Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

Th is system both off ered possible social advancement and in- stitutionalized the government bureaucracy. In contrast to China’ ...

nomic system, no one was “employed” in the modern sense of the word, though daily life demanded “labor” just to ensure survival ...

part labor was not considered in any way noble or admirable. Th e ideal life, as presented in literary sources, was one that did ...

ROME BY KIRK H. BEETZ Not much is known about employment and labor during the era of Rome’s fi rst kings (ca. 753–ca. 510 b.c.e. ...

All doctors were excluded from having to pay taxes. Roman laws dealt more harshly with laborers than with other Romans. Where a ...

for wages but were obligated—and perhaps perfectly will- ing—to provide their services as tribute to the religious and royal fi ...

ligious awareness. Primarily, though, the Chinese were in- terested in exploring trade routes. Th ey explored southward and west ...

Carthage’s rulers sent Hanno on a voyage of exploration. He commanded a fl eet of 60 ships, each propelled by 50 rowers, and exp ...

it as “as a good land, called Yaa,” with “more wine than wa- ter.” Along with describing the area’s bounty, he wrote that the ar ...

tire tribes of people migrated from the north, the east, and the south into Mesopotamia in the hope of fi nding a place to settl ...

and fi nd new trading opportunities, the Arabs, as well as the Egyptians, were the people they chose for their crews. ASIA AND T ...

Caucasians who had arrived there centuries earlier by way of Siberia. Here, as with the Aryans exploring as far as and moving in ...

Th e Scandinavians were restless people, exploring along the coasts of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. It is probable that the ...

of modern Pakistan to its mouth, and to have come to the area of the Suez. In the second half of the fourth century b.c.e., Alex ...

west corner. He also inquired of the western Greek states such as Massilia (modern-day Marseille) what there might be of interes ...

river began in northwest Africa and published his proof, trac- ing its course across northern Africa, while admitting that it ra ...

America in two massive ice sheets. Th e western ice sheet is called the American cordillera, and the eastern is called the Laure ...

447  ▶ family introduction Th roughout most of the ancient world the family was the ba- sic unit of social organization. “Famil ...

on the continent some 5,000 years ago led to the development of a sedentary lifestyle, domestication of animals and crops, and t ...

signifi cant factor in the survival and resilience of most an- cient craft s. Aristocratic families had slaves as members. In mo ...