NCEA L2 Classical Studies key terms

A self-governing Greek city-state, consisting of an urban centre and its surrounding farmland, whose citizens ran their own laws, army and religious festivals rather than obeying an outside king.

The high, fortified part of a Greek city, usually crowned with temples to the patron deity; in Athens it held the Parthenon and was both a refuge and a religious centre.

The open marketplace and civic square at the centre of a Greek city, used for trade, law courts, political assembly and gossip; it was the everyday heart of public life.

In a Greek polis, the legal status granting adult male natives the right to vote, hold office, own land and fight in the citizen army; women, slaves and foreigners were normally excluded.

Rule by the people, in Athens meaning that eligible male citizens voted directly on laws and policy in the assembly rather than electing representatives to decide for them.

The Athenian assembly of all eligible male citizens, which met on a hillside to debate and vote on war, laws, treaties and public spending by a show of hands.

The Athenian council of 500 citizens chosen by lot each year to prepare business for the assembly and oversee officials; it set the agenda citizens then voted on.

An Athenian vote in which citizens could send one man into exile for ten years by scratching his name on a potsherd; it was aimed at preventing any individual becoming too powerful.

Free foreigners living permanently in Athens who paid a special tax, served in the army and ran businesses, but could not vote or own land and needed a citizen sponsor.

The ownership of human beings as property; in Greece and Rome enslaved people worked farms, mines and households, and their labour supported the leisure and politics of free citizens.

A Roman social relationship in which a powerful patron gave money, legal help or protection to a poorer client, who in return offered votes, attendance and public support.

The Roman council of former magistrates, roughly 600 men, which controlled finance, foreign policy and long-term strategy; it advised magistrates but its advice carried enormous weight.

One of the two chief Roman magistrates elected each year to command armies and preside over the state; the pair could veto each other, and the office was the peak of a political career.

The fixed ladder of Roman public offices, normally quaestor, aedile, praetor and consul, each held at a minimum age, which a successful politician climbed in order.

The formal power to command held by Roman senior magistrates, including the right to give orders, raise troops, punish and interpret auspices; it ended when the term of office ended.

A grand public procession through Rome granted to a victorious general, in which he rode in a chariot with his army and captives to give thanks at the temple of Jupiter.

The oldest living male in a Roman household, who held legal authority over his children, slaves and property, and whose power in theory extended even to life and death.

The chief Roman god, god of sky, thunder and state power, worshipped on the Capitoline hill; his temple was the goal of triumphs and the site of major state sacrifices.

The Roman virtue of dutiful respect towards gods, family and state, shown by performing rituals correctly and fulfilling obligations; Aeneas in Virgil's epic is its model.

The Greek poet to whom the Iliad and Odyssey are attributed, probably composed in the eighth century BC; his epics shaped later ideas of heroism, gods and storytelling.

Homer's epic poem about a few weeks of the Trojan War, centred on the anger of Achilles and its cost in deaths, especially of Hector and Patroclus.

Homer's epic of Odysseus's ten-year journey home from Troy, full of monsters, gods and tests of cunning, ending with his revenge on the suitors in Ithaca.

The Greek idea of glory or fame that survives after death, won through great deeds and remembered in song; heroes risk death because poetry can make them immortal.

Arrogant overstepping of limits, especially by a human who forgets mortality or insults a god; in Greek thought it invites divine punishment and often disaster.

The Greek custom of guest-friendship, in which hosts must welcome and feed travellers and guests must not abuse hospitality; breaking it provokes the gods, as the suitors discover.

Virgil's Latin epic, written under Augustus, telling how Aeneas fled Troy and founded the line that led to Rome; it links Roman destiny with Trojan myth and Augustan values.

The Roman poet of the Aeneid, who died in 19 BC; his epic reshaped Greek heroic material into a celebration of Roman mission, duty and Augustan peace.

A serious Greek drama performed at religious festivals, in which a flawed hero suffers a reversal and the audience experiences pity and fear; the great writers include Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

The error, misjudgement or flaw in a tragic hero that contributes to his downfall; Aristotle treats it as a mistake rather than simple wickedness, so the audience can still feel pity.

A group of performers in Greek drama who sing, dance and comment on the action, representing ordinary citizens and offering the audience a moral or emotional response.

The temple of Athena on the Athenian acropolis, built in the fifth century BC with sculpted friezes and pediments; it displayed Athenian wealth, piety and imperial confidence.

The Greek goddess of wisdom, craft and war, patron of Athens; her birth from Zeus's head and her contest with Poseidon for Attica were popular subjects in art and myth.

The fifth-century BC Greek writer often called the father of history, whose account of the Persian Wars includes ethnographic digressions, speeches and a moral theme of hubris and its punishment.

The Athenian historian of the Peloponnesian War, who wrote a critical, cause-seeking account and included reconstructed speeches; he is studied for his method and analysis of power.

Evidence produced at the time being studied, such as a vase, inscription, coin or play, which a historian interprets directly rather than relying on someone else's summary.

A later work, such as a textbook, article or documentary, that interprets and comments on primary evidence; useful for overviews but shaped by the author's own views.

The study of inscriptions carved on stone, bronze or pottery; for classical studies these public decrees, tombstones and dedications give direct evidence of laws, names and religious practice.

A Greek vase-painting technique in which figures are left in the clay colour against a painted black background, allowing finer detail; the scenes often depict myth, daily life or athletics.

An elite Greek drinking party where men reclined, drank mixed wine, sang and debated; it features in poetry and on vases and reveals values about class, gender and pleasure.