Test Your Knowledge of the Ancient Greeks and Romans!

Age of the Ancient Greeks and Romans

• Classical antiquity is the period of cultural history from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD, centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome known as the Greco-Roman world.

• The Greeks and Romans wielded huge influence throughout much of Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia during their time.

• The earliest period of classical antiquity takes place against the background of gradual re-appearance of historical sources following the Bronze Age collapse.

• The Archaic period followed the Greek Dark Ages, and saw significant advancements in political theory, and the rise of democracy, philosophy, theatre, poetry, as well as the revitalization of the written language.

• The Etruscans had established political control in the region by the late 7th-century BC, forming the aristocratic and monarchial elite.

• According to legend, Rome was founded on 21 April 753 BC by twin descendants of the Trojan prince Aeneas, Romulus and Remus.

• The classical period of Ancient Greece corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, in particular, from the fall of the Athenian tyranny in 510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC.

• Classical Greece entered the Hellenistic period with the rise of Macedon and the conquests of Alexander the Great.

• The Roman Republic began with the overthrow of the Monarchy c. 509 BC and lasted over 450 years until its subversion through a series of civil wars, into the Principate form of government and the Imperial period.

• The Roman Empire began to decline in the crisis of the third century.

• Late antiquity saw the rise of Christianity under Constantine I, finally ousting the Roman imperial cult with the Theodosian decrees of 393.

• The original Roman Senate continued to express decrees into the late 6th century, and the last Eastern Roman emperor to use Latin as the language of his court in Constantinople was emperor Maurice, who reigned until 602.The Legacy of Classical Antiquity in Modern Western Society

• Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and it preserved many classical books, sculptures, and technologies well into the Middle Ages.

• The inhabitants of Constantinople continued to refer to themselves as Romans, and their culture and scholarship helped spark the Renaissance.

• The late Roman conception of the Empire as a universal state, united with Christianity, proved influential even after the disappearance of imperial authority in the West.

• Charlemagne's coronation as "Roman Emperor" in 800 led to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire, and the notion of an emperor as a monarch who outranks a mere king dates from this period.

• The Byzantine Emperor was considered the sovereign of the entire Christian world, and the Greek-speaking Byzantines and their descendants continued to call themselves "Romans" until the creation of a new Greek state in 1832.

• After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Russian Czars claimed the Byzantine mantle, and Moscow was described as the "Third Rome."

• The Papacy and the Catholic Church maintained Latin language, culture, and literacy for centuries, and the ideal of Christendom carried on the legacy of a united European civilization.

• The Renaissance idea that the classical Roman virtues had been lost under medievalism was especially powerful in European politics of the 18th and 19th centuries.

• Reverence for classical antiquity affected politics, philosophy, sculpture, literature, theatre, education, architecture, and sexuality.

• Epic poetry in Latin continued to be written and circulated well into the 19th century, and genres like epic poetry, pastoral verse, and the endless use of characters and themes from Greek mythology left a deep mark on Western literature.

• In philosophy, the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas was derived largely from that of Aristotle, and Greek and Roman authorities such as Hippocrates and Galen formed the foundation of the practice of medicine.

• The French theater subjected mythological or classical historical subjects to the strict rules of the classical unities derived from Aristotle's Poetics, and Isadora Duncan created her brand of ballet inspired by a latter-day vision of how the ancient Greeks danced.