Famous Figures
Socrates
469-399 BCE
No texts written by Socrates himself
Married to Xanthipe
In 404 BCE, Athens is defeated by Sparta
Alcibiades was a student of Socrates, traitor
accused of impiety and corrupting the youth
Punic Wars
Rome vs. Carthage, 264-146 BCE, 1st (Sicily), 2nd (Hannibal), 3rd (destruction of Carthage)
Latifundia
large-scale agriculture estate
Sacred Band of Thebes
Reawakening of the rivalry between Thebes and Sparta
Spartans seize the Theban citadel of Cadmea and installed an oligarchy
379 BCE: Coup against this oligarchy
378-375 BCE: Formation of the Sacred Band: 300 men, 150 pairs of male lovers
371 BCE: Battle of Leuctra and the rise of Thebes
Theban Generals: Epimonandas and Pelopidas
Alexander the Great
Came to love Homer with an emphasis on Achilles in the Iliad
Enamored with Heracles
Governed Macedon in Philips absence
Suppressed rebellion in Thrace
Aided in the battle of Chaeronea
334 BCE: invaded Asia with 37,000 men
Armor of Achilles
Victory at Granicus over Persia
325 BCE: Left for Persia
Defections among satraps and emperors
323 BCE: Death in Babylon
Hannibal Barca
Carthinigenian general, Second Punic War, led army across the Alps
Great Fire of 64
Fire raged for over a week and destroyed 70% of the city
Contributing factors to the destruction; roman buildings contained a lot of wood, water supply was insufficient, buildings were close together, Tacitus reported that gangs exacerbated the fire
Nero blames the Christians
Tacitus blamed Nero
Tetrarchy
instituted by Diocletian, 293-313 CE, rule split into two empires (east & west) , rule of four
Sassanids
400 year Parthinian rule ends
Highly stratified
Necessity: working relations between nobility and king
No standing army; soldiers furnished by nobles
Pericles
After 451 BCE, Pericles was the leading politician in Athens - general and controlled the assembly
In the late 430s, several friends of Pericles were accused of impiety, probably to create problems for him
In 431 BCE, the Peloponnesian War broke out - Pericles’ strategy was to evacuate the countryside, retreat behind the Long Walls, and attack Sparta’s allies by sea
Died 429 BCE
Perpetua
Christian Martyrdom, Carthage, 203 CE
Sicilian Expedition
The Athenians felt the Spartans violated the peace - making future negotiations less likely
A new general, a ‘maverick’ named Alcibiades began to rise up in Athens
War starts up again around 418 BCE
Athenians conferred over visitors from the Sicilian city of Segesta, who asked for help against Selinus
The Sicilian Expedition was planned and 25,000 Athenians gathered to invade the island
415-413 BCE
Res Publica
meaning ‘public affair’, root of republic, absence of monarchy
Scythian
Nomadic warriors particularly from the area of modern Siberia and the Black Sea
Accounts written by Greeks (Herodotus), Assyrians and Persians, so we have to look at the archaeology
Creation of a composite bow made from horn, wood, and sinew laminated together, dipped arrows in poison
Artisans specialized in gold, bronze, and iron
Horse breeding and burial: about 15-20 years when buried
Drinking and feasting, Use of smoking and hemp, Tattoos
Nero
Nero didn’t want to be controlled by his mother
Ended secret trials and gave the senate more independence
Relations with his mother worsened, decided to kill her
Fails to kill her in a ‘boating accident’, so sends an armed guard to murder her
Rome was appalled, matricide was a heinous crime
Pelopidas
410-364 BCE, statesmen and general, faced Alexander the Great, killed in combat
Edict of Milan
313 CE, religious tolerance in Roman empire, ended persecution, Constantine
Principate
imperial government in Roman empire, stability end of civil war 27 BC-284 CE
Patricians & Plebeians
group of ruling class families vs. free citizens of a lower class
hereditary classes
Augustus
63 BCE- 14 CE, Originally Octavian, republic to empire, pax romana
Aspasia of Miletus
A metic: a foreigner not born in Athens, could not legally marry an Athenian, must pay taxes
Bore Pericles a son- Pericles the Younger
Put on trial for impiety
Hetaira (a high-class courtesan), prostitute but who is engaged in culture?
After Pericles’ death in 429 BCE, she became the companion of Lysicles
Died in 400 BCE
Laws of the XII Tables
first roman legal code, 12 bronze tablets
Second Triumvirate
division of power between three men (Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus), 43 BCE
Delian League
478 BCE to protect cities from Persia
300 cities in an alliance “symmachia”
The tribute in the early stages was 460 talents
Caligula
Murdered after just 5 years of power
Seven months after taking power Caligula fell ill, although he recovered he began acting very strangely
Post-illness held spectacular games and lavished attention on his favorite racehorse- Incitatus
37-42 CE