Greek term literally meaning "rule by the few," this was the form of government used by Athens before the development of democracy. |
| Solon | His reforms, the introduction of a timocratic class system, the expansion of the Ecclesia, the creation of the Council of 400, moved Athens closer to democracy. |
| Pisistratus | This 6th century Athenian tyrant instituted various reforms that weakened the aristocracy and set the stage for the reforms of Cleisthenes. |
| Marius | Became consul in c.105 BC and recruited an army that was loyal to him more than to the Roman state. |
| Hannibal | Carthaginian general, raised to hate Rome by his father Hamilcar Barca, who invaded the Italian peninsula in the Second Punic War. |
| Darius III | Persian king who tried and failed to halt the invasion of Alexander the Great. He was eventually killed by a local tribal chieftan in Bactria. |
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