HSC Ancient History flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Pliny the Younger's letters

Letters to Tacitus written c. 106–107 CE describing the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius, including the cloud, pumice fall, and darkness; a key literary source for the disaster.

Pyroclastic surge

Fast-moving cloud of hot gas and volcanic material that caused most deaths at Pompeii and Herculaneum; multiple surges buried the towns after the initial pumice fall.

Herculaneum preservation

Sealed by pyroclastic flows and mud rather than pumice, Herculaneum preserved upper storeys, wooden furniture, food, rope, and skeletons in the boat sheds.

Pompeii's Forum

Civic and commercial centre containing the Temple of Jupiter, Macellum, and municipal buildings; it functioned as the political, religious, and economic heart of the colony.

House of the Vettii

Well-preserved Pompeian atrium-peristyle house of freedmen brothers, notable for Fourth Style wall paintings and evidence of commerce and domestic life.

Garum trade

Fermented fish sauce produced in workshops at Pompeii and Herculaneum; amphorae and production vats show its role in local and export economies.

Site conservation threats

Pompeii and Herculaneum face weathering, vegetation, tourism pressure, past poor restoration, looting, and WWII bombing; collapses prompted international conservation efforts.

Spartan agoge

State education for male Spartiates from about age seven, emphasising endurance, discipline, and military training; it shaped Spartan social and military identity.

Helots

State-owned serf population in Sparta, tied to the land and labouring for Spartiates; their numbers and revolt risk shaped Spartan militarism and social structure.

Cleisthenes' reforms

Athenian reforms of 508/507 BCE creating ten tribes and the deme system, reorganising civic identity and underpinning the development of Athenian democracy.

Athenian Boule

Council of 500 citizens chosen by lot, preparing business for the Ekklesia and overseeing administration; a central institution of Athenian democratic government.

Twelve Tables

Early Roman written law codified c. 451–450 BCE, produced during the Struggle of the Orders; it became a foundation of Roman legal tradition.

Patron-client relationship

Roman social bond in which a patron offered protection and support to clients in return for political backing, services, and loyalty; it structured Roman society and politics.

Deir el-Medina

New Kingdom Egyptian village of tomb workers near Thebes; its ostraca, papyri, and houses provide detailed evidence of artisans' daily life and labour organisation.

Perioikoi

Free non-citizen inhabitants of Sparta's territory who engaged in trade and crafts and served in the army, but lacked Spartiate political rights.

Arrian as Alexander source

Arrian's Anabasis, drawing on Ptolemy and Aristobulus, is generally considered the most reliable surviving narrative of Alexander, though still shaped by idealisation.

Battle of Gaugamela

331 BCE victory of Alexander over Darius III that led to the fall of Persepolis and the collapse of Achaemenid resistance; a turning point in the campaign.

Hyphasis mutiny

326 BCE refusal of Alexander's troops to advance further into India, forcing his retreat; it illustrates limits on his authority and army morale.

Caesar's Commentaries

Caesar's own accounts of the Gallic and civil wars; valuable but self-justifying sources that present his actions as defensive and necessary.

Crossing the Rubicon

49 BCE entry of Caesar's army into Italy, violating Senate authority and triggering civil war; a decisive moment in the collapse of the Roman Republic.

Ides of March

15 March 44 BCE, when Caesar was assassinated by senators led by Brutus and Cassius; the event ended his dictatorship but renewed civil conflict.

Hatshepsut's Deir el-Bahri

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, decorated with reliefs including the Punt expedition; a major source for her reign and royal ideology.

Damnatio memoriae

Erasure or alteration of a person's name and images from monuments, as applied to Hatshepsut; it complicates reconstruction of her reign from inscriptions.

Herodotus as source

Fifth-century BCE historian whose Histories cover the Persian Wars; valuable but shaped by oral tradition, anecdote, and Greek cultural assumptions.

Greek Dark Age

Period c. 1100–800 BCE after Mycenaean collapse, known mainly from archaeology such as Lefkandi and geometric pottery, with Homer as later literary evidence.

Delian League

Alliance led by Athens after 478 BCE against Persia; tribute and naval power transformed it into an Athenian empire, provoking the Peloponnesian War.

Peloponnesian War

Conflict 431–404 BCE between Athens and Sparta and allies; sources include Thucydides, and its outcome ended Athenian imperial power.

Hellenistic kingdoms

Successor states after Alexander's death, including Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Asia, and Antigonid Macedon; they blended Greek and local cultures until Roman conquest.

Augustus' principate

Political settlement after 31 BCE in which Octavian, as Augustus, retained power through republican forms; the Res Gestae is his own account of achievements.

Amarna letters

Cuneiform diplomatic correspondence of the 14th century BCE, mainly from Akhenaten's reign; they illuminate New Kingdom Egypt's foreign relations and administration.

Thutmose III's campaigns

Series of New Kingdom military campaigns, including Megiddo, that expanded Egyptian control into Syria-Palestine; recorded on temple walls at Karnak.

Change and continuity

Analytical framework for period studies comparing what transformed and what persisted politically, socially, and economically, supported by specific evidence and historians' interpretations.