Ancient Civilizations in Credo: Classical

Ancient civilization that flourished 2,500 years ago on the shores of the Ionian and Aegean Seas (modern Greece and the west coast of Turkey).

Confederation of Greek city-states under the leadership of Athens.

Ceremonies in honour of the Greek deities Demeter, goddess of corn, and her daughter Persephone, queen of the underworld, celebrated in the precincts of the temple of Demeter at Eleusis, in the territory of Athens. They formed the basis of a secret cult, requiring initiation for entrance. The rituals were agrarian in origin and had a strong chthonic (pertaining to the underworld) aspect, dealing with the cycle of growth and decay represented by Persephone's half-yearly absence from her mother.

The art of building that arose on the shores of the Aegean Sea and flourished in the ancient world.

Works of art produced in the Aegean basin, a center of artistic activity from very early times.

Held in honor of Zeus in the city of Olympia for four days every fourth summer, the Olympic games were the oldest and most prestigious of four great ancient Greek athletic festivals.

The earliest tragedies were part of the Attic religious festivals held in honor of the god Dionysus (5th cent. B.C.).

The Acropolis of Athens was a ceremonial site beginning in the Neolithic Period. The area was adorned during the time of Cimon and Pericles with some of the world's greatest architectural and sculptural monuments.

Capital city of Greece and of ancient Attica; population (2003 est) 747,300, urban agglomeration 3,247,000. The site was first inhabited about 3000 BC with Athens (named after its patron goddess Athena) as the capital of a united Attica before 700 B.C.

Locality in Phocis, Greece, near the foot of the south slope of Mt. Parnassós, c.6 mi (10 km) northeast of the port of Cirrha. It was the seat of the Delphic oracle, the most famous and most powerful of ancient Greece. The oracle originated in the worship of an earth-goddess, and later legend ascribed it to Gaea.

Ancient country, roughly equivalent to the modern region of Macedonia. In the history of Greek culture Macedon had its single significance in producing the conquerors and armies who created the Hellenistic empires and civilizations.

City of ancient Greece, capital of Laconia, on the Eurotas (Evrótas) River in the Peloponnesus.

[Gr.,=the virgin's place]; temple sacred to Athena, on the acropolis at Athens. Built under Pericles between 447 B.C. and 432 B.C., it is the culminating masterpiece of Greek architecture.

A form of government in which the people govern themselves or elect representatives to govern them. Term originating in ancient Greece to designate a government where the people share in directing the activities of the state, as distinct from governments controlled by a single class, select group, or autocrat.

[Gr.,=to reflect], philosophic position holding that the possibility of knowledge is limited either because of the limitations of the mind or because of the inaccessibility of its object.

School of philosophy which taught that only by putting aside passion, unjust thoughts, and indulgence and by performing duty with the right disposition can people attain true freedom and rule as lords over their own lives.

Ancient Rome was a civilization based on the city of Rome. It lasted for about 800 years. Originated as a conglomeration of small pastoral communities scattered across seven neighboring hills along the Tiber River of Italy, Rome grew to become the capital of an empire that encompassed all the territories bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the British Isles to the Arabian Peninsula.

Member of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. Latin was first encountered in ancient times as the language of Latium, the region of central Italy in which Rome is located.

Structures produced by the ancient Romans, characterized by rational design and planning, the use of vaulting and concrete masonry, and the use of the classical orders only sporadically for purposes of architectural articulation and decoration. The origins of Roman architecture can be traced to the Etruscans, who migrated from Asia Minor to Italy in the 12th century B.C.E.

The legal system of Rome from the supposed founding of the city in 753 B.C. to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in A.D. 1453; it was later adopted as the basis of modern civil law.

Constructed during the reign of the emperor Hadrian between 118 and 125 ce in the Campus Martius district of ancient Rome, the imposing Pantheon still dominates its surroundings today.

Also known as the Flavian amphitheatre, the Colosseum in Rome was the largest of the ancient amphitheatres. Elliptical in plan, it measures 188 × 156 m and is 48.5 m in height (620 × 515 × 160 ft).

Ancient city of S Italy, a port near Naples and at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius.

Rome took possession of the island in 238 BC and formed it into a province. Sardinia was one of the chief sources of the Roman Empire's corn supply; it also produced silver and salt.

The largest Mediterranean island and an autonomous region of Italy, divided from the Italian mainland by the Strait of Messina; area 25,708 sq km/9,926 sq mi; population (2001 est) 4,866,200.

The earliest recorded eruption (A.D. 79) was described by Pliny the Younger in two letters to Tacitus; the eruption buried Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae under cinders, ashes, and mud.

War fought 431-404 BCE between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies, involving most of the Greek world from Asia Minor to Sicily and from Byzantium (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) to Crete.

The mythical Trojan War probably reflected a real war (c.1200 B.C.) between the invading Greeks and the people of Troas (Troy), possibly over control of trade through the Dardanelles. The strife began after the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta.