Oklahoma Academic Team
World History Terms, up to 1500 A.D.

Abbasids -- rulers of the Islamic caliphate from 750-1258; made Baghdad their capital and increased the Persian influence in Islam; lost most of their real power in the 900s

Achaeans -- Indo-European raiders who invaded the Balkan Peninsula c. 1800 B.C.

Battle of Actium -- naval battle of 31 B.C. between Antony's forces and Octavian's forces under Agrippa;  Agrippa's victory led to the deaths of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and the establishment of the Roman Empire

Battle of Adrianople -- occurred in 378 between Visigoths and Romans; Visigoth victory displayed the weakness of the Roman Empire to all

Battle of Agincourt -- 1415 between English and French; English force of 6-7,000 with superior technology (longbows and pikes) rout a much larger French force

Ainu -- aboriginal tribe of ancient Japan; later driven north to Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles by Oriental invaders

Alaric -- king of the Visigoths who sacked Rome in 410

Albertus Magnus -- 13th century scholar known as the Universal Doctor; considered the intellectual leader of Northern Europe

Albigensianism -- heresy of Southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries; claimed that good deity created spirit world and sent Jesus and that evil deity created material world; attacked by a Crusade

Alcuin -- 8th century English scholar; asked by Charlemagne to establish universties; leader of the Carolingian Renaissance

Allodial land -- land owned independently of the feudal system

Amorites -- a Semitic people who invaded and settled in the Fertile Crescent and Sumeria between 2000 and 1800 B.C. as part of the First Mass Migration; established the First Babylonian Kingdom

Anatolia -- another name for Asia Minor

Apella -- the Spartan assembly of all male citizens

Arameans -- Second Mass Migration tribe who invaded northern Palestine and Syria c. 1200 B.C.; their language became the common business language of the day and is said to have been the daily language of Jesus

Battle of Arbela -- October 1, 331 B.C. between Alexander the Great and Darius III; Alexander crushed Persian Army; also called Gaugamela

Archon -- one of the city officials of Athens

Areopagus -- special council of 51 judges in Athens; revived by Solon

Arianism -- Christian heresy which denied the divinity of Jesus; condemned by the first council of Nicaea in 325

Aristides -- "The Just"; Athenian general at the battle of Plataea with Pausanis of Sparta; maneuvered Athens to prominence in the Delian League

Asoka -- ruler of India (Maurya dynasty) 274-236 B.C.; converted empire to Buddhism and tried to end caste system; "Asoka's wheel" is on India's present flag

Assurbanipal -- last great king of the Assyrian Empire (668-626 B.C.); established the library at Nineveh

Assurnasurapli II -- first king of the Assyrian Empire (883-859 B.C.); expanded the Assyrian Empire and developed the first organized cavalry

Atilla -- king of the Huns who led the invasion of western Europe c. 450

Battle of Bannockburn -- 1329 victory of Scots under Robert the Bruce over English under Edward II; secured Scottish independence from England

Saint Thomas a Becket -- Archbishop of Canterbury; murdered by Henry II; subject of numerous literary works

Belisarius -- Byzantine general under Justinian; conquered the Vandals and the Ostrogoths

Saint Benedict of Nursia -- established the first Western monastery at Monte Cassino (Italy) in 529

Battle of Bosworth Field -- 1485; Henry VII becomes King of England, ushering in Tudor dynasty; Richard III slain

Byzantine Empire -- term used for the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the Western Empire in A.D. 476; lasted nominally until 1453

Gaius Caligula -- Roman emperor assassinated by the Praetorian Guard in 41; nickname means "little boot"

Cambyses II -- succeeded his father Cyrus the Great as king of Persia; added Egypt to the Persian Empire

Canaanites -- inhabitants of Palestine c. 1200 B.C.

Battle of Cannae -- 216 B.C.; Second Punic War battle in which Carthaginians under Hannibal rout the Roman army under Varro and Paulus; 85,000 Roman casualties; worst defeat in Roman history

Canute the Great -- Scandinavian king who ruled England, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; first king to unite the Norse world

Battle of Cape Mycale -- 479 B.C.; Greek allied army under Pausanis surprises the Persian fleet and destroys it

Hugh Capet -- became the first King of France in 987; established the Capetian dynasty

Battle of Carrhae -- 53 B.C.; Romans under Crassus defeated by the Parthians; Crassus killed

Cato the Elder -- Roman senator; famous for ending all his speeches with "Carthage must be destroyed"
 
Celts -- a First Mass Migration tribe that settled in northwestern Europe c. 2000 B.C.

Chaldeans -- Second Mass Migration tribe, originally from Saudi Arabia, that attacked and destroyed the Kassites c. 1200 B.C.; rebuilt the city of Babylon (for this reason they are sometimes referred to as Neo-Babylonians)

Battle of Chalons -- 451 between an alliance of Western peoples under Roman commanders and the Huns under Atilla; Atilla's advance into Western Europe halted

Champollion, Jean-Francois -- Frenchman who deciphered the Rosetta Stone in 1822

Chandragupta -- grandfather of Asoka who founded the Maurya dynasty

Chares -- Greek architect of the Colossus of Rhodes

Charlemagne -- king of the Franks; given the title "Holy Roman Emperor" in 800

Charles Martel -- served as Mayor of the Palace (Frankish second-in-command) from 714-741; son of Pepin II of Heristal and grandfather of Charlemagne; defeated the Arabs at Tours

Cicero -- Roman statesman and Senator; beheaded in 43 B.C. by agents of Mark Antony

Cimon -- became Polemarch of Athens in 478 B.C.; created the Delian League and hoped to continue the war with Persia

Cleisthenes -- established the first democracy in 508 B.C.; known as the "father of democracy"

Cleopatra VII -- Queen of Egypt from 48-30 B.C.; had affairs with Antony and Julius Caesar

Constantine the Great -- emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 312-324; reunited the Empire briefly prior to his death (324-337)

Consuls -- the two commanders of the army of the Roman Republic; they were elected by the Curiata for one-year terms and also served as executives of the government

Battle of Crecy -- 1339 between English under Edward III and French under Phillip VI; English victory mainly due to archers
 
Croesus -- last king of Lydia (reigned until about 560 B.C.); said to have been the richest man in the world; visisted Oracle at Delphi about whether to battle Cyrus the Great and misunderstood the answer.  (According to legend, the Oracle told Croesus that a great empire would fall if he went to war; the empire turned out to be Lydia instead of Persia.)

Crypteia -- the Spartan secret police

Battle of Cumae -- naval battle of 474 B.C.; combined Carthaginian/Greek forces defeated the Etruscans; broke Etruscan power in Italy

Cuneiform -- wedge-shaped system of writing used by the Sumerians

Cyaxares -- king of the Medes who helped overthrow Assyria

Cyrus II (the Great) -- king of the Medes and Persians 550 B.C. - 529 B.C.; established the Achamenid Persian Empire

Darius I -- king of Persia 524 B.C. - 486 B.C.; started the war with the Greek city-states; made Zoroastrianism the state religion

Datis the Mede -- commanded the Persian forces at Marathon

Vasco de Gama -- Portuguese explorer who became the first to complete a successful voyage to India in 1498

Delian League -- Athenian parallel to the Peloponnesian League; created by Athens to continue the Persian Wars

Diocletian -- Roman Emperor (285-305) who split the Empire into Eastern and Western halves; voluntarily abdicated

Doomsday Book -- census done by William the Conqueror in England

Draco -- elected Chief Archon of Athens in 620 B.C.; first codified the laws of Athens

Eleanor of Aquitane -- wife of Louis VII of France and later Henry II (Plantagenet) of England; mother of Richard the Lionhearted

Ephialtes -- traitor who enabled the Persians to defeat the Greeks at Thermopylae

Ephors -- the five elected political rulers of Sparta; had absolute political power

Essenes -- ascetic Jewish sect of the first century who favored communal withdrawal from society

Etruscans -- wandering tribe (not part of any of the Mass Migrations) that settled in north central Italy c. 800 B.C.

Fatimids -- line of Shiite caliphs who claimed descent from the daughter of Muhammad; in 973, established their capital in Cairo

Fief -- heritable land held from a lord in exchange for services

Battle of Fontenoy -- 841 between Charles the Bald/Louis the German (victorious) and Lothair; led to signing of the Treaty of Verdun

Gaeseric -- first king of the Vandals (429-456); sacked Rome in 455

Gauls -- tribe of the Second Mass Migration that settled in northwest Europe c. 1000 B.C.

Gerousia -- the Spartan council; had 28 members elected for life

Gnosticism -- Christian heresy which proclaimed salvation through knowledge; generally dualistic

Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus -- brothers who used their positions as tribunes to attempt agrarian reform; members of the Senate rioted and killed them both

Gregory I (the Great) -- Pope from 590-640; established the Vatican state

Gregory VII -- pope from 1075-1083; outlawed lay investiture

Hadrian -- emperor of Rome from 117-137; stopped expansion of the Roman Empire; built Hadrian's Wall in England

Hannibal -- general who led the Carthaginian armies from 221-178 B.C. in the Second Punic War; launched a disastrous invasion of Italy in 218 B.C. that turned the war in Rome's favor

Harold II -- last Saxon king of England (died 1066)

Battle of Hastings -- 1066 between Normans under William and Saxons under Harold II; Norman victory in which Harold was killed paved the way for the Norman conquest of England

Hatshepsut -- pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt; the first recorded woman ruler in history

Hebrews and Habriu -- tribes who lived in northeastern Egypt and were later enslaved by Egypt; the Exodus took place during the reign of Ramses II, c. 1240 B.C.

Helots -- term for Spartan slaves

Henry I -- king of England from 1100-1135; modernized the English government

Henry IV (HRE) -- Holy Roman Emperor from 1056-1106; clashed with Pope Gregory VII over lay investiture; forced to submit after papal interdict and rebellion; absolved after doing penance at Canossa in 1077

Herodotus -- first historian; histories are generally not trustworthy due to Herodotus' pro-Greek slant in all his writings

Hieroglyphics -- the system of writing used by the ancient Egyptians

Hippias -- succeeded his father Peisistratus as Tyrant of Athens; known for his viciousness and cruelty

Hittites -- the most ancient of the Indo-European tribes of the First Mass Migration; settled in Asia Minor c. 2100 B.C.

House of Hohenstaufen -- ruled the Holy Roman Empire 1138-1254; originated in Swabia

Holy Roman Empire -- term used for the Eastern Kingdom of the Franks after 962

Hoplite -- term for an ancient Greek soldier, who was equipped for battle with a sword, spear, and shield

Hurrians -- an Indo-European group of tribes that settled in northern Mesopotamia between 2000-1800 B.C. (First Mass Migration);
first to use horses

Hyksos -- an Indo-European people that conquered Egypt after crossing the Sinai Peninsula c. 1750 B.C.; part of the First Mass Migration

Ikhnaten (Akenaton) -- pharoah of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom; introduced monotheism into ancient Egypt

Imhotep -- engineer who designed the Step Pyramid (first pyramid) at Sakkara for the pharoah Zoser c. 2750 B.C.

Indus -- a river valley in India/Pakistan where one of the four major ancient civilizations developed; major cities include Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

Jacquerie -- peasant revolt in Ile-de-France in 1358; crushed by Charles the Bad of Navarre

Jericho -- the oldest village found by archaeologists; located in southern Lebanon, it dates to c. 8000 B.C.

Flavius Josephus -- military leader and historian and author of Antiquites of the Jews and History of the Jewish War

Battle of Kadesh -- c. 1290 B.C. between Hittites under Muwatalis and Egyptians under Ramses II; Hittite victory; Egypt lost control of Syria

Kassites -- Indo-European group that settled in southern Mesopotamia c. 1570 B.C.; gradually replaced the Amorites as the dominant kingdom in the region; created the most stable kingdom of the Second Millenium B.C.; known as the "Third Dynasty of Babylon"

Khufu (or Cheops) -- pharoah responsible for construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza c. 2550 B.C.

King's Crusade -- name for the Third Crusade because it was led by Richard the Lionhearted of England, Frederick Barbarossa of HRE, and Phillip Augustus of France

Knossos -- maze-like capital of the Minoan civilization; built c. 2000 B.C.

Kublai Khan -- grandson of Genghis Khan; founded the Yuan dynasty in China

Lacedaemonians -- term given the residents of Sparta

Latins -- a tribe of the Second Mass Migration that settled the Italian peninsula c. 1000 B.C.

Battle of Lechfeld -- 955 in Bavaria between German forces under Otto the Great and the Magyars; the German victory almost completely destroyed the Magyars

Legion -- the term for a division of the Roman army; the commander was referred to as a legate

Leo the Great -- Bishop of Rome 440-461; first to use the title of "Pope"

Leonidas -- Spartan king who led the Greek forces at Thermopylae

Lombards -- ancient Germanic people who settled along the Danube in the mid-500s; conquered by the Franks

Lycurgus -- Spartan king who introduced into Sparta the reforms which converted Sparta into a military state

Lydians -- one of the "Peoples of the Sea"; first tribe to develop coined money, c. 1000 B.C.

Lysander -- Spartan military commander; led victorious armies at Notium and Aegospotami; sieged Athens and ended the Peloponnesian War

Manor -- the district over which a feudal lord held authority and which was subject to the lord's court

Battle of Marathon -- 490 B.C.; Athenian forces under Miltiades crush a much larger Persian force led by Datis the Mede

Mardonius -- commander of the main Persian army at Thrace; led the Persian invasion of Greece

Mastaba -- a rectangular ancient Egyptian tomb

Medes -- Indo-European tribe of the Second Mass Migration who settled in modern Iran c. 1200 B.C.; along with the Persians, the ancestors of modern Iranians

Battle of Meggido -- located in modern region of Syria-Palestine; first recorded battle in history

Mencius -- pupil and successor of Confucius; expanded Confucian ideas about the Mandate of Heaven

Menes -- ruler of Upper Egypt who established the first dynasty; united Upper and Lower Egypt c. 3200 B.C.
 
Mesolithic Age -- Middle Stone Age; c. 100,000 B.C. - c. 6000 B.C.

Miltiades -- Athenian leader who opposed Themistocles' ideas; commanded Athenian forces at Marathon

Battle of Milvian Bridge -- A.D. 312 near Rome; Constantine victorious after having (supposedly) seen a flaming cross in the sky; Western Roman Empire reunited

Minoans -- tribe which established the first civilization on Crete c. 3000 B.C.

Mursailis I -- Hittite king who destroyed Babylon in 1595 B.C.

Mansa Musa -- emperor of Mali (fl. 14th century); made Timbuktu a center of learning and commerce; promoted the growth of Islam

Mycenae -- capital of the Achaeans built c. 1600 B.C.

Nabopolassar -- led the rebellion in Babylon in 612 B.C. that collapsed the Assyrian Empire

Natufians -- name of the tribe (not a race) of men credited with the building of Jericho

Nebuchadnezzar II -- most powerful of the Babylonian (Chaldean) kings; built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon between 604-585 B.C.

Neolithic Age -- "New Stone Age"; c. 6000 B.C. - c. 4000 B.C.

Nestorianism -- fifth-century heresy that claimed two distinct natures in Christ and objected to the term "Mother of God" for Mary; condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431

Nome -- territorial division of ancient Egypt

Odoacer -- barbarian king who deposed the Roman emperor in 476; seen by historians as the fall of the Western Roman Empire

Ogodai Khan -- son of Genghis Khan and father of Kublai Khan; invaded Poland and Hungary; his death in 1241 ended the Mongol advance into Europe

Olmecs -- ancient Mexican people considered to be first civilization of Western Hemisphere; noted for stone sculptures and temple cities devoted to a jaguar god
 
Ostracism -- reform iniated by Cleisthenes to prevent return of tyranny to Athens; man with most votes on shards of pottery left the city for ten years

Otto the Great -- king of Germany from 936-973; established the Holy Roman Empire

Palaeolithic Age -- "Old Stone Age"; Lower Palaeolithic from c. 900,000 B.C. to c. 500,000 B.C.; Upper Palaeolithic from c. 500,000 B.C. to c. 100,000 B.C.

Patricians -- the upper land-owning class of the Roman Republic

Pearl Poet -- name given to the unknown author of the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"

Peisistratus -- became Tyrant of Athens in 560 B.C.

Peloponnesian League -- defensive alliance organized by Sparta c. 500 B.C.

"Peoples of the Sea" -- collective name for a mixture of tribes of Indo-European raiders from the Black Sea area; attacked the Nile Delta c. 1040 B.C.

Pepi II -- Egyptian pharaoh of the Old Kingdom; ruling for almost 90 years; Old Kingdom collapsed after his death

Pepin the Short -- Mayor of the Palace from 741-751; king of the Franks 751-768; father of Charlemagne

Perioeci -- Spartan middle class of craftsmen and artisans; were not considered citizens and, therefore, were forbidden to live in Sparta itself

Persians -- Indo-European tribe of the Second Mass Migration that settled in modern Iran c. 1200 B.C.

Petrine Supremacy -- the doctrine that the pope as Bishop of Rome is the head of the church

Phalanx -- the ancient Greek battle unit

Pharisees -- first-century Jewish sect who upheld the range of tradition as of equal weight to scriptural law; advocated strict adherence to the holiness code of the Torah

Pharoah -- title used for the ancient rulers of Egypt; title literally means "living god"

Battle of Pharsalus -- 48 B.C. between forces of Julius Caesar and Pompey; Caesar wins; Pompey flees to Egypt

Philistines -- one of the Peoples of the Sea; settled on the coast of Palestine during the Second Mass Migration

Philology -- the study of ancient languages

Phoenicians -- a tribe which settled the coast of Syria between 1400 and 1000 B.C.;  a seafaring tribe, they developed the first phonetic alphabet and were noted throughout the ancient world for their purple cloth

Phrygians -- tribe who destroyed the Hittites and settled on their land

Picts -- tribe in ancient Britain; first united around the 7th century; united with Kingdom of Dalriada in 843 to form the Kingdom of Scotland
 
Battle of Plataea -- 479 B.C.; Greek allied army under Pausanis defeats the Persian army under Mardonius

Plebeians -- the Roman lower class

Battle of Poitiers -- 1356 between English under Edward the Black Prince and French under John II; outnumbered English win battle and capture John II and his son, Phillip

Polemarch -- member of the Board of 10 Generals in Athens who was also an archon

Polytheism -- a belief in many gods

Praetorian Guard -- the personal guards of the Roman emperors

Primogeniture -- a system under which the oldest son inherits all of the father's holdings

Psammetichus -- leader of the Egyptian rebellion in 612 B.C. that overthrew Assyrian rule

Punic Wars -- series of three wars between Rome and Carthage over trade in the Western Mediterranean lasting between 265 B.C. and 146 B.C.

Pyrrhus -- king of Epirus who launched a war of conquest in central Italy; had to withdraw from the war despite winning every battle because of heavy casualties (the term Pyrrhic victory is now used to refer to a "victory" that costs so much that one wonders if it is a victory)

Ramses II -- pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom; last great ruler of the New Kingdom

Robert the Bruce -- led the Scottish victory at Bannockburn in 1329

Romulus Augustulus -- Roman Emperor deposed by Odoacer in 476; last Roman Emperor

Sadducees -- culturally Hellenized Jews of the first century who favored literal interpretation of the Torah and accommodation to Roman rule; denied the resurrection

Battle of Salamis -- off the coast of Athens in 480 B.C.; Greek fleet under Themistocles destroyed the entire Persian fleet

Sargon I -- established the first recorded empire; established his capital city at Akkad and conquered Sumer; united all of Mesopotamia in 2331 B.C.

Publius Scipio Africanus-- commander of the victorious Roman forces in the Second Punic War; defeated Carthage in  202 B.C.

Seigneur -- the lord of a manor

Sennacherib -- king of Assyria and son of Sargon II; rebuilt Nineveh and destroyed Babylon

Serfdom -- the state of being a landworker for a seigneur

House of Sforza -- ruled Milan during the 12th-14th centuries

Night of the Sicilian Vespers -- 1282; French are expelled from Sicily after a revolt; named because many of the French citizens on the island were massacred while at evening prayers

Simony -- the practice of buying and selling church offices; named for Simon Magus, from the Acts of the Apostles

Solon -- elected Chief Archon of Athens in 594 B.C.; developed the first timocracy

Spartatie -- Spartan upper class of soldiers

Flavius Stilicho -- namd head of the army by Theodosius; routed Alaric at Pollentia

Suppiluliumas -- great king of the Hittites; ruled approximately 100 years before Ramses II; alternate translation also calls him Shabbiluliu

Talmud -- extensive collection of Jewish legal and moral debates and commentaries

Tamurlane (Timur the Lame) -- Mongol leader who claimed descent from Genghis Khan; reconquered Persia, Syria, and the Ottoman Turks from 1387-1402; died while planning an invasion of China

Battle of Teutoberg Forest (Teutobergerwald)-- A.D. 9; Germanic tribesmen under Arminius rout the Roman army under Varus; Roman expansion east of the Rhine halted

Thallasocracy -- term for a naval empire; such an empire was established with the creation of the Delian League

Themistocles -- Athenian polemarch who proposed a huge naval buildup to stop the Persians; led Athenians to victory at Salamis in 480 B.C.

Theodosius I -- reunited the Empire as Emperor from 379-396; made Christianity the official religion of the Empire

Thera -- a Greek island north of Crete; eruption of Santorini volcano there in 1471 B.C. caused a tidal wave which destroyed most of the Minoan civilization; believed to be the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis

Battle of Thermopylae -- 480 B.C.; extremely costly victory for Persian forces under Xerxes; a much smaller Greek force under Leonidas inflicted nearly 5,000 casualties

Thucydides -- considered the first scientific historian; wrote the objective "A History of the Peloponnesian War"

Thutmose III -- pharoah of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom; stepson of the pharoah Hatshepsut; expanded the Egyptian empire

Battle of Thymbra -- between Cyrus the Great (Persian) and Croesus (Lydian); Lydia falls to the Persian Empire

Tiglathpileser III -- Assyrian king from 745-727 B.C.; established Assyria as a world empire; invaded Egypt

Treaty of Tordesillas -- 1494; created the line that divided the New World between Spain and Portugal

Battle of Tours -- 732 in France between French and Arabs; French victory, led by Charles Martel, halts Arab advance into Europe

Trajan -- emperor of Rome from 99-117; added Dacia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire

Trireme -- an ancient Greek warship

The Twelve Tables -- first written law code of the Roman Republic, codified in 451 B.C.

Umayyad Caliphate -- overthrown by the Abbasids in 750; later reestablished power base in Spain

Urban II -- Pope who ordered the launching of the First Crusade in 1094

Vandals -- barbaric tribe who sacked Rome in 455; destroyed by Byzantines in 534

Vassal -- a feudal tenant; the person who held land under the feudal system and was subject to the rule of a seigneur

Treaty of Verdun -- divided Charlemagne's empire between his grandsons; Charles the Bald received France; Lothar received the Middle Kingdom; and Louis received Germany

Visigoths -- tribe who lived in Spain c. 400-700; capital at Barcelona

Vizier -- a governor or viceroy of a province

William I (the Conqueror) -- duke of Normandy; conquered England during the period from 1066-1068

Xerxes I -- Persian king 486-468 B.C.; continued the war against Greece

Battle of Zama -- 202 B.C. (Second Punic War) between Roman armies under Scipio and Carthaginian armies under Hannibal; Scipio's victory led to the capture of Carthage and the end of the Second Punic War

Zealots -- Jewish group that favored military revolt against Rome; saw the Messiah as a military leader; started the disastrous revolt that led to the destruction of the temple in 70

Zend-Avesta -- text of Parsees and Zoroastrians; consists of five parts: Yasna, Vispered, Vendidad, Yashts, and Khordah

Ziggurat -- the terraced central building of a Sumerian city

Zoroastrianism -- dualistic religion developed by Zoroaster in which there is a struggle between forces of good led by Ahura Mazda and evil led by Ahiram