CHAPTER 4 VOCAB

founder of the Persian empire

• the Iliad is a Greek epic poem describing the siege of Troy, ascribed to Homer.
• The Odyssey is an epic poem attributed to Homer, describing Odysseus's adventures in his ten-year attempt to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

a series of conflicts between Perisa and other Helenistic city-states. 499 BCE to 449 BCE.

founded by Zoroaster, the principal beliefs of which are in the existence of a supreme deity, Ahura Mazda, and in a cosmic struggle between a spirit of good, Spenta Mainyu, and a spirit of evil, Angra Mainyu.

Athenian philosopher, whose beliefs are known only through the writings of his pupils Plato and Xenophon. He taught that virtue was based on knowledge, which was attained by a dialectical process that took into account many aspects of a stated hypothesis.

The period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 b.c. to the middle of the first century b.c. It was marked by Greek and Macedonian emigration to areas conquered by Alexander and by the spread of Greek civilization from Greece to northern India.

Greek philosopher: with his teacher Socrates and his pupil Aristotle, he is regarded as the initiator of western philosophy.

A Roman general and dictator in the first century b.c. The Roman senate, fearing his power, ordered him to disband his army, but Caesar refused, crossed the Rubicon River, returned to Rome with his army, and made himself dictator.

a war between Athens and Sparta, 431–404 b.c., that resulted in the transfer of leadership in Greece from Athens to Sparta.

Greek philosopher; pupil of Plato, tutor of Alexander the Great, and founder of the Peripatetic school at Athens; author of works on logic, ethics, politics, poetics, rhetoric, biology, zoology, and metaphysics.

Also called Octavian. He was the first Roman emperor.

king of Macedonia 336–323: conqueror of Greek city-states and of the Persian empire from Asia Minor and Egypt to India.

An orator, writer, and statesman of ancient Rome. His many speeches to the Roman Senate are famous for their rhetorical techniques and their ornate style.

Roman emperor 324–337: named Constantinople as the new capital; legally sanctioned Christian worship.

Greek dramatist; author of seven extant tragedies: Ajax, Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Trachiniae, Electra, Philoctetes , and Oedipus at Colonus.

the three wars waged by Rome against Carthage, 264–241, 218–201, and 149–146 b.c., resulting in the destruction of Carthage and the annexation of its territory by Rome. During the second and third wars, the leader was Hannibal.

he earliest code of Roman civil, criminal, and religious law.

• Styles of columns. The Doric style is simple and severe reflecting the
• more martial nature of the Dorian invaders. The Ionian style is more
• artistic and elegant with a rolled volutes and the Corinthian style is
• the most intricate of all with capitals in the shape of acanthus leaves.

a sovereign state consisting of an autonomous city with its dependencies.