HSC Ancient History cheat sheet

Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE; Pliny the Younger's letters to Tacitus (written c. 106–107 CE) are the principal literary source, describing the cloud, falling pumice, and darkness at Misenum.

Pompeii was buried by pumice fall (up to c. 3 m) followed by pyroclastic surges; Herculaneum was sealed by pyroclastic flows and mud, preserving upper storeys, wood, and organic material such as food and rope.

Eruption phases: sustained pumice fall (Plinian phase) then repeated pyroclastic density currents; the town of Pompeii lies south-east of the crater, Herculaneum west and closer to the vent.

Site chronology: Oscan/Samnite settlement, Roman colonisation under Sulla 80 BCE (Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum), earthquake of 62/63 CE, eruption 79 CE.

Key public buildings: Forum with Temple of Jupiter, Macellum, and municipal buildings; Stabian and Suburban Baths; theatres and Odeon; amphitheatre (c. 70 BCE, earliest known stone amphitheatre); Herculaneum's palaestra, basilica, and Suburban Baths.

Domestic evidence: atrium-peristyle houses (House of the Faun, House of the Vettii, House of Menander), wall painting Four Styles, mosaics (Alexander Mosaic), and graffiti/electoral notices as evidence of daily life.

Economy: wine and olive oil production (villa rustica at Boscoreale, presses and dolia), garum and fish sauce, fulling and dyeing workshops, bakeries with millstones, and harbour activity at Pompeii's port area.

Human remains: casts of victims at Pompeii (e.g. Garden of the Fugitives); skeletal evidence at Herculaneum boat sheds, used to study diet, health, age, and causes of death.

Conservation issues: exposure to weathering, tourism pressure, vegetation, past poor restoration, looting and bombing damage in 1943; the 2010 collapse of the Schola Armaturarum prompted international conservation programs.

Spartan society: Spartiates (full citizens), perioikoi (free non-citizens, traders/craftsmen), helots (state-owned serfs); the agoge was the state education for male Spartiates from age 7.

Spartan government: dual kingship, Gerousia (28 elders plus 2 kings), ephors (five annually elected), and the Apella (assembly of citizens); the Great Rhetra is the foundational constitutional tradition.

Athenian society: citizens, metics (resident foreigners), and slaves; Cleisthenes' reforms (508/507 BCE) created ten tribes and the deme system, underwriting Athenian democracy.

Athenian democracy institutions: Ekklesia (assembly), Boule of 500 (Council, chosen by lot), strategoi (generals, elected), ostracism, and jury courts (dikasteria) with pay for service.

Roman society under the Republic: patricians and plebeians, the Struggle of the Orders, tribunes of the plebs, and the Twelve Tables (c. 451–450 BCE) as early written law.

Roman social structures: familia and paterfamilias, patron-client relationships, equestrians, freedmen, and slaves; the census determined class and military obligation.

Egyptian society (New Kingdom): pharaoh as divine ruler, vizier, nomarchs, priests, scribes, artisans, and farmers; the Deir el-Medina community documents work and daily life.

Evidence types for societies: literary sources (Herodotus, Plutarch, Thucydides, Livy), inscriptions, papyri, archaeology of settlements and cemeteries, and comparative anthropological models.

Evaluation criteria for a personality: reliability and bias of sources, contemporary versus later evidence, archaeological corroboration, and distinction between actions and later reputation.

Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE): sources include Arrian, Plutarch, Curtius Rufus, and Diodorus; Arrian relies on Ptolemy and Aristobulus, while Curtius and Plutarch reflect rhetorical traditions.

Alexander's career markers: accession 336 BCE, Granicus 334, Issus 333, Gaugamela 331, Persepolis, campaign to India, mutiny at the Hyphasis 326, death at Babylon 323 BCE.

Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE): sources include Caesar's own Commentaries, Cicero's letters and speeches, Plutarch, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio; the Commentaries are self-justifying.

Caesar's career markers: First Triumvirate 60 BCE, consulship 59, conquest of Gaul 58–50, crossing the Rubicon 49, dictatorship and reforms, assassination on the Ides of March 44 BCE.

Hatshepsut (r. c. 1479–1458 BCE): evidence includes her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, obelisks, inscriptions, and the later erasure of her name; source problems include royal ideology and damnatio memoriae.

Xerxes or Themistocles: Persian Wars evidence from Herodotus, Aeschylus' Persians, and inscriptions; assess reliability of Herodotus and the role of individual versus collective decision-making.

Personality assessment requires weighing motive, context, contemporary reputation, and long-term impact, and identifying where sources are encomiastic, hostile, or retrospective.

Period study requires analysis of political, social, economic, and military change over time, plus evaluation of primary and secondary sources and historiography.

The Greek 'Dark Age' (c. 1100–800 BCE) follows Mycenaean collapse; evidence is mainly archaeological (protogeometric/geometric pottery, Lefkandi), with Homer as later literary evidence.

Archaic Greece (c. 800–480 BCE): polis formation, colonisation, tyrants, hoplite warfare, and literacy; key evidence includes lyric poetry, inscriptions, and sanctuaries such as Delphi and Olympia.

Classical Greece (c. 480–323 BCE): Persian Wars, Athenian Empire and Delian League, Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE), and the rise of Macedon under Philip II.

Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE): successor kingdoms (Ptolemaic, Seleucid, Antigonid), koine culture, and Roman intervention ending at Actium 31 BCE.

Roman Republic to Empire: Punic Wars, Gracchi reforms, Marius and Sulla, civil wars, and Augustus' principate after 31 BCE; sources include Polybius, Livy, Plutarch, and Augustus' Res Gestae.

New Kingdom Egypt (c. 1550–1069 BCE): expulsion of the Hyksos, Thutmose III's campaigns, Amarna period under Akhenaten, and Ramesside rule; evidence includes royal inscriptions and Amarna letters.

Period questions require chronological accuracy, cause-and-effect reasoning, and evaluation of change versus continuity, supported by specific evidence and historians' interpretations.