Although Part II deals with the period covered by Core Studies 4, Part I is a useful reference for terms important for the background of modern history. 

PART I: CLASSICAL AGE TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

absolution:  In Catholic ritual, the act of pronouncing forgiveness and the remission of sins, performed by priest in the sacrament of penance.

absolutism: A political system or project that seeks to concentrate power in the hands of the
monarch, usually justified by the concept of the divine right of kings.  The idea of absolutism
came to prominence in Europe during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries when monarchs were struggling to wrest power from the church and the aristocracy, in order to create and strengthen national states. Louis XIV of France, the monarch most identified with absolutism, is said to have declared that he himself was the state: "L'etat, c'est moi."

agnate: A relative related through the father's side, from a male line of descent. A cognate is a relative whose kinship is related through the mother's side.

agora:  A central feature of the polis.  Originally a marketplace, the agora also served as the chief social and political meeting place. Along with the acropolis (the upper fortified part of a city), the agora housed the most important buildings of the city-state.

alumnus, alumna, alumni: In ancient Rome, abandoned infants that were picked up and "adopted" into families, who might come to be esteemed as valued servants, but never regarded as a true member of the family. In present day usage, an alumnus or alumna is a person who has graduated from a particular school, college or university.

ambassador: The highest-ranking diplomatic representative of one country to another, usually accorded the privilege of guaranteed personal security, even when the countries represented are at war.

Amerindians:  aboriginal peoples of the western hemisphere, American Indians.  Preferred to "Indian" (used to refer to the peoples of the Indian subcontinent) and "Native American" (the anti-immigrant 19th-century American political party, called "the Know-Nothings").

anthropomorphism: The assigning of human characteristics to animals, natural phenomena, inanimate objects, or abstract ideas.  In anthropomorphic religion, human qualities, behavior and form are attributed to a deity or spirit.

anti-Semitism: The discrimination against, prejudice or hostility towards Jews.

apprenticeship: A method of training in an artisanal craft or profession in which the master profits from the labor of the apprentice, and the apprentice receives training, housing, and security.  In the medieval and early modern era, apprenticeships lasted for anywhere from two to fifteen years, during which the apprentice lived with his master in a quasi‑familial relationship. At the completion of this period the apprentice became a journeyman, no longer tied to a master, but a worker paid by the day.  See guild, journeyman, master.

aristocracy:  A government or social structure in which power and wealth is vested in a small minority, a hereditary nobility (aristocrats, the aristoi) which claims to be best qualified to rule.  In Greek, aristos literally means "the best."

arquebus: a portable, long-barrelled gun, fired by a wheel-lock or match lock., dating from the fifteenth century.

artisan:  A skilled maker of things.  Before the development of techniques of mass manufacture, artisans produced earthenware, tools, jewelry, etc.

Aryan: Formerly a term that referred to the Indo-European language family, and an assumed racial category composed of  people of Indo-European "blood."  Similarities between ancient languages (Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, etc.) led 19th-century scholars to hypothesize the existence of a proto-Indo-European language spoken by a group called the Aryans.  Today, after the murder of millions of people designated as "non-Aryan" by the Nazis, such narratives about racial origins are morally suspect and have been found to lack biological and historical validity. "Aryan" is now used to designate the Indo-Iranian language group, or more narrowly, the Indo-Aryan (Indic) branch of that family, and also the group of Indo-Aryan- speakers who invaded the Indian subcontinent around 1500 BCE.

astrolabe: The most important instrument used by astronomers and navigators from antiquity through the 16th century. The function of the astrolabe (from the Greek astro, "star"; and labio, "finder") was to measure the altitudes of celestial bodies, from which time and the observer's latitude could be determined. The measurement of the altitude of the North Star yields the latitude and the altitude of the Sun and stars yields the time.  The astrolabe consists of two flat circular discs, usually made of brass, and ranging from about 7.5 to 25 cm (3 to 10 in) in diameter. One disc, known as the rete, is a star map on which the bright stars are indicated by named pointers and the path of the Sun and planets is shown. The other disc, known as the tympan, is engraved to show the zenith, the horizon, and the lines of altitude and azimuth for a specific latitude. Both discs are held by a hollow body, with a scale of hours engraved on the rim. In the 18th century, the astrolabe was superseded by the sextant.

atrium:  The central rectangular, interior open-air hall of the Etruscan and Roman house, usually considered the most important room.

barbarian:  In ancient Greece, a word applied to non-Greek-speaking (or non-city-dwelling) peoples. Barbarians were assumed to be inferior, uncivilized.  Literally in Greek, someone who speaks nonsense words, such as "bar bar." The term “barbarian” was used in Chinese civilization much as in Greek.  Later and more generally, a person or group believed to lack cultural  refinement.

basilica: An oblong building that ends in a semicircular central protruding section (an apse), used in ancient Rome as a court of justice and place of public assembly; early Christians adapted the plan for their churches.

bayonet:   A short sword or dagger attached to the muzzle of a rifle. First used by European armies in the 17th century, it proved useful as an additional infantry weapon for close combat, and eliminated the need for a separate corps of pikemen. In its original form, the bayonet was inserted into the muzzle itself, preventing the weapon from being fired. Later bayonets were clipped onto the side of the muzzle, so that the weapon could be fired and the bayonet easily removed for use as a dagger in hand-to-hand combat.

Black Death:  A virulent fourteenth-century epidemic that killed one-fourth to one-third the population of Europe (or about 75 million people), caused by bacterium yersinia pestis and spread by fleas harbored by the black rat or by the respiration of an afflicted person.

Bronze Age:  A stage of technological development in which bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, first came into use in the manufacture of tools, weapons, and other objects.  The term originated as part of the three-age system (Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age) introduced by an early 19th-century Danish museum curator, but bronze technology actually appeared at different times in different parts of the world.  Around 3000 BCE in Mesopotamia and Egypt, bronze alloys were developed to make stronger and more durable tools, shields, swords, and spear and arrow tips.  The societies that possessed the technology gained an immediate military and economic advantage and dominated their geographical regions.

bull (papal bull): A letter issued by the pope that contains an order and/or statement of religious doctrine.  In very early times, bulls (from the Latin bulla, meaning "leaden seal") were sealed with the pope's signet ring. Today, they are ordinarily sealed with a red stamp; only the most solemn bulls carry a leaden seal.

bullion: Uncoined gold and silver, molded into bars or ingots.  See mint and mintage

burgher, bourgeoisie: In medieval Europe, a citizen of a town (burg, borough, bourg, borgo).  Burghers were members of the class ("the bourgeoisie") of enterprising merchants, bankers, and long‑distance traders.

caliph: The supreme leader of the Islamic world after Muhammad's death in 632 CE, the successor to Muhammad.  Secular and religious authority were combined in the office of the caliph, who claimed to be appointed by God.

canton:  In Switzerland, an independent unit of local government; the Swiss Confederation is divided into 23 cantons. Control of certain functions, such as foreign affairs and tariffs, is assigned to the confederation, but the cantons are sovereign in other respects.

capitalism: An economic system organized around the profit motive and competition, in which the means of production are privately owned by businessmen and organizations which produce goods for a market guided by the forces of supply and demand.  

caravel: A type of sailing ship, first developed in Portugal and widely used by 15th‑ and 16th-century explorers. The caravel was sometimes equipped with a combination of square sails and lateen sails (triangular fore‑and‑aft sails set on a long, sloping yardarm) and was sometimes entirely lateen rigged. The caravel superseded the oared galley.

cartography: The art and science of mapmaking.

caste:  A system of rigid hereditary social stratification, characterized by disparities of wealth and poverty, inherited assignments of occupation, and strict rules governing intermarriage and intermingling.

castle: In the Middle Ages, the fortified residence of a European noble or monarch.  The earliest castles consisted of a wood or stone tower built on a natural or artificial mound and protected by circular walls or moat.  Later time, castles became more complex, often built on a height, with thick walls topped by a parapet for defense.

Christendom:  The part of the world in which Christianity predominates; the collective body of Christian believers.

chthonic:  Of the earth or the underworld; an infernal or powerful elemental force.

citizen:  In ancient Greece, a free male inhabitant of a polis, with landowning and voting rights not accorded to non-citizens. In modern times, applied to any legal member of the state.

civic humanism: An engaged form of humanism that responded to the moral concerns of those who lived in cities and sought the kind of practical knowledge useful to the men of affairs merchants, bankers, politicians, architects who dominated and shaped the early modern city.  See humanism.

civilization: A condition of human society characterized by a high level of cultural and technological achievement and complex social and political development, generally referring to human societies that concentrate resources in cities.  Today scholars usually characterize a society as a civilization if it has (1) class stratification, with each stratum differentiated by the degree of its ownership or control of productive resources and surpluses; (2) political and religious hierarchies that administer territorially organized states; (3) a complex division of labor, with full-time artisans, soldiers, and bureaucrats existing alongside the mass of farmers and other laborers; (4) an economic system that creates and distributes agricultural surpluses and other forms of wealth; and (5) a sophisticated set of technologies employed in the creation of architecture, tools, and weaponry.

clan: A group composed of a number of households that claim descent from a common ancestor.

classical: A term that refers to the ideals and styles of ancient Greece and Rome, as embodied in art, literature, architecture and philosophy, and as interpreted and reinterpreted by later generations. From the Renaissance onward, classical ideals and styles have been seen as exemplifying aesthetic notions of simplicity, harmony, restraint, proportion, and reason. Classicism also carries the implication of the finest period of artistic activity or the purest aesthetic, a kind of artistic perfection. The era during which a society or art reaches its peak is often called classical, as in "classical Greece" (5th century BCE), when art, architecture and literature attained a very high and consistent order of development.  Works of art created during such a period and which exemplify its aesthetic and moral virtues are referred to as classics and collectively are put forward by critics, scholars and connoisseurs as an aesthetic standard.  The original group of texts to be referred to as classic were the works of Greco-Roman antiquity, but given changing critical tastes and the succession of styles, works are continually attaining the status of classic, while others fall out of favor.

clergy: A group ordained to perform religious functions and counsel followers of the religion.  In Catholicism, the clergy is a hierarchical body headed by the Pope.  Monks and nuns are members of the regular clergy; priests and bishops are members of the secular clergy.

colonus, coloni: In imperial Rome, the class of poor tenant farmers, often the descendants of manumitted slaves.  The coloni were the forerunners of the serfs of medieval Europe.

colony, colonialism: A system of control by a country over an area or people outside its borders. Colonialism began with the ancient Phoenicians, who established colonies around the shores of the Mediterranean as early as the 10th century BCE. The ancient Greeks and Romans were energetic colonizers. In the Middle Ages, Venice and Genoa had colonies on the banks of the Black Sea and on islands in the Aegean. Modern colonialism began after the discovery of America and of the sea route to the Far East, when the new European states began to found colonies abroad. Colonies vary as to purpose and organization: they can be established by a governmental or privately planned migration of settlers from the colonizing country (as in various British colonies in North America), by dissident religious groups fleeing persecution (such as the Pilgrims and Puritans who settled in Massachusetts), by groups of merchants or businessmen (such as the British, Dutch, and French East India companies), by armed conquest (as in Mexico and Peru), or some combination of the above (as in British India and South Africa).

comedy:  A genre of humorous drama, typically with a happy or absurd ending, sometimes critical of social and political institutions, first developed in ancient Greece.

common law: A system of law developed following the Norman Conquest of England (1066), and still partly in use in most English-speaking countries. Unlike civil law (which is descended from the codified laws of the Roman Empire and revolutionary and Napoleonic France, and used by most European countries), common law is not embodied in a text or code. In common law, judges draw instead upon precedents established by older court decisions.

commons: In medieval Europe, a centrally located area of land set aside for the free use of the community, often for pasturage, woodgathering, or public assembly.  Places designated as commons still exist in some areas of England and the United States, especially New England.

commune: In the Middle Ages, a self‑governing municipality that guaranteed its population personal liberty, the right to regulate trade and collect taxes, and the right to operate its own system of justice within the town walls. In northern Europe, especially in England, France, and the Low Countries, communes were often recognized through charters granted by the royal government or local court.  In Italy, communes were sworn associations of townsmen that arose during the eleventh century to overthrow the rule of the local bishop or feudal magnates.

compass: A device that indicates direction on the Earth's surface; the principal instrument of navigation. Without it, a pilot would have difficulty in setting the course for a ship or airplane. A magnetic compass indicates movement relative to the Earth's geomagnetic field.

condottiere: see Mercenary.

courtier: A person who is in attendance at a royal or aristocratic court, and who seeks the ruler's favor.

confraternity: An association of laymen and women linked by a common mission or obligation, which combined spiritual observance and charitable service.

conquistador: Military adventurers, mostly commoners, who led the Spanish exploration and conquest of the New World during the 16th century. Fierce and often ruthless fighters, they were motivated both by missionary zeal and greed for gold and other riches.

contemplation: Quiet and solitary thought; the intellectual and religious ideal of medieval scholars who lived in monasteries, cloisters and universities, as opposed to the practical and worldly philosophizing of civic humanism.

conversion: The act or experience associated with the definite and decisive adoption of a particular religion and set of beliefs, often entailing the rejection of a previous religious identity.

cosmopolis: A culturally prestigious city whose population is composed of peoples from many different parts of the world, an urban center where the most diverse and sophisticated customs, practices and beliefs can be found.  In the Hellenistic and Roman eras, Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople qualified as cosmopolitan. 

coup d'état: The sudden violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group.

creole: A fully formed language that develops from a pidgin language and gradually becomes the primary language of a linguistic community. As the domains of the use of a pidgin language expand, it develops into a creole language, a language that is lexically, phonologically and grammatically more complex. Most creole languages have vocabularies derived from major European languages. Many creole languages exist only or primarily in spoken form, using the standard language of the former colonial power for written communication. The word creole also has various related meanings, referring to combinations of European and non‑European cultures, especially cooking and music, and also in some areas, a class of people of mixed racial heritage (see mestizo).

culture:  Learned behavior acquired by individuals as members of a particular social group, in contrast to genetically endowed behavior. Each culture has characteristically different norms and styles governing behavior and thought; individuals are socialized into these norms and styles, beginning at birth.  As used by anthropologists and other social scientists, "culture" includes mundane practices such as food preparation, toilet habits, and politics, as well as sculpture, architecture and painting.  In an older sense of the word, still widely used, "culture" designates music, literature, philosophy, fine art, and other intellectual and aesthetic pursuits associated with civilized life.

cuneiform:  A system of writing developed in Sumer and used for a number of Near Eastern languages, from ca. 3000 BCE until ca. 100 CE. Cuneiform consisted of wedge‑shaped characters inscribed on clay, stone, wax, and metal.

decurions: In outlying cities of the Roman Empire, the elite hereditary class responsible for funding and administering municipal functions and construction, and for collecting taxes.

deification: The process of attributing god-like attributes to a human being.  In ancient Rome, the Emperor was often deified and celebrated in a posthumous ritual known as the apotheosis.

democracy: Term derived from the Greek words for “people” and “power.”  A form of government in which a substantial proportion of the citizenry participates in ruling the state; as opposed to oligarchy or monarchy, where the state is controlled by a small minority or individual.  In a direct democracy citizens vote on laws in an assembly, as they did in ancient Athens. In an indirect democracy citizens elect officials to represent them in government.  In the ancient democracies, women, non‑citizens, and slaves were excluded from participation.

demotic: A simplified form of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing used for informal communication and by the masses (literally, "the popular"); hieratic was a simplified form of writing used by the priesthood.

dhow: A type of sailing vessel equipped with lateen sails, in common use from the Red Sea to the western coast of India. The dhow has a main mast and sometimes a smaller mizzenmast, a flat stern and a sharp, long bow.

dialogue: A literary genre favored by humanists, based on classical models.  Dialogue permitted an author to present two or more competing viewpoints and argue for each plausibly without committing himself to any explicit (or unpopular) point of view.

diaspora: A Greek word meaning "dispersion," originally referring to the Jewish settlements established in ancient Babylon and Egypt, as a result of commerce and exile after the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE.  A later diaspora of Jews occurred throughout the Mediterranean and Near East in the Hellenistic Period and after the establishment of the Roman Empire, especially after Jewish revolts against Rome in the 1st and 2d centuries CE. Today, diaspora is used to designate Jewry outside of the state of Israel and is also applied to other dispersions of peoples analogous to the Jewish diaspora (e.g., the African diaspora, Chinese diaspora, Palestinian diaspora, Irish diaspora).

 diplomacy: The art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations for the purpose of resolving differences, regulating commerce, making alliances, etc.

disputation: In medieval education, a formal exercise in logic that consists of arguments in favor of a thesis and arguments against it, until a conclusion is reached.  See scholasticism. 

distaff, spindle: Simple sticks used in the spinning process, the distaff holding raw fiber that was pulled and twisted into thread and wound on the spindle; later the spindle was the bobbin on the spinning machine that held wound thread.

dowry: In medieval and early modern Europe, the property that a bride brought to her marriage. The worth of the dowry generally correlated with the wealth or status or political connectedness of the bridegroom.  Even at the humblest levels, women would work to accumulate some property to serve as a dowry.  

dualism:  Any theory or system of philosophical or religious thought that recognizes two and only two independent and mutually irreducible principles, substances, or spiritual entities. The ancient Zoroastrian belief that the god of Good struggled against the god of Evil to determine the individual and collective fate of mankind, was a particularly powerful form of dualism, influencing the Jewish thought of the last centuries BCE, the theology of the Babylonian prophet Mani, Christianity, and Islam.

ducat: First minted in 1284 by the city of Venice, a gold coin with the portrait of the ruler (e.g., the Duke, the Doge) on it.

dynasty:  A lengthy succession of monarchs of the same line of descent; more broadly, a powerful group or family that maintains dominance for a long period of time.

elite:  A group consisting of a small number of persons who control major institutions, exercise military and/or political power, possess superior wealth, or enjoy elevated status and prestige.

entrepreneur: A person who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.

epidemic: Any specific contagious disease that periodically or episodically afflicts many people within a population, community or region, often moving from region to region in a wave‑like pattern.  Throughout history, severe epidemics have killed large numbers of people, most notoriously the Black Death of 14th‑century Europe..

estate:  In early modern France, a social or political class, invested with distinct powers, possessions and property.  The Estates‑General was an assembly of representatives of the three "estates": the clergy, nobility and commoners.  The press is often termed "the fourth estate."

 Eucharist: From the Greek eucharistia ("thanksgiving"); a central observance of the Christian church, variously described as the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, and the Mass. Christians of all traditions, with few exceptions, regard the observance of the Eucharist as a binding obligation.

 excommunication: The formal expulsion of a member from a religious group. Practiced in some form in many religions, the term derives from Roman Catholic canon law. The excommunicated are officially excluded from receiving the sacraments of the church, especially the Eucharist.

facade: A French word meaning "face" or "front." In architecture, a façade is the side of a structure, normally the front, that is architecturally or visually more significant than the others. The term may also designate any prominent outer facet or surface of a building.

fallow: A portion of cultivated land deliberately allowed to lie idle during a growing season.  In medieval Europe, fallowing was a commonly practiced means of preventing soil exhaustion. 

famine: A shortage of food of sufficient duration to cause widespread privation and a rise in mortality. Famine may be caused by natural causes such as drought, flooding, frost, pest infestations and plant and animal epidemics; or by the destruction of crops and livestock during wartime, or from inadvertent human activities such as agricultural practices that cause soil erosion.

fief, feudal: Although scholars no longer conceive of medieval relationships of lordship, landholding and service as forming a “feudal system,” or “feudalism,” such relationships are often called “feudal,” and depended on the granting of a unit of land, the “fief,” in usufruct.

florin: First minted in 1252 by the city of Florence; later any of several gold coins patterned after the Florentine florin (e.g., the Dutch florin).

fluyt (flyboat): In early modern Europe, a small, rapid and highly efficient vessel designed for inexpensive, utilitarian hauling, a Dutch innovation.

fresco: Italian for"fresh," a technique of durable wall painting used extensively for murals.  In pure fresco (buon fresco), a fresh wet layer of plaster is applied to a prepared wall surface and painted rapidly with pigments mixed with water. The pigments soak into the plaster, which, when dry, forms a permanent chemical bond fusing paint and wall surface. Another type of fresco, painting on a dry (secco) surface with adhesive binder flakes, is not permanent. Because fresco is susceptible to humidity and weathering, its use is limited. Fresco has a long history; the technique was used in the Minoan art of second millennium BCE Crete and later in India, China, Greece and Rome. Its most sustained and sophisticated development occurred in Italy between 1300 and 1800.

galley:  Warships driven by oars in battle and equipped with sails for cruising.  The galley was the standard European battle vessel until the late sixteenth century, when the sail‑powered, more heavily armed, galleon began to replace it.

gentile: A non-Jew, avoided by faithful Jews.  Originally, the Christians were a Jewish sect, but diverged from Judaism during the first century CE, and came to be considered gentiles.

geometric style: A style of Greek pottery marked by patterned lines, often zig‑zags, and the absence of human or other representational figures, prevalent in the post‑Mycenaean "Dark Ages" (ca. 1200‑700 BCE).

ghetto: In 1516, the first ghetto was established on the site of an iron foundry (the meaning of the word ghetto) by the rulers of Venice as a segregated quarter where Jews were legally required to take up residence; later the term came to designate any urban area to which Jews were legally confined, or a district where Jews voluntarily clustered together.

Gospel, New Testament, Old Testament:  The sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity, known to Christians as the Bible, consist of two parts.  The first, called the Old Testament by Christians, consists of the sacred writings of the Jewish people and was written originally in Hebrew and Aramaic (for Jews, it stands alone as the Hebrew Bible). The second, more recently written and composed in Greek, is called the New Testament.  The New Testament records the story and teachings of Jesus, the beginnings of Christianity, and prophesies.  The accounts of Jesus's life in New Testament, attributed to Jesus's chief disciples, Mark, Luke, Matthew and John, are known as Gospels (meaning "good news") or collectively as the Gospel.

Gothic: An architectural style that originated in 12th-century Europe, which characteristically uses pointed arches and diagonal rib vaults in the construction of monumental cathedrals.

grace: A central concept in Christian theology, referring to God's granting of salvation, not in reward for moral worth of the human but as a free and undeserved gift of love. This concept stands opposed to the idea that salvation can be earned by human effort apart from God's help.

greaves:  Armor for legs below the knee.

guild: An association of merchants or craftsmen.  In medieval and early modern Europe, a guild normally comprised all the self‑employed members of an occupation in a town or district; the members drew up the statutes of the guild, elected its officers, and contributed to its treasury. Once formed, only guild members could practice that occupation. Guilds performed many civic functions, and often dominated the day‑to‑day life of the city.

gymnasium:  In ancient Greece, a place where athletes exercised in the nude.  Every important city had a gymnasium.  By the Hellenistic era, the gymnasium usually included exercise apparatus and equipment, baths, porticoes, and dressing rooms.  Gymnasia served as meeting places for social events, lectures, and philosophers.

Hellas:  The Greek name for Greece. “Hellenic” designates the period of Greek culture and history from the Archaic Age (about 700 to about 500 BCE) up to the period of Alexander the Great (reigned 336‑323 BCE).  The conquests of Alexander inaugurated the Hellenistic period that lasted until the eastern Mediterranean region fell under Roman domination (by 30 BCE).

Hellenistic: A culturally distinctive era (323‑30 BCE), inaugurated by the conquests of Alexander the Great, in which Greek political regimes and culture became dominant in the Near East, Egypt and the Mediterranean.

helot:  In ancient Sparta, serfs who were forced to perform agricultural labor; originally, the Messenians, a group conquered by the Spartans and reduced to near slave status.

heresy: The rejection of the established doctrines of a group by a member or members of that group; from the Greek word meaning "to choose." Roman Catholics define heresy as the willful repudiation of any doctrine taught by the church, by a baptized person.

hierarchy: Within a society or smaller group, a series of persons, graded or ranked in order of authority.

hieratic: See demotic.

hieroglyph: A form of writing employing pictographic characters, first developed in ancient Egypt.

hominid: The genus of human‑like animals, comprising modern humans (homo sapiens) and ancestral and related human and human‑like species (homo sapiens neanderthalensis, homo erectus, homo habilis).  See species.

honor: A social value of escalating importance in late medieval and early modern Europe, originally the pride and reputation of a grand nobleman but, by extension, also that of a patrician or bourgeois adult male; and dependent, in any case, on the proper regulation of the sexuality of female kin.

hoplite:   A heavily armored foot soldier of ancient Greece, who fought in close formation, usually in ranks of eight men, each carrying a heavy bronze shield (a "hoplon"), a short iron sword, and a long spear.

hospital: Generally church-related and increasingly funded by the testamentary bequests of burghers and patricians, the hospital accommodated not only the sick but also abandoned children, socially isolated (“fallen” or deserted) women, and the elderly.

Humanist, humanism: An intellectual movement that emerged in Italy in the late 1300s and spread throughout Western and Central Europe in the early modern period. Humanism centered around the revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and history, and encouraged the harmonious development of mind and body as an intrinsically worthwhile endeavor.  A highly talented and self‑selected elite group of intellectuals, who served as administrators, diplomats, churchmen, teachers, and, in a few cases, women and courtesans, humanists devoted themselves to the discovery, conservation, and understanding of the legacy of Greece and Rome.  This was accomplished through the study of the humanities, a well-defined cycle of education that included grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy, using classical, primarily Latin, authors and texts, which sought to cultivate and instill those ancient secular values.

icon:  An image, usually a drawing or painting, that represents a magical or divine figure and is believed to possess some essential aspect of that divinity.

iconoclasm: A Christian religious movement opposed to the veneration of images (icons) of Christ and the saints. Intense controversy over the legitimacy of icons lasted for over a century (726‑843 CE) in the Byzantine Empire. Iconoclasts (Greek for "image‑breakers") condemned icon worship as a form of idolatry, and often invaded churches, seizing and burning the offending images.

illuminations, illuminated  manuscripts:  A handwritten book with pictures and sometimes lavish ornamentation, painted or drawn in bright colors, "illuminating," or lighting up, the page.

immortality: The attribute of being exempt from death (as in the case of deities), or human survival after physical death.  In some religions, immortality is believed to occur through resurrection or reincarnation.

imperator, imperium: Originally, in ancient Rome, a person who commanded an army.  Augustus Caesar, possessing the maius imperium ("greater authority"), was the imperator of all the armies and institutions of government, and thus of Rome and the territories controlled by Rome.  In his lifetime, the meaning of the word shifted from general to emperor.  Imperium likewise shifted from its original meaning as "a realm of authority" to "empire."

Indo-European:   An extensive language family, originally derived from a common ancestor known as Proto-Indo-European. The surviving branches: Indo-Iranian, from which descend the Indic (Indo-Aryan) languages, including Sanskrit, Urdu and Hindi, and the Iranian languages (Persian, Pashto, etc.); Baltic (Lithuanian and Latvian); Slavic (Russian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, etc.); Armenian; Albanian; Greek; Celtic (Gaelic, Welsh, etc.); Italic, including Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian); and Germanic (German, English, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages). At least two branches have died out: Anatolian (which includes Hittite) and Tocharian.  The oldest written records of a Indo‑European language are in Hittite and date from the 17th century BCE.

indulgence: In medieval Catholicism, a document granting release from purgatorial punishment bestowed in recognition of extraordinary service (a pilgrimage, a donation).  An abuse of the late-medieval church was the practice of selling indulgences to all comers for a cash payment.  For Protestant reformers the sale of indulgences was a flagrant example of the corruption of the Roman Catholic church.  See also simony.

infantry: Armed foot soldiers, as distinguished from cavalry, air, or sea forces. In antiquity, the infantry dominated military strategy, until displaced by the mobile cavalry of nomadic invaders and the development of heavily‑armored horsemen in the Middle Ages.  After two decisive battles in the Hundred Years' War (1346 and 1415), in which English peasant infantrymen armed with longbows mowed down heavily‑armed French knights, the infantry began to regain its dominance.  In the 16th century, with the advent of guns, the triumph of infantry over cavalry was consolidated. 

infidel:  In Islam, a nonbeliever, someone outside the faith.

Inquisition: A formal church court specifically set up to seek out and prosecute heretics. Inquisitory courts were often harsh in their methods of interrogation and punishments, obtaining confessions through physical torture.

intendant:  In 17th and 18th‑century France, the absolute monarchy's key regional administrator. An intendant of justice, finance, and police presided over each generalité (local government district), and army intendants were civilian supervisors of the armies. In New France, a single intendant shared power with the governor and the bishop. Members of the judicial nobility (noblesse de robe) but with removable commissions, the French monarchs regarded intendants as more reliable than the hereditary officials in the parlements and taxing bureaus.  Under Louis XIII and his minister Cardinal Richelieu, intendants ruthlessly imposed justice and supervised tax collection. Overthrown by the rebellions known as the Fronde (1648-53), they gradually reemerged under Louis XIV as information gatherers and then as superb local administrators. Under Louis XV and Louis XVI, they were known as the thirty tyrants because they seemed to control everything in the provinces, including towns, manufactures, roads, taxes, and police. The office of intendancy was abolished by the French Revolution in 1789.

investiture: The ceremonial conferring of high office and rank. The question as to which authority should have power to invest church officials provoked the prolonged “Investiture Controversy” during the high Middle Ages between the papacy and secular rulers.

Iron Age:  The period of the development of technology when iron replaced bronze as the basic material for tools and weapons.  Iron metallurgy began among the Hittites in eastern Anatolia, ca. 1900‑1400 BCE.  By 1000 BCE iron objects and the knowledge of iron metallurgy had spread throughout the Near East, Mediterranean and westward into Europe. Iron tools, weaponry and ironmaking technology conferred a tremendous military and economic advantage on their possessors.  After about 900 BCE the widespread mass production of iron implements gave rise to large‑scale migrations and invasions that extended widely over the continents of Asia and Europe.  Peoples and civilizations based on bronze technology had to adopt the new iron technology or suffer conquest or even extinction.

isonomia:  The doctrine that citizens are entitled to equality before the law.

jihad:  An Arabic word meaning "striving," "effort," or "struggle"; according to the Qu'ran, the religious duty of Muslims. Often translated as "holy war," it can be interpreted as a personal or collective spiritual battle to overcome evil and right wrongs, or as a physical battle against unbelievers.

joint-stock company:  A type of partnership that has many of the attributes of a corporation. A joint-stock company has shares that may be transferred from one owner to another, that are sold at a stock exchange. Its management is centralized in a board of directors who are elected by the partners (shareholders). Unlike modern corporations, the shareholders of a joint‑stock company are personally liable for the company's debts. Historically, the joint‑stock company was instrumental in the development and expansion of mercantile capitalism and European colonialism. 

jurisprudent: In ancient Rome, a citizen who was learned in law but who held no official position, who advised private persons and public officials on legal matters.  Over time, jurisprudence came to mean a system or body of law and jurisprudents became professionals in the imperial bureaucracy, whose documentation and analysis of past decisions constituted a system of law. 

jus civile (civil law): In the Roman Empire, the system of rules, courts, and procedures based primarily on codified statute, most famously the Corpus Juris Civilis of the 6th‑century CE emperor Justinian, rather than court rulings and precedents.   Today, often used in the legal systems of certain Western European countries and their offshoots in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, which are said to be based on Roman Law.  In contrast, the jus gentium ("law of nations") was said to be based on unwritten customary practice and jus naturale ("law of nature") on an unwritten (and superior) divine or philosophical law.

 justification: In Christianity, the process through which an individual, alienated from God by sin, is reconciled to God and becomes righteous through faith in Christ.  According to the doctrine elaborated by Paul, the followers of Jesus Christ were freed from the requirements of Jewish law (the obligation to circumcise their infant sons, to observe dietary laws, etc.) because they were "justified," or made righteous, by faith.

knight: In medieval Europe, a mounted warrior of secondary noble rank.  In return for a land grant the knight was expected to render military service to his overlord.

koine:  The Greek language commonly spoken and written in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.  Koine functioned as a standard, simplified language that allowed people of many different cultures to communicate.

kore: A type of statue featuring a young, clothed female, developed in the Archaic Age (ca. 700 BCE).

kouros, kouroi: A type of statue featuring a young, male nude, first introduced in the Archaic Age (ca. 700 BCE) and becoming common in the Classical era; the characteristic subject of the first naturalistic sculptures.

latifundia: In Latin, literally "broad fields"; in Roman times, a great landed estate, usually worked on by slave labor.

lay, laity, layperson: A person who is not a member of the clergy; now commonly also used to mean a person who is not a member of a specific profession.

legitimacy: The claim of a right to occupy a seat of power, based on orderly hereditary succession, electoral rules, natural law, or some other lawful principle.  In order to be regarded as legitimate, a government or a social order must have the support or at least acquiescence of a critical mass of people.

liturgy: The formal public rituals, prayers, written texts, costumary, and accessories of religious worship (from the Greek words for "people" and "work"), used to describe formal services in Christianity and the form of prayer recited in Jewish synagogues.

Lyceum:  The philosophical school established by Aristotle; in the 19th century, the inspiration for secondary school education (the word for high school in French: "lycée").

man of war: An armed, combatant naval vessel. 

manor: In medieval Europe, a unit of social organization dominated by a lord, usually consisting of open fields, forest, and common grazing lands, a manor house and the lord's demesne (land retained by the lord for his own use), and one or more peasant villages.  Peasants paid a portion of their produce and also contributed a specific number of days of labor each year to the lord for tasks such as the building and maintenance of roads, bridges, and dams. In addition to providing the land, the lord was expected to provide military protection, and to dispense justice in a manorial court.

manumission: The formal act of emancipating a slave, sometimes by written agreement or payment of the slave to his master.

martyr: A person who suffers the penalty of death (and/or painful torture) for adhering to a religion or cause, or for refusing to renounce his or her beliefs.

Mass:  The celebration of the Eucharist or Holy Communion, the central religious service of the Roman Catholic church.

master: An artisan who is self‑employed or who employs journeymen, usually a member of a guild. A journeyman who could demonstrate his superior skills by completing a masterpiece might be admitted to the guild as a master, but only if the guild approved of the person and was willing to accept new members.  In the later Middle Ages, the guild membership was often limited to the sons (and temporarily the widows, and their new husbands) of masters.

materialism: A philosophical theory, first developed in ancient Greece, that physical matter is the only reality, that all human and natural relationships and events result directly from the interactions of material objects.  In modern usage, also a cultural style in which the goal is the satisfaction of physical desire and comfort.

mendicant: In the Middle Ages, the mendicant orders enlisted monks called “friars” (“brothers”) who lived by begging or on charitable gifts.  The first mendicant order grew out of the effort of St. Francis of Assisi (1182?‑1226) to reform the institution of Christian monasticism.

mercantilism: The dominant economic policy and theory of the age preceding the Industrial Revolution. Governments in early modern Europe adopted mercantilist policies in an effort to foster military and economic strength through state intervention. Mercantilist theory called on governments to cultivate domestic industry, regulate production, control trading companies, place tariffs and quotas on the importation of merchandise from other countries, and seek out raw materials and markets through colonialism. Mercantilists believed that a country's exports were a measure of its strength and judged economic success by the influx of gold, silver, and other precious metals from abroad. Gold and silver could be used to purchase military supplies and and pay troops; military power, in turn, could be used to procure more precious metals and goods through the protection of commerce and the enforcement of monopolies.  In 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century western Europe, governments practiced mercantilism in an effort to build up their military and industrial strength.

mercenary: A professional soldier who fights for pay in the army of a foreign country. Mercenaries played a notable role in the wars among Italian city‑states in the 14th and 15th centuries; their commanders, the condottieri, often acquired small states of their own.  Swiss mercenaries, recruited under the terms of special treaties between the Swiss cantons and foreign powers, fought in several European armies between the 15th and 19th centuries. Such arrangements were prohibited by the Swiss government in 1874, except for the Swiss Guard of the Vatican, which was established in 1505 and continues today. In recent times mercenaries have been employed in African civil wars.

messiah: The prophesied king and redeemer of the Jews, an ideal future leader who would restore the Jews to the land of Israel and bring the reign of divine justice to the earth, derived from the Hebrew term meaning "anointed one."  Translated into Greek as Christos, the term was used by the time of Paul to designate the followers of Jesus as "Christians."

mestizo: A term of biological and cultural classification used in many parts of the Spanish‑speaking world for persons of mixed Indian and white ancestry. In Latin America its definition varies from one country to the next, and must be understood in different cultural contexts.

metic:  In ancient Greece, a merchant, usually a foreigner, who was a member of a class of resident non-citizens in the polis. Metics paid taxes, served in the army, owned personal property and could appear in law courts.  They were not allowed to represent themselves in court, hold office, vote in the assembly, or own land.  Many metics settled in commercial districts  outside the city walls where they established workshops employing artisans, most of them slaves.

metropolis:  In everyday usage, a great city regarded as a center of business or politics.  Applied to the ancient world, the term means the "mother" polis that established a colony.  In that sense, it continues to be applied to nations that establish colonies.

Midrash: In Judaism, a method of interpreting biblical scriptures, later identified with literary compilations of stories and sermons commenting on, alluding to or codifying biblical texts. The method flourished in the centuries immediately before and following the beginning of Christianity; many examples are found in the Talmud and the first three Gospels. Collections of midrashic literature were made from about 300 CE until the later Middle Ages.

Milesian school: The first materialist philosophers, Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, who lived in the city of Miletus, in the 6th century BCE.  They explained natural phenomena by reference to laws that governed growth and change, and rejected explanations that invoked gods and spirits.  Arguing that the world could only be understood through observation and logic, the Milesian school is sometimes called "scientific" and is considered to have originated  Greek philosophy and science.

mintage: The process by which metal money is coined by a government. A mint is the place where coins are manufactured, and also a repository for the gold and silver bullion used to produce coins.

Mishnah: The name given to the oldest postbiblical codification of Jewish Oral Law, from the Hebrew word for "repetition" or "study." Together with the Gemara (later commentaries on the Mishnah itself), it forms the Talmud.

missionary, mission: The missionary movement was the Christian effort to convert individuals and peoples to Christianity. The first great missionary to the Gentiles, Saint Paul, helped to spread Christianity until, by the end of the 1st century, it had reached most large Mediterranean cities. The great voyages of discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries and the expansion of European trade and colonization marked the beginning of a new surge of Roman Catholic missionary activity.  Among the religious orders, the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Jesuits were particularly active in establishing missions, enclosed outposts of Christian settlement in the Americas, Asia and Africa.  A renewed surge of missionary activity took place in the 19th century, when missionary societies were established in Europe and the United States and when colonialism was at its peak. Both Protestants and Roman Catholics sent missionaries to almost every country on earth, and medical missionaries began to provide medical and educational assistance in conjunction with Christian evangelization.  In the Americas especially, a mission also refers to the institution established for the purpose of converting and caring for native peoples, which might include a residence for clergy, a school, a hospital, etc.

monarchy:  Rule by a single individual, usually with life tenure and descended from a line of monarchs (often a dynasty; see Chapter 1 glossary), who may be called the parent, owner, or guardian of the state.

monasticism:  The way of life, generally organized by a rule associated with a specific teacher, of individuals who have chosen to pursue an ideal of perfection in a separate, dedicated religious setting, either solitary or communitarian. Monasticism is practiced in Buddhism, some forms of Christianity, and some other religions.

monotheism:  Belief in a single and transcendent God (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, Islam).  In contrast, polytheism is the belief that many gods exist; pantheism is the belief that God is suffused throughout, or is synonymous with, the universe; animism is the belief that spirits or divinities dwell inside objects and living things, influencing or determining life and events in the natural world.  Some religions are non‑theistic (e.g., Confucianism, Buddhism), but permit belief in gods or spirits.

Moor:  In medieval and early modern Europe, an inhabitant of Muslim North Africa, and, by extension, the Arab and Arabicized conquerors and inhabitants of Spain. The term has also been applied specifically to the populations of Morocco and Mauritania and occasionally to Muslims in general, as in the Moors of the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Today, the term is rarely used except in reference to the Moorish art and architecture of medieval Spain.

mosque: The Islamic place of public worship (from the Arabic masjid, "a place to prostrate one's self [in front of God]"), always oriented toward Mecca, the holy city of Islam.  A mosque must have a place for ritual washing, a place from which a leader (imam) can start the action of prayer, and a minaret, a high pointed tower from which Muslims are called to prayer.

mulatto: In areas that were formerly colonies of Spain, Portugal, France, and in the United States, a term for a person of mixed Negro and European parentage. The social implications of the term vary considerably according to the cultural framework in which it is used.

museum: An institution, gallery or building where objects of aesthetic, educational or historical value are preserved and displayed. The first museum or "temple of the muses" was founded in Alexandria, Egypt in the Hellenistic period.  The muses were nine Greek goddesses of inspiration in learning and the arts.

musket: A large-caliber, smooth-bore firearm that was aimed and fired from the shoulder. The musket first appeared in Spain in the mid-1500s and remained in use, with improvements, until the 1850s.  It fired a lead ball weighing about 1.5 oz (42 g). Lighter and more accurate than the older arquebus, it was still so heavy and long that each musketeer needed an aide to help carry the weapon and its ammunition and to prop it up on its stand.

Mycenae:  An ancient Greek city on the Pelopponesian peninsula, which rose to military power around 1500 BCE.  Mycenaean civilization, influenced by Minoan Crete and the ancient Near East, flourished politically and culturally until about 1300 BCE.

mystery cults: In the ancient world, religious cults whose members believed that the performance of secret rituals would confer on them knowledge not available to the uninitiated and produce a rapturous mystical union with the divine. Mystery cults promised believers a share in the gods' immortality and fecundity.  The cult's central figure was usually a god or goddess who died and was later reborn; initiates ritually reenacted the death and rebirth of the divinity.

mysticism: A form of religious experience in which the believer has or claims direct and immediate contact with the sacred, or derives knowledge from such an experience. In Christianity this customarily takes the form of a vision of, or sense of union with, God.  (There are also nontheistic forms of mysticism, as in Buddhism.) Mysticism often involves meditation, prayer, fasting and other types of ascetic discipline. It may also be accompanied by rapturous ecstasy, poetic speech, visions, and  sometimes by the claim that the person undergoing the experience has been healed or has the power to heal, can read human hearts, foretell the future, levitate, or perform other incredible feats.

myths:  Stories, usually involving deities, that narrate in an imaginative and symbolic way the basic structures upon which a culture rests.  Cultural practices and beliefs are often understood as having their origins in the myth. Mythology means either a certain body of myths (e.g., Greek or Scandinavian myths) or the study of myths.

Neolithic Period:  The stage of prehistoric cultural development that followed the Paleolithic Period and preceded the Bronze Age.  In the Neolithic ("New Stone Age," ca. 9000‑3000 BCE), the technology of chipped stone tool manufacture became increasingly sophisticated;  agriculture and the domestication of animals were introduced; and, in the late Neolithic, pottery and polished‑stone tool manufacture were developed.

Neoplatonism: An interpretation of Plato's philosophy that developed in the third century CE, and that profoundly influenced Christian and Islamic philosophy and theology. Neoplatonism holds that knowledge is possible only through the understanding of metaphysical forms, or archetypes, essences that structure the particular objects and beings that make up the physical world of human experience.  According to Neoplatonism, the human soul has buried deeply within it a vision of these ideal forms, which are dependent on and created by the One, the form beyond being or thought (i.e. God).  Neoplatonism greatly influenced Saint Augustine and remained the philosophical foundation for western Christianity until the revival of Aristotelianism in the 13th and 14th centuries. A revival of Neoplatonism flourished during the Renaissance, principally at the Florentine Academy under Marsilio Ficino.

nepotism: The practice of awarding jobs or privileges to a relative.

nirvana:  A core belief of Buddhism, the ultimate state attained by the Buddha, and the goal of all Buddhists: release from bondage to physical desire and pain.  In Hinduism, nirvana is only achieved through a complete cessation of the cycle of death and rebirth. In Buddhism, the cooling of the passions results in a state of enlightenment that can be achieved in this life, through spiritual or physical exercises.

oecumene:  A Greek word referring to "the inhabited world"; in antiquity a designation for a distinct cultural community. The ecumenical councils in the early centuries of the church were so called because they represented the whole church.  In modern usage the term "ecumenical" is applied to the collective effort of all Christians to repair differences and manifest unity.

oikos:  The household, the fundamental unit of private life and of domestic production in ancient Greece, consisting of a dominant man, his wife and children, and related and unrelated dependents, including slaves.  The oikos was patrilineal and patriarchal (see below).

oligarchy, oligarch, the oligoi: A form of government in which a small minority holds ruling power in order to favor its own interests. The philosopher Aristotle wrote of several types of oligarchy: those in which property qualifications restrict voting  or officeholding to a few; those in which political and social power is hereditary; and those in which power is held by a small clique.  Military dictatorships are often oligarchic, as are the political machines that sometimes run city governments in democratic countries.

Optimates: In the contentious politics of late republican Rome, die-hard defenders of patrician privilege, literally the "best."  Opposing the Optimates were the Populares, or "people's" party.

orthodoxy: The established (literally "correct") doctrine of a church or religious group.

ostracism, ostrakon:  In ancient Athens, a method of banishment by popular vote, without trial.  Each year the citizens would vote on whether anyone was so dangerous to the state that he should be ostracized, or exiled for ten years.  They did so by inscribing a name on a shard of pottery (ostrakon).  Later, ostracism came to mean any form of political or social exclusion.

Paleolithic Period: The stage of prehistoric cultural development that preceded the Neolithic Period.  In the Paleolithic ("Old Stone Age"), which lasted from about 2.5 million to about 10,000 years ago, hominids and humans introduced and developed the technology of chipped stone tool manufacture.

papyrus: Writing paper made from the pith of a reed that grows wild in the Nile River, used from about 2400 BCE by the people of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and southern Europe. Connected together in strips and rolled up, papyrus scrolls were the books of antiquity.

parable: From the Greek parabole, "a setting beside"; a brief moral tale. In parables, a spiritual truth is articulated by telling a simple story, usually serving as the basis for an extended metaphor. Well‑known biblical examples include the Gospel stories of the Prodigal Son and of the Good Samaritan.

parlement: In medieval and early modern France (c.1250-1789), a regional supreme court of criminal and civil law.  The original and most prestigious court was the Parlement of Paris, whose authority only covered central France; other parlements covered other areas; by the end of the 18th century, there were thirteen in all. At first the parlements were staffed by royal appointees who supported medieval monarchs in their policies of centralization that tended to undermine the power of both the nobility and the clergy. In the 17th and 18th centuries, however, they often struggled against and sometimes obstructed the absolutist agenda of the Bourbon kings.  One of the first acts of the revolutionary National Assembly of 1789 was to abolish the parlements.

pastor: From the Greek for "shepherd"; in Protestantism, a leader ("minister") of a congregation who presides at the weekly Sunday celebration of Jesus's resurrection and whose role is to teach scripture, rather than to confer grace (the role of the priest in Catholicism). Protestant pastors, unlike celibate priests, are allowed to marry and form families and households of their own. 

patriarchal:  A social arrangement in which fathers exercise power over the family and its members.  Patriarchal societies are usually patrilineal.

patriarchy:   A form of social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance from the male line.

patrician, patriciate: In medieval and early modern cities, a hereditary elite of bourgeois office-holders, rentiers (deriving their income from rents and interest), and high-status merchants; to be distinguished both from ordinary guild merchants and the patriciate of ancient Rome (see chapter 5).

patricians: The hereditary aristocratic class of ancient Rome, initially entitled to privileges denied to commoners (the plebeians). After much struggle, the plebeians substantially diminished the patricians' privileged position by the 3d century BCE.

patrilineal:  The tracing of ancestry and kinship through the male line to a male forebear on the father's side.  Female offspring are valued insofar as they help the patriline, mainly through marriage.  In patrilineal societies, individuals are expected to further the survival of the male line.  Patrilineal families may also be patriarchal.

patrimony: The accumulation of familial wealth which can be inherited, originally designating the wealth that flows through the male line of descent, from father to sons.

patronage: The conferring of jobs, favors, and commissions by a powerful patron to a client. The motives of the patron can vary.  Sometimes patrons dole out jobs and favors on a political basis to the politically faithful rather than according to merit.  But patronage can also be motivated by a desire to advance the broader interests of the patron. In early modern Italy, for example, patrons invested their wealth in the brilliant creations of Renaissance scholars, artists and writers in order to lend public legitimacy to the rule of city councils and upstart princes, or to serve as public or private advertisements of the patron's wealth, high status, power, and taste.

pax romana: Literally, "the Roman peace." Under the empire consolidated by Augustus Caesar (27 BCE), Rome's total domination of Europe, the Mediterranean and Near East brought about almost 500 years of peace, albeit one secured by conquest and bloodshed.

pedagogue:  In ancient Greece, originally a slave who accompanied children to school and assisted in their education.  Later, pedagogy came to mean the art and science of education, and pedagogue came to mean a theorist of education or teacher.

penance: A sacrament of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.  The rite consists in the acknowledgment of sins to a priest (confession), who then assigns the repentant sinner an act of penance to be performed in order to atone for sin and obtain absolution, the forgiveness of sin. See simony, indulgence.

peon: A member of the landless agricultural laboring class of Spanish America; a person held in compulsory servitude to a master for the working out of a debt. 

perspective:  In art, the techniques used to represent three‑dimensional spatial relationships on a two-dimensional surface. The three principal types of perspective are visual perspective, in which depth is suggested by overlapping and by the smaller size of distant objects; linear perspective, in which lines converge as they approach the horizon; and aerial perspective, in which distant colors become cooler and outlines gradually fade. Linear perspective was first developed, albeit imperfectly, in antiquity, but with the coming of Christianity and its emphasis on the spiritual, artists lost interest in depicting the natural world. In 14th-century Italy, Giotto and other painters developed a radically new conception of space and form. In the early 15th century, renewed interest in optics and mathematical laws contributed to the resources of illusionism; from that point on, the theory and technique of perspective became one of the principal characteristics of western European art.

peso: In the early modern era, a widely circulated gold coin minted from gold mined in Spanish America (also known as a "piece of eight", because it was worth eight reales).

phalanx:  In ancient Greece, a military formation in which heavily armed infantrymen line up close together in deep ranks, defended by a wall of shields.

Pharisees: A major Jewish sect (flourished, ca. 100 BCE‑100 CE), noted for strict observance of rites and ceremonies, based on biblical scripture, and for their insistence on the validity of their own oral traditions concerning the written law. Pharisaism arose originally in opposition to the Sadduccees; Pharisees argued that religious authority was not the sole prerogative of the priesthood. Influenced by Greek, Zoroastrian and other Near Eastern religions, the Pharisees developed the idea of an afterlife and the resurrection of the body, and the concept of the Messiah.  Pharasaism profoundly influenced the rabbinical Judaism of later centuries.

philosophy:  The oldest form of systematic scholarly inquiry, from the Greek philosophos, "lover of wisdom."  Over the centuries, "philosophy" has acquired several related meanings: (1) the study of the principles underlying knowledge, being, and reality; (2) a particular system of philosophical doctrine; (3) the critical study of philosophical doctrines; (4) the study of the principles of a particular branch of knowledge; (5) a system of principles for guidance in everyday life.

phonogram:  A character or symbol that represents a word, syllable, or phoneme in writing.

pictogram: A simplified picture of an object that represents the object in writing.

pietas: In Roman culture, the highest virtue, a selfless regard for father and ancestors, combined with a determination to protect and continue the lineage.  Our own term "piety" is derived from pietas, but now means devoutness in religion.

pike: A weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft with a pointed steel head, used by foot soldiers until superseded by the bayonet.  Pikemen were infantrymen armed with pikes.  

pilgrimage: The practice, common to many religions (including Judaism, Christianity and Islam), of journeying to a holy place or sacred shrine to obtain special blessings from God or as an act of devotion, penance, or thanksgiving.

plebeians (plebes, plebs): A majority of the free citizens of ancient Rome, originally denied most of the rights accorded the privileged, hereditary patrician class.  Over several centuries, their fight for equality succeeded; by about 300 BCE they were eligible to hold all major political and religious posts.

pluralism: In medieval and early modern Europe, the practice of holding several offices at the same time.  Protestant reformers criticized the holding of several titles at once by the Catholic clergy as an abuse of power ("the abuse of pluralism").

polis:  In ancient Greece, a city-state.

politiques: A faction that emerged in the sixteenth-century civil war between Protestants and Catholics in France.  After the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre of Protestants (1572), a moderate party emerged, called the politiques, who disavowed the primacy of religious considerations in favor of the secular and purely political goal of maintaining order and national unity. 

polyglot:  A term that describes geographical areas or states in which many languages are spoken.

polytheism: See monotheism.

Pope, papacy: The pope (literally, "father"), or bishop of Rome, is claimed by Roman Catholics as successor to the apostle Peter, who is traditionally assigned preeminence over the other apostles.  The papacy comprises the office of the pope and the system of central ecclesiastical government of the Roman Catholic Church over which he presides.

portolan: From the thirteenth century on, charts that gave sailing distances in miles and bearings in straight lines.  Lacking parallels and meridians, or any indication of the curvature of the earth, they could be used for the Mediterranean and Black and northern European seas, not on the open oceans.  Better charts became available as geographical knowledge improved. 

predestination: A Christian doctrine according to which a person's ultimate destiny, whether it be salvation or damnation, is determined by God alone prior to, and apart from, any worth or merit on the person's part.  Predestination first appeared in full form in the 5th century CE, in the writings of Saint Augustine, and passed into the theology of the Protestant reformers, especially John Calvin.

Presocratic philosophy: Greek philosophy (ca. 660‑440 BCE) prior to Socrates.  The Presocratic philosophers (Xenophanes, the Milesian School, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, and Leucippus) challenged religious explanations of reality and sought to rationally explain the natural world and physical processes.

primogeniture: The preference given to the eldest son and his descendants in the inheritance of property or position or both. Practiced in many regions of medieval Europe to maintain estates whole and intact, rather than dividing them among several heirs.