NY Regents 9.3: Classical Civilizations

This is Rome, Italy, founded in 753 BCE on the Palatine Hill above the Tiber River — exactly the hilltop settlement the title clue pointed to, on the central Italian peninsula between the Tyrrhenian…

This event unfolded in Rome, Italy — a city built on seven hills along the Tiber River, roughly midway down the Italian peninsula between the Apennine mountain spine and the Tyrrhenian Sea. In 509…

In 508 BCE the Athenian statesman Cleisthenes reformed the political constitution of Athens — a city on the Saronic Gulf, a branch of the Aegean Sea, in Attica, south-eastern mainland Greece — by…

In 490 BCE an Athenian-led Greek force of approximately 10,000 hoplites defeated a Persian invading army estimated at 25,000 at the Bay of Marathon, a coastal plain about 40 km north-east of Athens…

Thermopylae is a narrow mountain pass on the eastern coast of mainland Greece, exactly where steep cliffs press against the Aegean Sea as the Greek peninsula tapers southward toward the…

In 438 BCE the Parthenon — the temple dedicated to Athena on the Acropolis of Athens — was completed under the direction of the sculptor Pheidias and the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates, during…

In 331 BCE Alexander of Macedon defeated the Persian King Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela, fought on a flat plain near the village of Gaugamela, close to the upper Tigris River in what is now…

Sicily, the large triangular island at the toe of Italy's boot, was the battleground of the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage, fought from 264 to 241 BC. Rome, then a land power based on the…

In 221 BCE the king of the state of Qin, ruling from his capital Xianyang in the Wei River valley (near modern Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), conquered the last of the Warring States and declared himself…

The Alps, the great mountain wall dividing what is now southern France from northern Italy, were the crossing point in 218 BCE when the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca led his army — war…

This catastrophic battle took place at Cannae, a site in the Apulia region of southern Italy, on the flat lowlands between the Apennine mountain spine and the Adriatic coast — exactly the terrain the…

In 202 BCE Liu Bang, a minor village official who had risen to lead a peasant rebellion against Qin rule, defeated the aristocratic rival Xiang Yu at the Battle of Gaixia and founded the Han dynasty…

This is Carthage, on the coast of what is now Tunisia — sitting on a peninsula jutting into the central Mediterranean, directly across the sea from the Italian peninsula to the north. In 146 BCE…

Around 130 BCE the Han diplomat Zhang Qian returned from his mission westward into Central Asia — through the Tarim Basin, across the Pamir Mountains, and as far as Bactria (modern Afghanistan) and…

The revolt began in Capua, a city in southern Italy sitting on the fertile Campanian plain, flanked by the Apennine Mountains to the east and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west — exactly the boot-shaped…

This secret political deal was struck in Rome, the city on the Tiber River in central Italy — on the peninsula that juts southward between the western Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea, sheltered…

The Rubicon River marked the ancient boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul and Italy itself, running along the northeastern Italian peninsula toward the Adriatic Sea. In 49 BCE…

This event unfolded in Rome, the capital of modern Italy — sitting on the Tiber River in the middle of the Italian peninsula, flanked by the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west and the Adriatic to the east…

The Battle of Actium took place off the coast of northwestern Greece in 31 BC, at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf on the Ionian Sea — exactly where the western edge of the Balkan Peninsula juts into…

This was Rome, Italy — a city built along the Tiber River on the Italian Peninsula, flanked by the Alps to the north and sitting at the heart of the central Mediterranean. In 64 CE, a devastating…

This is Rome, Italy — sitting on the Tiber River in the middle of the Italian peninsula, which juts southward into the central Mediterranean between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas. In 72 AD…

This is Pompeii, a Roman city near the foot of Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, in what is now southern Italy — exactly where the Apennine spine of the Italian peninsula meets the Tyrrhenian Sea…

This crisis unfolded across the Roman Empire, centred on Rome, Italy — the city on the Tiber River in the middle of the Italian peninsula, which juts southward into the Mediterranean where Europe…

This event unfolded in Milan, in what is now northern Italy — a city sitting at the heart of the Po Plain, sheltered to the north by the Alps and open to the south toward the rest of the Italian…

This was Pataliputra, the imperial capital of the Gupta Empire, located in what is now Patna, India — sitting on the Ganges plain between the Himalayan foothills to the north and the Deccan Plateau…

This is Istanbul, Turkey — built on the Bosphorus strait, exactly where Europe and Asia are separated by less than a kilometre of water, with the Black Sea to the north and the Sea of Marmara leading…

This is Rome, Italy — the city on the Tiber River, south of the Alps and just inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western side of the Italian peninsula. In 410 CE, the Visigoth king Alaric led his…

This is Rome, Italy — a city built on hills beside the Tiber River, roughly midway along the Italian peninsula that juts southward into the Mediterranean between the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west and…

This event unfolded in Ravenna, a city on the northeastern coast of Italy, tucked between the Adriatic Sea and the Po River delta — exactly the boot-shaped peninsula south of the Alps that the title…