Key Concept 2.2.2

1. KEY CONCEPT 2.2.3:
COMPLEX SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENTS
C. 600 BCE – C. 600 CE

2. A. Cities served as centers of trade, public performance of
religious rituals, and political administration for states and
empires.
•Persepolis
• Chang’an
• Pataliputra
• Athens
• Carthage
• Rome
• Alexandria
• Constantinople
• Teotihuacan
You will add these to your Period 2 map!

3. Illustrative Example: Alexandria
Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as
Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexandria). It became an important center of the
Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Hellenistic and
Roman & Byzantine Egypt for almost one thousand years until the
Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641. Hellenistic Alexandria was best
known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos), one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World; its Great Library (the largest in the
ancient world; now replaced by a modern one); and the Necropolis,
one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages.

4. Illustrative Example: Alexandria
Lighthouse of Alexandria Library of Alexandria
Carl Sagan on the library: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jixnM7S9tLw

5. B. The social structures of empires displayed hierarchies that
included cultivators, laborers, slaves, artisans, merchants,
elites, or caste groups.
Roman Hierarchy Indian Caste System

6. C. Imperial societies relied on a range of methods to maintain
the production of food and provide rewards for the loyalty of
the elites.
• The latifundia (Latin: lātus, "spacious" + fundus, "farm, estate")[1]
of Roman history were great landed estates, specializing in
agriculture destined for export: grain, olive oil, or wine.
• The first latifundia were accumulated from the spoils of war,
confiscated from conquered peoples beginning in the early 2nd
century BC. The prototypical latifundia were the Roman estates in
Magna Graecia (the south of Italy) and in Sicily, which distressed
Pliny the Elder (died AD 79) as he travelled, seeing only slaves
working the land, not the sturdy Roman farmers who had been
the backbone of the Republic's army.[2] Latifundia expanded with
conquest, to the Roman provinces of the Maghreb and in Hispania
Baetica, the south of Spain.

7. D. Patriarchy continued to shape gender and family
relations in all imperial societies of this period.
• In the Han dynasty, the female historian Ban Zhao wrote the
Lessons for Women, advice on how women should behave. She
outlines the four virtues women must abide by: proper virtue,
proper speech, proper countenance, proper merit.