Classical Greece & Hellenism
The physical geography of the Aegean basin, characterized by mountainous barriers and island networks, prevented political unification and encouraged this type of political arrangement
What are independent city-states?
The public posting of this written legal code in 450 BCE represented a major victory for plebeians seeking equal legal protection.
What are the Twelve Tables?
The Purusha Sukta in the Rig Veda provided cosmic religious justification for this rigid South Asian social institution.
What is the Caste System?
Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi utilized this political philosophy—emphasizing strict laws, generous rewards, and severe punishments—to centralize power.
What is Legalism?
While Classical Rome relied heavily on a slave-based economy, Han China's economy relied primarily on this social class subjected to taxes and forced labor.
What is a free peasant class?
Pericles' Funeral Oration praised Athenian government for favoring the many rather than the few and guaranteeing equality under this principle.
What is the rule of law (or egalitarian civic participation)?
This body of water served as the primary geographic center of Roman trade, linking territories across three continents.
What is the Mediterranean Sea?
Siddhartha Gautama challenged traditional Brahmanical Hinduism by teaching that enlightenment (Nirvana) was attainable by anyone through this pathway.
What is the Eightfold Path (or Four Noble Truths)?
The Han Dynasty established this testing system to select government bureaucrats based on merit, literacy, and knowledge of Confucianism.
What is the Civil Service Examination system?
The overland Silk Road routes shown on ancient maps were located primarily on this continent.
What is Asia?
A primary cause of the Peloponnesian War was Athens transforming this alliance system into an aggressive empire.
What is the Delian League?
In his Res Gestae, Augustus Caesar claimed to have restored the Republic, while in reality consolidating power as this.
What is an absolute ruler or Emperor?
Following the brutal conquest of Kalinga, Emperor Ashoka transformed Mauryan state policy by adopting and spreading this tradition.
What is Buddhism?
Originating in Han China during the Classical Era, this vast network of overland trade routes facilitated long-distance commerce and cultural diffusion between East Asia and the West.
What is the Silk Road?
Thinkers of the Classical Era (such as Socrates, Confucius, and Buddha) shared a new cultural emphasis on individual moral responsibility and this type of conduct
What is universal ethical behavior?
Alexander the Great's conquests created this blended culture, combining Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian elements across Afro-Eurasia.
What is Hellenistic civilization?
Issued by Constantine in 313 CE, this edict established official religious toleration for Christians throughout the Roman Empire
What is the Edict of Milan?
Deep remorse over the slaughter and loss of life during the military conquest of this region prompted Emperor Ashoka to renounce military violence and govern through Buddhist moral principles.
What is Kalinga?
Han historian Sima Qian criticized the Qin Dynasty's harshness and book burning to reinforce the moral legitimacy of this ideology.
What is Confucianism?
High social status in Han China was tied to literacy and civil service exam success, whereas high status in Rome depended heavily on patrician birth, land ownership, and this.
What is holding civic/military office?
Statues from the Gandhara region depicting Buddha in a Greek-style draped toga and wavy hair serve as direct evidence of this phenomenon along trade networks.
What is cultural syncretism (or Hellenistic cultural exchange with South Asia)?
Rome's victory in the Punic Wars brought an influx of wealth and captive labor, creating these massive slave-worked agricultural estates that bankrupted small farmers.
What are latifundias?
During the Golden Age of the Gupta Empire, Indian scholars made major mathematical breakthroughs including calculating an approximation of $\pi$, negative numbers, and this numerical feature.
What are decimal points (or the decimal system)?
Both the Han Dynasty and Roman Empire built extensive border fortifications; China constructed this barrier to monitor pastoral nomads like the Xiongnu.
What is the Great Wall of China?
BOTH the Western Roman Empire and Han Dynasty collapsed due to shared internal weaknesses including court corruption, military overextension, and this tax issue regarding the wealthy elite.
What is severe tax evasion by wealthy landowners?