| A | B |
|---|
| heresy | a belief contrary to official Church teaching |
| Virgil | the author of the Aeneid |
| mercenaries | foreign soldiers serving for pay |
| republic | a form of government in which the people choose some of the officials |
| Augustine of Hippo | a scholar who combined Christian doctrine with Greco-Roman learning |
| dictator | a ruler who has complete control over government |
| imperialism | a policy of establishing control over foreign lands and peoples |
| latifundia | huge estates bought up by wealthy Roman families |
| Ptolemy | A Hellentistic scientist who argued that the Earth was the center of the universe |
| legion | the basic military unit of the Roman army |
| Augustus | the first Roman emperor |
| imperium | the right to command |
| consul | Roman magistrate who had the right to command armies |
| Paleolithic Period | Old Stone Age, people domesticate animals |
| Neolithic Period | New Stone Age, people engage in agriculture |
| polytheistic | having many gods |
| Donald Johanson | discovered "Lucy," the australopithecus |
| animism | belief in nature and animal spirits |
| Jericho | one of the earliest human villages |
| Sumer | the world's first civilzation |
| Mesopotamia | land between two rivers, modern Iraq |
| ziggurat | step pyramid found in ancient Mesopotamia |
| the earliest known system of writing | cuneiform |
| hierarchy | a system for ranking people |
| Fertile Crescent | are known of its rich soils and the earliest sites of wheat cultivation |
| Epic of Gilgamesh | founding epic poem of Sumer |
| Phoenicians | set up colonies for trade and were carriers of culture like the alphabet |
| Sargon | created the world's first empire |
| Zoroaster | Persian religion that focused on the battle between good and evil |
| Hammurabi | ruler who created a harsh written law code |
| Nebuchadnezzar | the king who rebuilt the city of Babylon |
| papyrus | a writing material made from the fibers of river plants |
| Amon-Re | the god from whom the Pharaohs claimed the right to rule |
| heiroglyphics | the use of symbols to represent words and ideas |
| Osiris | the god who ruled over the Egyptian underworld |
| patriarchal | society in which men are dominant |
| Torah | the first five books of the Hebrew Bible |
| prophets | religious leaders who interpreted God's will to the Israelites |
| monotheism | believing in one God |
| Diaspora | the scattering of the Jewish people from their homeland to other parts of the world |
| delta | the area at the mouth of a river where rich soils are deposited |
| rajah | leader of an Aryan tribe |
| mystic | a person who seeks a direct experience of the Divine |
| subcontinent | large landmass attached to a continent |
| brahman | Hindu concept of the ultimate reality of the universe, the divine essence |
| atman | the essence of the divine in all things; Hindu concept |
| moksha | in Hinduism; the release from samsara |
| samsara | the cycle of birth and death; reincarnation in Hinduism |
| karma | the actions that impact a person's next life in Hindu theology |
| dharma | a Hindu's duty to caste |
| ahisma | the ethical duties of a Hindu, including ethical nonviolence |
| nirvana | the Buddhist concept of enlightenment and release from samsara |
| loess | light, easily worked soil |
| calligraphy | the art form of beautiful writing |
| clan | a group of families who claim a common ancestry |
| feudalism | a system of government in which local land-holding nobles owe service to the ruler |
| Confucius | Chinese philosopher associated with filial piety and a familial concept of duty |
| Laozi | the founder of Daoism |
| Wu Wei | the Daoist principle of living in harmony with nature |
| Qin Shi Huangdi | the first Chinese emperor; Qin dynasty |
| civil servant | a government official |
| Mandarin | a Chinese civil servant who gained his office by examination |
| Legalism | Chinese legal philosophy of harsh punishments and strict rules |
| dowry | payment to a groom's family, a bride price |
| caste | social group into which Hindus were born |
| polis | Greek city state |
| hoplon | the round shield carried by Greek soldiers |
| hoplite | a Greek infantry soldier |
| phalanx | Greek military formation with tightly packed spearmen |
| tyrant | someone who gains power by illegitimate means or force |
| acropolis | high part of the city with temples |
| monarchy | rule by a king |
| oligarchy | rule by a small group of wealthy people |
| Socrates | Athenian philosopher sentenced to death for his views; teacher of Plato |
| Plato | Athenian philosopher who wrote the Republic |
| Aristotle | Athenian philosopher who taught Alexander the Great and had the idea of the golden mean |
| logic | the rules of rational thinking |
| rhetoric | the formal study of persuasive speaking |
| philosopher | Greek word for a lover of wisdom |
| Parthenon | the temple dedicated to the goddess Athena |
| Herodotus | the Greek father of history |
| Alexander the Great | Macedonian leader who conquered Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia; associated with Hellenism |
| heliocentric | having the sun as the center |
| geocentric | having the earth as the center |
| assassination | the murder of a public figure |
| Homer | the blind Greek epic poet |
| Iliad | Homer's story of the Trojan War |
| Odyssey | Homer's story of the ten year journey home from Troy undertaken by Odysseus |
| citizen | free resident of a Greek city state; he could participate in politics |
| Pericles | defender of Athenian democracy |
| Hippocrates | Greek physician who set ethical standards for doctors |
| ostracism | banishing of a public figure |
| Thycydides | the writer of the history of the Peloponnesian War |
| Hellenism | the spreading of Greek culture to the Middle East and Egypt |
| Minoans | created an early civilization in the island of Crete |
| Mycenaeans | early Greek-speakers who probably started the Trojan War |
| aristocracy | rule by a hereditary landed elite |
| Etruscans | ethnic group from northern Italy who were early rulers of Rome |
| veto | to block a law |
| consul | Roman magistrate that performed executive duties and commanded the army; there were two |
| tribune | official elected by plebeians to protect their interests |
| plebeian | member of the Roman lower class during the Roman republic |
| patrician | member of the Roman landholding upper class |
| Senate | the Roman legislative body that held most power under the republic |
| mosaic | the art of using bits of tile or glass to make designs in floors, walls or ceilings |
| messiah | savior |
| apostle | a Greek word meaning a "person sent forth" |
| Paul | the man most responsible for the spread of Christianity |
| clergy | people who conduct religious services |
| pope | the bishop of Rome who eventually claimed to lead the Catholic Church |
| martyr | one who dies for the faith |
| Pax Romana | long period of peace in the early Roman empire |
| inflation | too much money in the economy; causes a rise in prices |
| deflation | too little money in the economy; causes a collapse in prices |
| mercenary | someone who is a paid soldier |
| Huns | Magyars who invaded Europe in the fourth century |
