| Aeschylus |
a Greek dramatist (525-456 B.C.). |
| Aesop |
an actual or legendary Greek writer of fables (620?-560? B.C.). |
| Alexander the Great |
the king of Macedonia in 336-323 B.C. and conqueror of an empire that included Persia, Egypt, and part of Greece (356-323 B.C.). |
| Amos |
according to the Old Testament, a minor Hebrew prophet of the eighth century B.C. [1/2 definitions] |
| ancient Rome |
a civilization cultivated by the city-state of Rome from the 8th century B.C.E. through its development as a republic and its collapse as an empire in the 5th century A.D. |
| Archimedes |
a Greek mathematician and inventor (287?-212 B.C.). |
| Aristotle |
a Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.). |
| Babylonia |
an ancient empire of about 2800-700 B.C. in southwestern Asia at the head of the Persian Gulf. |
| Bronze Age |
the stage or level of development of human culture that followed the Stone Age and was characterized by the use of bronze tools and weapons; about 3,500 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. |
| Buddhism |
a spiritual philosophy and religion, founded in the sixth century B.C. by Buddha and widespread in Asia, that teaches release from the self and from one's earthly desires. |
| Carthage |
an ancient Phoenician city-state founded in the ninth century B.C. near the site of modern Tunis and destroyed in 146 B.C. by the Romans. |
| Cheng Tang |
first leader of the Shang dynasty of China, ruling in approximately the seventeenth century B.C.E. (exact dates contested). |
| Chou |
the third dynasty in China, about 1122 to 256 B.C. |
| Cleopatra |
a queen of Egypt (69-30 B.C.). |
| Confucius |
a Chinese philosopher whose ethical teachings were introduced into Chinese religion; K'ung Fu-tzu (551?-479? B.C.). |
| Cro-Magnon |
a Caucasoid type of human that lived in Europe from about 60,000 B.C. to about 10,000 B.C. |
| Dead Sea Scrolls |
scrolls dating from about 100 B.C. to 70 A.D. that were found in caves above the Dead Sea, and that contain scriptural and other writings of a Jewish religious community. |
| decemvir |
one of a council of ten members that drew up the first code of Roman laws in 450 B.C. [1/2 definitions] |
| Elijah |
according to the Old Testament, a Hebrew prophet of the ninth century B.C. |
| Epicurus |
a Greek philosopher (342?-270 B.C.). |
| Essene |
a member of an ascetic Jewish sect of mystics that existed from the second century B.C. to the second century A.D. |