1. Rome
1.1. Patterns in Roman History
1.1.1. Began as a small monarchy in Italy in 800 BCE
1.1.2. Roman Republic: Balanced constitution of Rome from 510 to 47 BCE, had aristocratic senate, panel of magistrates, popular assemblies
1.1.3. Conquered greek colonies in the South
1.1.4. Roman conquests spread widely during the Punic Wars (264 to 146 BCE)
1.1.4.1. Fought Phoenician city of Carthage
1.1.4.2. Hannibal: Great Carthaginian general during second Punic War, invaded Italy but failed to defeat Rome
1.1.4.3. After Punic wars, Rome proceeded to seize entire Western Mediterranean
1.1.5. Julius Caesar won civil war with other General in 45 BCE, assassinated the next year
1.1.6. Augustus Caesar took power in 27 BCE, next 200 years Romans conquered and enjoyed a period of prosperity
1.1.7. Suffered a slow fall that lasted over 250 years
1.1.8. Government overturned by northern invaders in 476 CE
1.1.9. Diocletian and Constantine: emperors who tried to stop the fall of Rome. Constantine adopted Christianity in 313 CE in an attempt to unify the empire
1.1.10. Depended on non Roman military, whose loyalty was questionable
1.2. Political Institutions
1.2.1. senate: assembly of roman aristocrats
1.2.2. consuls: members of the senate, two magistrates that shared primary executive power
1.2.3. debate was encouraged in senate
1.2.4. developed organizational capacities on a larger scale than the city states
1.2.5. Officers often wielded great political power
1.2.6. Carefully crafted laws, legal codes
1.2.7. twelve tables, early code of law
1.2.8. law should evolve to meet the changing conditions
1.2.9. common sense fairnesss
1.2.10. entertainment within rome intended to prevent popular disorder
1.2.11. were generally tolerant of other religions, unless it interfered with loyalty to the state
1.3. Religion and Culture
1.3.1. Christianity arose during the roman empire
1.3.2. literary tradition for telling stories about the gods
1.3.3. mystery religions from the middle east often swept through rome
1.4. Philosophy and Science
1.4.1. Wrote textbooks, did not add information to Greek findings
1.4.2. More practical than Greece, architecture
1.4.3. Vergil, linked Roman mythology to Greek
1.4.4. Painters
1.4.5. Engineering skills allowed larger buildings than Greece
1.4.6. Villas and small palaces built for the upper class
1.5. Economy and Society
1.5.1. Most people were farmers in both Greece and Rome
1.5.2. Large landlords squeezed free farmers, forcing them to become tenants or laborers
1.6. Agriculture and Trade
1.6.1. Soil conditions not ideal for growing
1.6.2. Colonized Sicily and North Africa
1.6.3. City states supervised the grain trade
1.7. Slavery
1.7.1. Roman slaves performed household tasks including tutoring children
1.7.2. Large number of slaves for agricultural work
1.7.3. Slave labor discouraged need for technological advancement
1.8. Fall of Rome
1.8.1. No central religion
1.8.2. Happened slowly, over the course of several hundred years
2. Persia
2.1. Political Styles and Innovations
2.1.1. Tolerant of many languages, cultures, and religions
2.1.2. Darius, successor to Cyrus, had centralized laws and tax collection
2.1.3. Major system of roads, inns along the way, east-west mostly paved road
2.1.4. First regular postal service
2.1.5. Darius developed a substantial bureaucracy, made sure regional officials stayed loyal by using spies
2.1.6. Zoroastrianism: Animist religion that saw material existence as battle between forces of good and evil, stressed the importance of moral choice, righteous lived on after death, chief religion of Persian empire
2.1.7. Zoroaster religious leader, revised polytheistic Sumerian religion and introduced idea of individual salvation through free choice of god
2.1.8. More spiritual than Greek religion
2.1.9. Toppled by Alexander the Great
2.2. A New Perspective in the Middle East
2.2.1. Cyrus the Great: Established massive Persian empire by 550 CE, successor state to Mesopotamian empires
2.2.2. Persian Empire ran across Northern Middle East and into Northwest India
2.2.3. Advanced iron technology in Middle East
3. Greece
3.1. Stages in Greek Development
3.1.1. Rapid rise of civilization between 800 and 600 BCE
3.1.2. Based on strong city states
3.1.3. Each city state had its own ruler or aristocratic council
3.1.4. Olympic Games: Observed by all Greek city-states, involved athletic competitions and ritual celebration
3.1.5. Sparta and Athens two leading city states
3.1.6. Sparta had strong military aristocracy dominating a slave population
3.1.7. Athens was more diverse, still had slaves
3.1.8. Between 500 and 449 BCE Athens and Sparta cooperated to defeat Persian invasion
3.1.9. Pericles: Athenian political leader during 5th century BCE
3.1.10. Peloponnesian Wars: Wars from 431 to 404 BCE between Athens and Sparta for dominance in Southern Greece, Sparta won but failed to unify Greece
3.1.11. Phillip II of Macedon: Ruled Macedon from 359 to 336 BCE, conquered all of Greece
3.1.12. Hellenistic Period: Culture associated with the spread of Greek influence, combination of Greek culture with eastern political forms
3.1.13. Alexandria, Egypt: traded with Macedonian empire, named for Alexander the Great
3.2. Political Institutions
3.2.1. Direct Democracy: where people participate directly in assemblies that make laws and select leaders rather than selecting representatives
3.2.2. Judges were chosen by lot, not elected
3.2.3. Women had no rights of political participation
3.2.4. Aristocratic assemblies preferred way of governing
3.3. Religion and Culture
3.3.1. Essentially identical gods as Romans, different names
3.3.2. Stories of the gods were entertainment
3.3.3. mystery religions from the middle east often swept through greece
3.4. Philosophy and Science
3.4.1. Socrates: athenian philosopher of later 5th century BCE, tutor of Plato, urged rational reflection of moral decisions
3.4.2. Emphasis on human ability to think, less focused on spirituality, similar to Confucianism
3.4.3. Few scientific findings arose from Greece
3.4.4. Speculated about nature's order
3.4.5. Interest in math, specifically geometry
3.4.6. Interested in Theatre, drama, plays, poetry
3.4.7. Sophocles: Greek writer of tragedies
3.4.8. Iliad, Odyssey: attributed to Homer
3.4.9. Ceramics
3.4.10. Greek architecture emphasized squares and rectangles
3.4.11. Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, all forms of columns
3.5. Economy and Society
3.5.1. Many farmers gathered for spring passion play to celebrate return of Persephone
3.5.2. Free farmers who owned their own land flourished
3.6. Agriculture and Trade
3.6.1. Rise of commercial agriculture led to establishment of the empire
3.6.2. Developed colonies in the Middle East ad Sicily
3.6.3. City states supervised the grain trade
3.7. Slavery
3.7.1. Athenians used slaves as household servants and as workers in silver mines
3.7.2. Slaves only lasted a few years in the mines