World History For Dummies

Seleuces was the Macedonian general that Alexander the Great left in charge of conquered Persia (largely what’s now Iran) in the 330s BC.

Middle Ages and medieval mean the same thing: an age between ages.

Building Empires around the World

With Alexander gone, the generals were free to turn their territories, which they had been holding in trust for their boss, into personal kingdoms.

Roman terms endured as well, especially terms for positions of authority.The Russian title czar

The name of a powerful dynastic family, the Romanovs, who ruled Russia from 1613–1917, referred back to imperial Rome, too. Even in the Islamic world, the name Qaysar — a place name found from Afghanistan to Egypt — comes from Caesar

Catholicism was the universal religion: Everybody was a Catholic, but they didn’t think of themselves as Catholics because there was no such thing as a Protestant.

The Holy Roman Empire is not to be confused with the Roman Empire.

Rome’s legacy pervades the Mediterranean,

the Church was in Rome because of what Rome had been at its political height — the center of the western world.