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SOL People
World History I
1.) Abraham: father of the Hebrew nation; led his family to the land of Canaan.
2.) Moses: led the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land; during the Exodus,
he received the Ten Commandments from the Hebrew God on Mt. Sinai.
3.) Siddhartha Gautama: founder of Buddhism; known as Buddha (Enlightened One) by
his followers.
4.) Asoka: Emperor of India from 269-238 BC; he made Buddhism the state religion of
India and helped the religion spread to many other nations.
5.) Pericles: a dominant cultural and political figure during the Golden Age of Athens; he
commissioned the construction of the Parthenon; he also expanded the Athenian Empire
through the Delian League.
6.) Philip II: King of Macedon who conquered surrounding Greek city-states; father of
Alexander the Great.
7.) Alexander the Great: expanded his inherited empire from Greece to Egypt to India; he
founded Alexandria, a city on the Nile in Egypt; his expansion helped spread Greek
culture to Asia.
8.) Julius Caesar: ruled Rome as part of the 1st Triumvirate along side Marcus Crassus and
Gnaeus Pompey; 50 BC, he became dictator of Rome after the 1st Triumvirate fell apart;
he was assassinated by the Roman Senate on March 15, 44 BC (Ides of March).
9.) Augustus Caesar (Octavian): member of the 2nd Triumvirate to rule over Rome along
side Marc Antony and Marcus Lepidus; after the 2nd Triumvirate fell apart, he became the
1st emperor of Rome.
10.) Marc Antony: member of the 2nd Triumvirate; married Cleopatra; committed suicide
after being defeated by Augustus Caesar.
11.) Jesus: born in Palestine to a Jewish family; traveled throughout Galilee preaching before
being put to death by Roman ruler Pontius Pilate; he was proclaimed to be the Messiah
and Son of God; the 1st four (4) books of the New Testament tell of his birth, teachings,
and ministry.
12.) Paul: converted to Christianity; preached the message of Christianity to the Gentiles
(non-Jews); he and the other apostles helped spread Christianity through the Roman
Empire.
13.) Constantine: Roman emperor who moved the capital of the empire from Rome to
Byzantium and renamed the city after himself—Constantinople; he granted religious
freedom to the people of the empire, effectively ending the persecution of Christians.
14.) Ptolemy: 2nd century astronomer who said that the earth was the center of the solar
system.
15.) Virgil: wrote the Aeneid, an epic that traces the origins of Rome.
16.) Justinian: ruled the Byzantine empire from 527-565; he attempted to reconquer the
lands of the old Roman empire; developed a law code called the Corpus of Civil Law
(Justinian’s Code).
17.) Muhammad: prophet born in Mecca; founded the religion of Islam around the year 600;
his collection of revelations from Allah is known as the Quran (Koran).
18.) Charlemagne: defended the Catholic Church and was made Emperor of the Romans by
Pope Leo III in AD 800.
19.) William of Normandy (William the Conqueror): Duke of Normandy who invaded and
captured England in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings.
20.) King John: English king and son of King Henry II; in 1215, he was forced to sign the
Magna Carta which placed limits on the power of the king.
21.) King Henry II: became King of England in 1154; he restructured the legal system of
England to include the use of a jury and he became common law.
22.) Hugh Capet: a French duke; created a dynasty that would rule France for nearly 300
years.
23.) Joan of Arc: peasant girl who helped aid Charles VII in becoming the king of France in
1429; she was eventually captured and accused of being a witch by the English; she was
burned at the stake.
24.) Ferdinand II: King of Aragon who married Isabella of Castile, effectively united most
of Spain; they both helped rid Spain of Muslim Moors and effectively instituted the
Spanish Inquisition to drive all non-Catholics from Spanish soil.
25.) Ivan III (Ivan the Great): helped rid Russia of the Mongols; turned Moscow into the
capital of his Russian empire.
26.) Pope Urban II: he issued the call for the 1st Crusade to reclaim Palestine from Muslim
control.
27.) Machiavelli: Italian statesmen and theorist who wrote The Prince, a book of advice to
rulers including—the end justifies the means, being morally right is not as important as
being politically effective, and a ruler must be strong and shrewd.
28.) Leonard da Vinci: Italian artist, inventor, writer, and scientist—a true Renaissance
man; he is best know for his paintings, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.
29.) Michelangelo: Italian artist who is know for his painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling
and his sculptures, La Pieta and David.
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30.) Petrarch: Italian poet who is know for reinventing the Sonnet.
31.) Erasmus: the most famous Christian humanists; wrote In Praise of Folly in 1511
that made fun of priests, scholars, and merchants.
32.) Sir Thomas More: Englishman who wrote Utopia criticizing English society; the book
attempted to create a perfect society lacking greed, corruption, war, and crime.
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