The Roman Republic
Hannibal
In the First Persian War, Athens had to fight it alone to defend Greece from being subsumed by the Persian Empire. Despite being outnumbered, the Athenian phalanx won the Battle of _______ in 490 BC and drove the Persians off the Greek peninsula. A famous Athenian runner, Pheidippides, ran 26 miles straight back to the city to deliver the good news and (per the legend) dropped dead from exhaustion thereafter.
Battle of Marathon
Not unlike Jesus Christ, this philosopher never wrote any books himself, but spent his life teaching and questioning people directly. Also, not unlike Jesus, he was executed unjustly in trumped up charges. In this case, the execution was by poison in 399 BC Athens for corrupting the youth and not believing in the city's gods.
Socrates
This code consisting of 613 rules for the Hebrew people - originally given to Moses at Mt. Sinai - has become the bedrock of Jewish culture ever since. (The Ten Commandants are just the most famous part of this code)
The Law of Moses
When Crassus defeated the slave army of Spartacus, he set a terrible example with the survivors by
crucifying 6,ooo of them all along the Appian Way outside Rome
When the Roman kings were thrown out the Republic established, the singular power of the kings was divided into 3 parts which the Romans did their best to keep balanced. This 3 part division has become the foundation of republican governance in the West ever since - including the US government. This simple three part division of power is known simply as:
The One, The Few, The Many
Unlike the system used in most modern nations - Representative Democracy - the Athenians did not use representatives to speak on behalf of the citizens. The citizens debated and legislated themselves in the Athenian Assembly (the Ecclesia) on the Pnyx Hill. This brand of free government - known as _________ Democracy - is still used (on a small scale) in modern American Town Hall meetings.
Direct Democracy
This philosopher wrote so many books and studied such a broad array of topics from politics to law to biology to ethics to religion to physics that, for hundreds of years during in the Middle Ages, he was simply known as 'The Philosopher'. Also, unlike his own master, this philosopher argued we should focus upon only that which we can realistically perceive through our five senses.
Aristotle
The greatest ruler of the United Monarchy period, this king killed the Philistine giant Goliath as a youth and founded the greatest royal house in Israeli history. Jesus Christ, 1,000 years later, was said to be of his lineage.
David
It is said that Rome conquered Greece, but the Greeks eventually took captive the Romans. What does this mean?
Although militarily the Romans conquered the Greece, the stronger and more profound culture of Greece - philosophy, art, architecture, literature - eventually overwhelmed the more practical, simpler Roman culture
The most influential Roman senator, a relentless champion for free republican government, a cause for which he eventually gave his life at the hand of Mark Antony, was ___________ . The pinnacle of his career, moreover, was the year of his consulship, 63 BC, when he saved Rome from a violent anarchist attempt to overthrow the entire state, known as the Conspiracy of ___________.
Conspiracy of Cataline
During the Golden Age of Greece, Greek art and architecture reached a level of beauty and perfection that - some would say - has never been equaled. Can you name at least TWO characteristics of Greek sculpture during this period?
-Realism
-Natural poses
-Calm restraint
-Focus on the simple beauty of the human body
-Nudity
The centerpiece of all of Plato's philosophy is the Theory of the _____
Forms
The Tetragrammaton - the most sacred words in ancient Hebrew that were spoken to Moses on Mt. Sinai - means:
I am Who I am [Yahweh] the "Name" of God
Consider how the Roman concept of the "The One, The Few, The Many" was worked into the US Constitution. The president is obviously the "One". What would most reasonably equate with the "Few" and "Many" ?
The Few = The Senate & Supreme Court
The Many = The House of Representatives and the American People
In the Roman conception of the Republic, all the magistracies (consuls, praetors, aediles, quaestors, and tribunes) represented pieces of power that had once been held all-in-one by the kings. Name TWO characteristics of Roman offices that checked power in their officials when compared with traditional kingship.
All officeholders were limited in their power by:
-DEMOCRATIC ELECTION. Republican officials were elected by the popular assemblies unlike kings who simply inherit power.
-TERM LIMITS. All republican officials held office for 1 year. Kings ruled for life.
-MULTIPLE OFFICEHOLDERS. All offices had a minimum of 2 occupants at once which ensure they would each check one another's power.
Athenian democracy contained a "safety valve" of sorts to ensure its survival called Ostracism. Briefly explain what this meant.
A vote was held in which every citizen wrote the name of the person they considered most dangerous to the democratic regime on a pottery shard called an ostrakon. Whichever citizen garnered the most votes was exiled for 10 years from the city. A minimum of 6,000 voters was needed for a valid ostracism.
The Epicureans were a school of Greek philosophy which preached happiness comes from seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Expound upon what would mean in regards to: eating, relationships and seeking power.
Food: moderation to avoid the pain of starving or health effects of overeating
Relationships: monogamy to avoid the loneliness of being single or the stress and worry of managing multiple relationships or cheating
Power: avoid it since the stress and dangers of seeking and holding it are more painful than pleasurable
At the end of the First Jewish War (66 - 74 AD) the last 960 Jewish rebels made a last stand against the Romans on the desert mountaintop fortress of Masada. The Romans immediatly laid siege to the stronghold with 15,000 troops. How did the siege end and what terrible precedent did it set?
Right before the Romans broke into the fortress, all the remaining Jews - men, women and children - committed mass suicide.
Later, during the Jewish diaspora of the Middle Ages, when isolated Jewish communities were threatened, they, on occasion, employed mass suicide as a tactic to escape death at the hands of murderous mobs.
This Roman general who lived during the Civil Wars period conquered Judaea in 63 BC, and famously broke into the Holy of Holies, only to find it empty. After losing the Civil War with Julius Caesar, he fled to Egypt, where Cleopatra's brother had him killed - as a "present" for Caesar - before he had even stepped ashore.
Pompey the Great
Several systemic factors led to the breakdown of the Roman Republic, beginning in the 130s BC; a breakdown that eventually led to civil war and, ultimately, to the one-man rule of the Roman Empire. Can you name TWO of those factors?
-Republic designed for a city state, NOT a large empire of millions and many provinces
-Most republican offices became monopolized by a small groups of ultra wealthy Roman families
-Wars were very long and very far from Rome, meaning that troops loyalties shifted to their generals not Rome
-The removal of any significant EXTERNAL threat after the destruction of Carthage, meant the Romans sought INTERNAL enemies and problems
-Many middling Roman families were driven out of business and turned into the urban 'mob', because they were unable to compete as thousands of war captives were enslaved and put to work in Italy \ on giant plantations
Describe the basic premise of the Melian Dialogue between the envoys of Athens and the representatives of Melos during the Peloponnesian War. In simple terms, what is the political principle that derives from it?
-The Athenians - despite being champions of democracy and ostensibly defending their fellow Greeks against Spartan tyranny - put aside all their ideals in dealing with the small but fiercely independent island of Melos. Needing their island for strategic purposes, the Athenians told the Melians they must join them or be destroyed. When the Melians protested and called the Athenians hypocrites, the Athenians brushed this morality aside and said the "powerful do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must."
Two principles derive from this. First, 'Might makes right." Second, the notion of conducting one's national diplomacy completely divorced from one's ideals; i.e., thinking entirely in pragmatic terms. This is called Realpolitik.
Give a brief description of Plato's Allegory of the Cave and its meaning
-Chained men who are forced to look forward only (the common uneducated people)
-A series of men carrying silhouettes in front of a fire (The manipulators of the people: politicians, artists, sophists, etc.)
-The shadows created in front of the chained men (the degraded versions of the True Forms that most people see)
-The world outside the cave (the True Forms in the spiritual world)
-The prisoner who escapes the cave (the Philosopher who sees the True Forms / Truth and then comes back to teach the common people but is rejected)
After 2 large scale rebellions by the Jews, the Romans took several measures to solve this the Jewish problem - permanently. Name 3 measures the Romans took.
-Scattered the Jews out of their homeland (the Diaspora)
-Destroyed the Temple
-Destroyed & Renamed Jerusalem
-Banned Circumcision
-Renamed Judaea to Palestine
During the Christian Middle Ages, Julius Caesar - the man most repsponsible for bringing down the republic and instituting one-man rule was celebrated. While the senators who murdered him trying to save the republic (Brutus and Cassius) were typically scorned. In fact, Dante depicted them as being both stuck in the ears of Satan himself in the lowest circle of Hell. Why would medieval Christians celebrate the Roman Empire but condemn the Republic?
One-man rule was considered the ideal in the Middle Ages because it reflected God's singularity AND because allowed everybody (besides the king) to avoid the distractions and factions of politics and focus on what mattered: going to Heaven.
Also, the establishment of the Roman Empire brought on 200 years of peace and stability that allowed Christianity to spread rapidly around the Roman Empire.