Goethe: *see Endnote <A>

(1749-1832) German writer & statesman; works include epic & lyric poetry, prose & verse dramas, memoirs, autobiography, literary & aesthetic criticism, treatises on botany (The Metamorphosis of Plants), anatomy & colour; 4 novels (to include the the Sturm und Drang Sorrows of Young Werther), and the tragic plays Faust (parts 1 & 2)

 

Doric column: *see Endnote  <B>

first style of Classical stone temple architecture in Greece, popular in the Archaic Period (750-480 BC), replaced the previous style of basic, wood structures

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predicates:

to proclaim; declare; affirm; assert.

 

Herodotus:

(484–425 BC) Greek historian, born in Halicarnassus (west coast of the Persian Empire); considered"The Father of History" breaking with Homeric tradition by systematically investigating subjects, collecting his materials and systematically & critically, arranging them into a historiographic narrative.  His only know work, The Histories, is a record of his inquiry on the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars.

 

Sophocles:

(497-406 BC) Greek tragedian, 7 of his 120 plays having survived (notably the Theban plays, Oedipus and Antigone); a celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the religious festivals of the Dionysia at Athens, competed in 30, winning 18 and never finishing lower than 2nd.

 

Themistocles:*  see Endnote <C>

(524–459 BC) Athenian politician & general, prominent in the early years of the Athenian democracy; a populist  supported by lower-class Athenians & in conflict with the Athenian nobility.  Fought at the Battle of Marathon (490 BC); advocated a strong Athenian navy, in 483 BC persuaded them to build a fleet of 200 triremes critical in the naval battles of Artemisium &Salamis (both 480 BC) in the second Persian invasion; in these battles he took command of the Greek allied navy.  After these victories he continued to dominate Athenian politics. 

 

Roman consul:

highest elected political office of the Republic, considered the highest level of the cursus honorum (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspired); 2 consuls were elected together annually, serving 1 year terms.

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polar: *  see Endnote <D>

serving as a guide, central; pivotal.

 

periodic:

occurring or recurring at regular intervals; occurring repeatedly from time to time; consisting of a series of repeated stages, processes, or digits; also in mathematics, a function any value of which recurs at regular intervals

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subtilized:

to make subtle distinctions or to argue subtly

 

Kosmos:

Greek word, defines the universe as a complex & orderly system, the opposite of chaos; used by Pythagoras for the order of the universe.

 

series:

a group or a number of related or similar things, events, arranged or occurring in temporal, spatial, or other order or succession; a sequence; Spengler uses it in relation to past and future.

 

term:

the time or period through which something lasts; Spengler uses this as the antithesis to "series".

 

Classical man:

a man of the age of Classical or Greco-Roman Culture, roughly spanning the period 8th Century BC to 600 AD

 

almanac-reckoning:

the use of a publication containing astronomical or meteorological information, to determine future positions of celestial objects, star magnitudes, and dates of constellation transits

 

Babylonians:

people of an Akkadian-speaking state & culture based in central-southern Mesopotamia (Iraq); the city of Babylon dates from 1894 BC but was only a small administration centre until the reign of Hammurabi (1810-1750 BC) when it became a major capital rivaling Assyria (also Akkadian speaking) in the north and Elam to its east; briefly became a regional power after Hammurabi created a short-lived empire, succeeding the earlier Akkadian Empire, the late Sumerians  & the Old Assyrian Empire; following the death of Hammurabi it reverted back to a small kingdom.

 

Egyptians: see Endnotes <E>

(3100- 30 BC)  culture concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River; coalesced around 3150 BC with the unification of Upper & Lower Egypt under Menes; its long history was a series of stable kingdoms, namely the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age; these periods were broken up by eras of instability known as Intermediate Periods; the culture reached the pinnacle of its power in the New Kingdom, during the Ramesside period.

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Asiatic-Greek cities:

(aka Ionia)  region of central coastal Anatolia (Turkey) & adjacent islands; the northern most territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never unified, named after the Ionian tribe who in the Archaic Period (600–480 BC) settled on the shores & islands of the Aegean.  Ionian states were identified by tradition & by their use of the E. Greek language.  According to tradition, the cities of Ionia were founded by colonists from the other side of the Aegean, connected with the legendary history of the Ionic people in Attica.

 

Hipparchus:

(190 – 120 BC) Greek from Nicaea, an Asiatic Greek city, an astronomer, geographer & mathematician, considered the founder of trigonometry as well as the greatest of ancient astronomical observers famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes.

 

Aristarchus:

(310–230 BC) Greek of Samos, island in E. Aegean, astronomer & mathematician, produced first known model of Solar system (the Sun at the centre of the known universe, Earth revolving around it); he suspected that the stars were other Suns only further;  first to predict the rotation of earth on its axis.  His astronomical ideas were rejected in favour of the geocentric theories of Aristotle & Ptolemy.

 

Stoic: * see Endnote <F>

follower of a school of Hellenistic philosophy early 3rd century BC; a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic & views on the natural world; the path to happiness is accepting this moment as it presents itself, by not allowing desire for pleasure or fear of pain to control one’s actions, using mind to understand the world, to do our part in nature's plan, by working together and treating others in a fair and just manner. 

 

Aristotelian: * see Endnote  <G>

believer in a philosophy based on the work of Aristotle which encompassed existence, ethics, mind & related subjects as well as natural science.  Aristotle was initially defended by the Peripatetic school and later on by the Neo-Platonists, who produced many commentaries. It also found adherents in early Islamic philosophy.   Domianted Western thinking until it was discredited & replaced by modern science in the 16th century Scientific Revolution.

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Plato: * see Endnote <H>

(427-347 BC) Greek philosopher, founder of the Academy in Athens, first institution of higher learning in the Greek world; along with his teacher, Socrates & most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of  later Western philosophy & science. The central concept of Platonism is the distinction between reality which is perceptible but unintelligible, and the reality which is imperceptible but intelligible (the forms).  

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Pericles:

(495–429 BC) prominent Greek statesman, orator & general of Athens, dominant 461-429 BC, the Golden Age, between the Persian & Peloponnesian wars.  Thucydides named him "the first citizen of Athens"; he turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire & led his countrymen during the first 2 years of the Peloponnesian War; he made Athens the the educational & cultural centre of Greece; he started the project that generated the structures on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon.  He fostered Athenian democracy.

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decree (astronomical theories): * see Endnote <I> 

This is a reference to the Decree of Diopeithes and subsequent trial of Anaxagoras, a Greek scientist who had made astronomical predictions.

 

Thucydides:

(460-400 BC) an Athenian historian & general, his History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta & Athens to the year 411 BC; called the father of "scientific history", he applied strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the gods,.