After you've read each chapter, you should be able to do the following:
- Discuss reasons behind the rise and fall of Assyria as an imperial power;
- Compare and contrast the Assyrian and Persian Empires, especially in terms
of military power and imperial policy;
- Define monotheism, and trace its development among the ancient Israelites;
- Analyze the interconnections between religious ideas and culture in both
the Jewish tradition and Zoroastrianism;
- Explain the cultural relationships between the Aegean civilizations of the
Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Early Greeks;
- Identify the Homeric poems and discuss what they reveal about early Greek
culture.
