Ancient History flashcards

28 QCE Ancient History cards across 2 modules (0 definitions, 28 key facts, 0 fill-the-gap, 0 formulas). Each session gives you 20 cards, due cards first. Swipe right for easy, left for hard, down for again. Keyboard: Space to flip, 1 to 4 to rate.

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What this deck covers

Unit 3: Reconstructing the ancient world (Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum) (14 cards, 7 dot points)
Unit 4: People, power and authority (sources, historiography and the External Assessment) (14 cards, 7 dot points)

Sample cards from this deck

Key fact
Ancient and modern written sources for Pompeii and Herculaneum: Pliny the Younger and modern scholarship for QCE Ancient History Unit 3
Tell me about Other ancient written references
Beyond Pliny, the ancient written record is thin. The historian Cassius Dio, writing over a century later, gives a more sensational and unreliable account, including reports of giant figures seen on the mountain.
Key fact
Cleopatra, Antony, Actium and the end of Ptolemaic Egypt: power, propaganda and legacy for QCE Ancient History Unit 4
Tell me about The alliance with Antony
After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC the Roman world was divided among the Second Triumvirate. Mark Antony took control of the eastern provinces.
Key fact
The economy, trade and commerce of Pompeii and Herculaneum: agriculture, manufacture and Mediterranean trade for QCE Ancient History Unit 3
Tell me about Agriculture and the hinterland
The land around Vesuvius was exceptionally fertile because of volcanic soils, and agriculture underpinned the regional economy. Villas in the countryside (such as the Villa of the Mysteries and the Villa Regina at Boscoreale) combined elite residence with working farms producing wine and olive oil.
Key fact
Cleopatra VII and Ptolemaic Egypt: accession, government and royal image for QCE Ancient History Unit 4
Tell me about Accession and dynastic struggle
Cleopatra came to the throne in 51 BC at about 18, jointly with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, whom she was expected to marry in Ptolemaic fashion. Conflict between their factions soon erupted, and by 49 BC Cleopatra was driven out of Alexandria by her brother's advisers.
Key fact
Everyday life and society in Pompeii and Herculaneum: reconstructing work, leisure and religion from QCE Ancient History Unit 3 sources
Tell me about Food, dining and leisure
Diet is reconstructed from carbonised food remains (at Herculaneum especially), latrine and drain deposits, frescoes of food, and the bars themselves. People ate bread, olives, figs, grapes, fish, eggs, cheese and modest amounts of meat.
Key fact
The assassination and legacy of Julius Caesar: the Ides of March, the conspirators and changing interpretations for QCE Ancient History Unit 4
Tell me about The conspirators and their motives
The conspiracy, the self-styled Liberatores, numbered around 60 senators. Its leaders were Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.
Key fact
Geographical setting and the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius: reconstructing Pompeii and Herculaneum from QCE Ancient History Unit 3 sources
Tell me about The geographical setting
Pompeii and Herculaneum lay in Campania, a fertile coastal region of southern Italy on the Bay of Naples, around the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.
Key fact
The rise of Julius Caesar: triumvirate, Gaul, the Rubicon and dictatorship for QCE Ancient History Unit 4
Tell me about Background and early career
Gaius Julius Caesar was born around 100 BC into the patrician gens Julia, an old but not recently powerful family that claimed descent from the goddess Venus through Aeneas.
Key fact
Public and private buildings of Pompeii and Herculaneum: reconstructing urban life from QCE Ancient History Unit 3 sources
Tell me about Public buildings: leisure and infrastructure
The Stabian Baths are the oldest of Pompeii's public baths, with the standard Roman sequence of apodyterium (changing room), tepidarium (warm room), caldarium (hot room) and frigidarium (cold room), heated by the hypocaust system of underfloor flues.
Key fact
Mark Antony: power, the Second Triumvirate and the struggle with Octavian for QCE Ancient History Unit 4
Tell me about Antony under Caesar
Marcus Antonius, born around 83 BC, rose as one of Julius Caesar's most capable military officers, serving in Gaul and during the civil war against Pompey. He was Caesar's colleague as consul in 44 BC, the year of the assassination.