Western Civilization I - Final Exam Study Guide PDF

## Western Civilization I – Final Exam Study Guide ### Unit 1 - Chapters 1 and 2 - The Origins of Civilization and Egypt 1. Civilization is the term used to describe a society differentiated by levels of wealth and power, and in which military, religious, economic, and political control are based...

## Western Civilization I – Final Exam Study Guide ### Unit 1 - Chapters 1 and 2 - The Origins of Civilization and Egypt 1. Civilization is the term used to describe a society differentiated by levels of wealth and power, and in which military, religious, economic, and political control are based in cities. 2. The Paleolithic Age, which spanned from 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago, witnessed the development of cave paintings and the division of labor between men and women, and the discovery of fire. 3. The Neolithic Revolution was the move from hunting and gathering toward the systematic growing of food. 4. One of the first ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia began in an area known as Sumer around 3000 B.C. 5. Sargon the Great was the founder of the Akkadian Empire and was known for establishing the first empire in Mesopotamia. 6. Hammurabi was the most famous of the Amorite kings of the Babylonian Empire who developed a significant set of laws. 7. Mesopotamian "wedge-shaped" writing is known as Cuneiform. 8. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a great literary epic of the ancient Sumerians. 9. The Nile River was of paramount importance in the development of Egyptian civilization. 10. Ancient Egyptian history is divided into three major periods: The Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. 11. The Egyptians were polytheistic and during the Old Kingdom their chief god was Re, the sun god. 12. During the New Kingdom of Egyptian history rulers took on the title of Pharaoh. 13. Osiris was the Egyptian god most closely associated with the process of mummification. 14. Hieroglyphics was the primary writing system used in ancient Egypt; it included symbols that represented sounds and objects. 15. The Egyptian number system was based on what number? 10. 16. Greek, Latin, Persian, and other similar languages belong to which language group? Indo-European. ### Unit 2 - Chapter 3 - The Bronze Age and the Iron Age 1. Geographically, Minoan civilization was located on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. 2. Linear was the undeciphered primary script used in the palace and religious writings of Minoan civilization. 3. What language group did Mycenaeans belong to? Greek. 4. What virtue of being a skilled warrior was considered the most important to the Mycenaean? 5. The earliest written form of Greek used by the Mycenaeans was known as Linear B. 6. According to their religious tradition, Abraham is considered the patriarch of the Hebrew people. 7. King David is credited with founding Jerusalem and is considered the greatest king of Israel. 8. There were three important aspects of Jewish Religious Tradition - The Covenant, the Law, and the Prophets. 9. The destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and the subsequent exile of the Hebrews occurred at the hands of the Chaldeans. 10. A simplified alphabet and system of writing was the most important contribution to the ancient Near East. 11. Assyrians were the warlike conquerors of Mesopotamia and Egypt. 12. The Assyrian military used terror tactics, had a well-trained and disciplined army that used iron weapons, and used horse-drawn war chariots. 13. The construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the architectural achievements during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. ### Unit 3 - Chapters 4, 5, and 6 - Archaic Greece, The Persian Wars, and Classical Greece 1. During the Greek Archaic Age, the Greeks adopted the alphabet from the Phoenicians. 2. The Iliad was a work of epic poetry that tells the story of the Trojan War with its theme being the wrath of a Greek hero named Achilles. 3. A Greek polis was an independent, self-governing city-state. 4. The phalanx was a new Greek military formation where soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in ranks often eight men deep. 5. Democracy involves rule by the people and does not discriminate based on birth or wealth. 6. The poor in Athens faced economic problems caused by families being sold into slavery, as a result, they turned power over to Solon to save Athens. 7. Cleisthenes began the major reforms that would create Athenian democracy. 8. Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire. 9. Miltiades led the Athenians and their Greek allies to victory at the Battle of Marathon. 10. Xerxes was the Persian ruler who led the "Second" Invasion of Greece in 480-479 B.C with a force of 150,000 to 250,000 men. 11. The Battle of Thermopylae was a heroic delaying action led by King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans to buy time for Athens to prepare for the Persian invasion. 12. Greek unity was destroyed as a result of the Peloponnesian War. 13. Herodotus wrote the "Persian Wars" and is known as "the Father of History". 14. Socrates was a famous Greek philosopher who was forced to commit suicide by drinking hemlock for "corrupting the youth of Athens". ### Unit 4 - Chapter 7 - The Hellenistic Age 1. Hellenistic is the word used to describe the civilization, based on that of Greece, that developed in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. 2. Philip II conquered Greece by defeating an alliance of Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea in 337 B.C. 3. During Alexander III's (Alexander the Great) reign, he created the largest empire the ancient world had known by the age of 31 and was responsible more than anyone else for the diffusion of Hellenistic culture. 4. Some of the most famous battles commanded by Alexander The Great were the Battle of Granicus River, the Battle of Issus, and the Battle of Gaugamela. 5. Apollonius of Rhodes is best known for his epic poem, "The Argonautica." 6. Epicureanism was founded by Epicurus and its teachings are sometimes referred to as the "Doctrine of pleasure." 7. Stoicism, founded by Zeno, emphasized the principles of the acceptance of fate and active participation in public life. 8. Aristarchus of Samos proposed the groundbreaking astronomical theory of the heliocentric view of the universe. 9. Eratosthenes is best known for determining the circumference of the Earth. 10. Euchlid's most famous contribution to mathematics was compiling "Elements," a comprehensive textbook on geometry. 11. Archimedes is best known in mathematics for establishing the value of pi. ### Unit 5 - Chapter 8 - The Roman Republic 1. Etruscan and Greek cultures influenced the early Roman civilization. 2. During the Roman Republic the Consuls were the highest civil and military officials. 3. Due to political inequality, the Struggle of the Orders occurred between the Patricians and Plebeians and resulted in Plebeians obtaining more power. 4. The Laws of the Twelve Tables governed civil and criminal disputes among Roman citizens and became the foundation of the legal culture of the West. 5. Hannibal's greatest victory of the Second Punic War was the Battle of Cannae. 6. Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. 7. The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between Rome and Carthage. 8. Crassus and Pompey were the Roman commanders responsible for suppressing the Third Servile War led by Spartacus. 9. One result of the efforts of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus was that Roman politics had become more unstable. 10. The result of military reform proposals, such as abolishing the requirement that a soldier must own land, by Gaius Marius was that the Roman army became more loyal to their commanders than to Rome. 11. Sulla set the example of how an army could be used to seize power in Rome, became dictator, tried to restore the power of the senate, and later resigned the dictatorship and retired from Roman politics in 79 B.C. 12. Julius Caesar, Marcus Crassus, and Pompey the Great formed a political alliance known as the First Triumvirate. 13. At the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., Octavian's forces defeated those of Antony and Cleopatra, and they retreated to Egypt. ### Unit 6 - Chapters 9 and 10 - The Roman Empire, the Late Empire, and Christianity 1. The reign of Augustus is considered a Golden Age for Rome. 2. Which Julio-Claudian persecuted Christians, was emperor when the Great Fire of Rome occurred in 64, and was famous for his scandalous behavior? Nero. 3. In 212 the Antonine Decree granted Roman citizenship to all the free inhabitants of the Roman Empire. 4. Bread and Circuses is an ancient Roman metaphor for people choosing food and fun over political engagement. 5. The Diaspora is often associated with Jewish life after the destruction of the Second Temple in Judea. 6. Jesus preached humility, charity, and brother love, wrote nothing down and can only be viewed through oral tradition and the writing of others, was crucified, and whose followers began to call themselves Christians. 7. One of Paul's key contributions to early Christianity was developing the first coherent Christian theology. 7. The Edict of Milan issued by Constantine in 313 officially tolerated Christianity, allowing Christians to practice their religion freely. 9. In 380 Theodosius the Great declared Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica. 10. The Pope became the head of the church in the West based on "Petrine Primacy"; they followed the line of St. Peter who was the first Bishop of Rome. 11. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 resulted in the formation of the first uniform Christian doctrine, known as the Nicene Creed. 12. Saint Benedict of Nursia created the rule that stressed the idea of a communal life of living in a monastery with a focus on prayer, reading, and manual labor. ### Unit 7 - Chapters 11 and 12 - Byzantium and the Rise of Islam 1. After the fall of the western half of the Roman Empire, the eastern half of the empire survived, this eastern half is known as the Byzantine Empire and survived for another thousand years. 2. Emperor Justinian is considered the most important Byzantine Emperor of the 6th century. 3. The Hagia Sophia was completed in 537 and was the largest Christian Cathedral in the world at that time. 4. Iconoclasm Controversy was the dispute over the use of religious icons in the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. 5. In 1071 the Seljuk Turks crushed the Byzantine army and captured Emperor Romanos Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert. 6. What was the capital of the Byzantine Empire? Constantinople. 7. The Hegira, Muhammad's flight to Yathrib (Medina) in 622 marks the beginning of the Islamic calender. 8. By the time of his death in 632, Muhammad had unified most of the Arab clans under Islam. 9. Muhammad's main role in Islam consisted of being the last prophet, delivering the definitive message of God. 10. The Muslim holy book is known as the Qur'an. 11. Charles Martel led the Frankish and Burgundian armies at the Battle of Tours, which halted the Muslim advance into Europe. 12. The Umayyad Caliphate based in Damascus, Syria was the first stable Muslim state.