The Overview Sterns World Civilizations Chapter 4 Plato The Republic (146 and 149) Horace “Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori”(173) Classical Civilizations of the West: Persia, Greece and Rome

World History and the West In the interest of being more global and less “Eurocentric”, the text combines what had been three different “chapters” in the traditional narrative: Persia, Greece and Rome In the west, the histories of Greece and Rome had been romanticized (pun not intended) to the exclusion of other places This text works to address this AP World History curriculum: only 20% Europe AP offers a European History course

Classical Persia Persia would emerge and reemerge throughout world history- The latest reincarnation being the Islamic Republic of Iran Classical Persia united under the religious of Zoroastrianism Classical Persia played a major rule in the rise of Judaism as well as classical Greece Religious tolerance, effective and developed roads were the hallmark of classical Persia

Classical Greece Greek history re-emerged after a Dark Age by the 8 th Century BC- Hellenic Greece Competing city-states (polises) experimented with various forms of government Many ideas re-emerged in the early modern period of history (like democracy) Wars would both unite and divide Greek polises Many Greek cities supported philosophers who would lay the foundation for modern western science and mathematics Outsiders (Macedonians) united and expanded Greek culture throughout the Middle East (Hellenistic Greece) Greek culture and lands would be absorbed into the Roman Empire by the beginning of the Common Era

Classical Rome Rome grew from a city-state to a Mediterranean Empire Roman expansion would fuse Greek and Latin culture and spread it- The cultural legacy is most pronounced in Europe today As a republic, Roman leaders struggled to maintain order and it became an Empire at the dawn of the Common Era For nearly 200 years, Roman armies and Roman order would dominate from Britain to Egypt and the Middle East Slavery would be a common feature in Greece and Rome