World History Chapter 7

the date Alexander the Great began his conquest of the Persian Empire

334 BC

the dates for the Peloponnesian War

431-404 BC

the date for the first Olympic games

776 BC

Plato

one of Socrates' students, who wrote 30 or more works of philosophy.

Herodotus

remembered as the Greek father of history.

famous Greeks who made contributions to science, mathematics, and medicine during the Hellenic Age

science--democritus developed a theory that all matter is composed of individual atoms. math--Pythagoras discovered important mathematical concepts still used in geometry. Medicine—Hippocrates conducted experiments and concluded that disease results from rationally explainable causes.

Sophists, relativists

some of the early philosophers, sophists, were relativists that believed there are no absolute truths.

dates for the Hellenistic Age

the 300 years after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, in 30 BC.

the three ruling dynasties that came out of Alexander's empire, and the area that each dynasty ruled

the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia, and the Antigonids in Macedonia and Greece

the first major naval battle in history

the battle of Salamis

Themistocles

the brilliant Athenian who tricked Xerxes into fighting a naval battle in the narrow strait between the mainland and the island of Salamis.

Zeus

the chief and father of the gods, associated with thunder and lightning, of the mythological gods.

Demosthenes

the famous Athenian orator and statesman who urged his fellow Greeks to unite against the Macedonian threat.

Achilles

the invincible Greek warrior in the Iliad.

Darius I

the new Persian king in 499 BC who crushed the revolt and demanded that the mainland Greeks submit to him.

famous Greeks who made contributions to astronomy, math, and geography during the Hellenistic Age

Aristarchus of Samos proposed that the earth revolves around the sun; Euclid systematized the theorems of plane geometry; Hipparchus formulated the basic principles of trigonometry. Archimedes made contributions to mathematics, engineering, and physics. Eratosthenes of Cyrene calculated the circumference of the earth with astounding accuracy. Strabo left behind a 17 volume Geography in which he described all parts of the known world at the beginning of the Christian Era.

the two prominent regions of ancient Greece

Attica and Peloponnesus

Xerxes I

Darius's son, ten years after the Marathon, determined to conquer Greece.

Protagoras

Greek philosopher that summed up the humanistic way of thinking the Greeks exercised.

Minos

King at Knossos discovered by Arthur Evans on Crete in AD 1900.

the first important European civilization after the Flood

Knossos, built by the Minoans

what was perhaps the most significant development of the Hellenistic Age? how did it contribute to the spread of the gospel?

Koine Greek. it translated the Bible into a language most of the Mediterranean world understood.

Alexander the Great

Philip's son who came to the Macedonian throne when he was 20 in 337 BC.

Homer

Poet who lived during the 700s BC, perhaps on the island of Crete or in the city of Smyrna. he was a singing poet, and may have been blind. author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Leonidas

Spartan leader who ordered most of his troops to withdraw from the danger of the Persians on the mountains.

describe Spartan government and society. why did Sparta make no great contributions to civilization?

Spartan society consisted of three classes: the ruling class, the middle class, and the helots (slaves). the ruling class made up the oligarchy. the middle class consisted of merchants and businessmen who lived in and around Sparta. the helots farmed the estates of the ruling class. Sparta stopped short of an oligarchy. although early Sparta was comparable to Athens and other Greek cities, by 600 BC, the city had become a strictly regimented, military state. because of Sparta's extensive governmental regimentation of a people, they resulted in intellectual stagnation.

the philosophical teaching of Stoicism and Epicureanism and the founders of each philosophy

Stoicism—they believed that man should live according to reason, obey the law of nature, seek to do lasting good, honor all men as brothers, and remain indifferent to the pleasures and pains of life. Epicurus—the highest good of man was to live a life of calm pleasure regulated by morality, temperance, serenity, and personal development.

Archimedes

made important contributions to math, engineering, and physics.

Peisistratus

a nobleman aspiring to office in 560 BC; he seized control of the city and became the first tyrant of Athens.

Aristotle

became a student of Plato at 18. he mastered every field of learning known to the Greeks and concluded that the order of the universe must have come from God.

the dates for the Greco-Persian war

began in the summer of 490 BC to 479 BC

the dates for the Hellenic Age

between the BC 700s and 338 BC

Pericles

brought Athenian democracy to its fullest measure; a statesman aristocrat who dominated Athens from 461 to 429 BC.

Socrates

dissatisfied with the sophists, began a search for absolutes.

explain the cycle of governments in Greek city-states. explain how democracy worked in ancient Athens.

each city was a monarchy then the power of the kinds diminished and the aristocracy was put in place. then to an oligarchy, a tyranny, then a democracy. the tyranny, democracy, and oligarchy change was a vicious cycle of political instability.

Cleisthenes

emerged as the new champion of the common people in 508 BC; he was an aristocrat, but extended citizenship to more of the people and raised membership in the Council to 500.

explain Homer's contribution to Greek religion. how did the Greek gods differ from the mythological gods of other civilizations?

from him, Greeks learned of the gods who supposedly lived on Mt. Olympus. these gods closely resembled those of other peoples. the Olympian gods differed int hat they were the product of a poetic genius, figments of a vivid imagination. Homer's gods had individual human personalities unmatched in the myths of other cultures.

describe the extent of Alexander the Great's conquests. what ended his conquests?

he left behind an empire that reached from Greece in the west, across Asia minor, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, as far as the Indus River Valley in the east. Alexander died of a fever likely brought on by poison when he was 33 in Babylon in 323 BC.

what was Alexander's most important contribution to world history? explain.

his spreading of Greek culture became his most lasting contribution and helped prepare the world for the coming of Jesus.

Solon

in 594 bC, this noble man was elected archon and repealed Draco's edicts and wrote a much more just code of law.

how did humanist affect the Greek philosophers in their search for truth? apply Romans 1 to the ideas of the ancient Greeks.

in their attempt to find philosophical absolutes, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle ultimately erred and placed man at the center of all things. they put themselves in the bondage of sin by rebelling against God who is clearly revealed in nature "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

how was the defeat of Xerxes at Salamis a turning point in history?

it placed an absolute limit on the westward expansion of the Persian Empire and ensured that Greek culture would continue to thrive in the west.

Philip II

king of Macedonia in 359 BC.

Hesiod

less of a contributor than Homer that the Greeks learned of the gods on Mt. Olympus.

describe education in most ancient Greek cities, such as Athens.

they had a high regard for learning, culture, and the enjoyment of beauty. a Greek boy's formal education usually began when he was 7. a pedagogue accompanied him. education was private, and sometimes boys were sent to multiple schools a day. the main textbooks were Homer's epics. they studied reading, writing, arithmetic, literature, history, speech, music, and gymnastics. girls were taught to be efficient household managers at home.

Sophocles, Aristophanes

two of the greatest tragedies are Oedipus Rex and Antigone by these two writers.

Aesop

was a freed slave turned Greek writer living in the 6th century BC. he wrote many fables.

Draco

was directed to prepare a code of lawn 620 BC. his laws were so merciless that they were said to have been written in blood; every offense was punishable by death.