Quiz Notes

Quiz #1

1. All of the following are true of Sargon EXCEPT:

a. He claimed to be the lover of Ishtar

b. He was king of the Akkadians

c. He ruled weakly and passively(not true)

d. He established the first Near Eastern empire

Sargon was a king of Akkad, one of the Semitic cities that rose in Mesopotamia after the Sumerians, during the Bronze Age. He’s credited with creating the first multinational empire, after conquering or absorbing many of the lands and peoples of the Fertile Crescent. He rules over this empire oppressively and ruthlessly—one of the reasons it did not last.

2. The Old Babylonian Empire was known for

a. Mathematics and astronomy(true)

b. Romance novels

c. Inventing an early form of baseball

d. Lasting for thousands of years

The Bronze Age Babylonian Empire, also known as the Old Babylonian Empire, attracted those skilled in mathematics and astronomy and was one of the first powerhouses in these fields. The empire lasted c. 1894 BCE – c. 1595 BCE, about 400 years.

3. All of the following are true of the Code of Hammurabi EXCEPT:

a. It was a compilation of laws relating to civil and criminal procedures

b. Its penalties were harsher than older laws

c. It helped to unify the empire by placing it under a single legal system

d. The three classes—noble, free, and slave—were treated exactly equally(not true)

It was a law code, one of the earliest known in history, issued by Hammurabi, a king of the Old Babylonian empire during the 18th century BCE. For the most part it dealt with applying justice to conflicts between individuals, often having to do with property or commercial transactions, with different provisions depending on class.

4. The Indo-European people who settled in central Anatolia (modern Turkey) were the

a. Hittites(true)

b. Mennonites

c. Kassites

d. Samsonites

The Hittites were an Indo-European people who settled in central Anatolia. They were among the earliest masters of bronze.

5. All of the following are true of the Indo-Europeans EXCEPT:

a. They were originally nomads

b. They were pastoral (animal herders)

c. They never migrated anywhere and all its tribes stayed in their homeland until they died out(not true)

d. Their language was the origin of many related later languages, including Persian, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit

The Indo-Europeans were a pastoral people and so constantly in search of new grazing lands as their populations increased. As such, whole nations of Indo-Europeans left the Indo-European Homeland on the central Asian steppes, migrating into new lands to the south, west, and east. These nations were the ancestors of the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Vedic Hindu peoples, among many others.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. Give an example of one of the punishments you remember from the Code of Hammurabi.

Examples of provisions include:

• If a man accuses another man and charges him with homicide, but cannot bring proof against him, his accuser shall be killed.
• If a man breaks into a house, they shall kill him and hang him(?) in front of that very breach.
• If a man has a debt lodged against him, and the storm-god Adad devastates his field or a flood sweeps away the crops, or there is no grain grown in the field due to insufficient water
• in that year he will not repay grain to his creditor; he shall suspend performance of his contract [literally “wet his clay tablet”] and he will not give interest payments for that year.
• If a merchant should give silver to a trading agent for an investment venture, and he [the trading agent] incurs a loss on his journeys, he shall return silver to the merchant in the amount of the capital sum.
• If a man takes in adoption a young child at birth [literally “in its water”] and then rears him, that rearling will not be reclaimed.
• If an [awīlum] should blind the eye of another [awīlum], they shall blind his eye.
• If a builder constructs a house for a man but does not make it conform to specifications so that a wall then buckles, that builder shall make that wall sound using his own silver.
• If an ox gores to death a man while it is passing through the streets, that case has no basis for a claim.
• If a man rents a boat of 60-[kur] capacity, he shall give one sixth [of a shekel] of silver per day as its hire.
• If a slave should declare to his master, “You are not my master”, he [the master] shall bring charge and proof against him that he is indeed his slave, and his master shall cut off his ear.

Quiz #2

1. The Nile River impacted the Egyptians by

a. never flooding, aiding trade and irrigation

b. rarely flooding, but always destructively, forcing Egypt to rebuild

c. flooding unpredictably, leaving Egyptians fearful and uncertain

d. flooding every year, leaving fertile soil and suggesting a world of cycles and benevolent gods(true)

The annual flooding of the Nile provided permanent, reliable agricultural fertility to the Egyptians. Unlike the Sumerians, they did not have to struggle against nature simply to achieve sustenance from the land. As such they saw nature, and the gods, as benevolent and nurturing.

2. All of the following were true of the pharaohs… EXCEPT:

a. The government revolved around the pharaoh, who owned the land and everything it produced

b. The pharaohs were considered full-fledged gods, identified with Ra, Horus, and Ptah

c. The pharaoh’s wife was usually an unrelated noble from a nonroyal clan(not true)

d. Even the pharaoh was bound by ma’at, the system of order, justice, and harmony mandated for all by the gods

The pharaoh held all power and controlled the government and the land. That said, in an orderly world of cyclical permanence, a worldview that resulted from and was constantly symbolized by the annual flood of the Nile, the Egyptians saw everything as working unchangingly and forever, according to harmony and balance (ma’at). The god with the responsibility to guarantee this balance was Horus, whose agent and manifestation in the human world is the pharaoh. Therefore, the pharaoh had to uphold harmony and benevolence as a manifestation of the gods. As a god, and to preserve the divine bloodline, pharaohs normally married the closest possible relatives, their siblings.

3. Egypt was unified as a single kingdom

a. from the beginning

b. when the king of Upper Egypt conquered the rest(true)

c. only metaphorically, in myth and literature

d. by outsiders from Kush, to the far south of Egypt

Lower and Upper Egypt were separate kingdoms for some centuries before the king of Upper Egypt at Abydos, known variously as Menes or Narmer, conquered Lower Egypt and founded what is known as the First Dynasty of the unified kingdom of Egypt.

4. All of the following are true of the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs… EXCEPT:

a. It was an ancient writing system of ideograms with over 7,000 symbols

b. The Egyptians developed no way to show proper names and foreign words (not true)

c. A cursive form was used on papyrus, a kind of paper made using the hollow stem of a particular plant

d. Its origins lay in the little-known early centuries of Egyptian civilization

Names and foreign words were spelled out using a cartouche, inside which hieroglyphs could be read as sounds, not words.

5. In Tablet 6 of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar proposes to Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh

a. accepts, succumbing to her beauty

b. accepts, but on behalf of Enkidu, not himself

c. refuses, citing her mistreatment of past lovers(true)

d. refuses, saying he must first love himself

Ishtar is entranced by Gilgamesh’s beauty and wants to mate with him, but Gilgamesh spurns her advances. He lists the terrible fates of her previous lovers, criticizing her for her capriciousness and vindictive cruelty.

Ultimately he fears the loss of what he has achieved as a man—his identity. Even if Ishtar does not cast him aside, by becoming the consort of a goddess Gilgamesh will leave the society of mortals and so lose his mortal identity.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. Why do you think Egypt was able to unify, but not Sumer?

The main point here is that the city-states of Sumer were in competition for limited resources, and so remained in rivalry with each other and were often hostile. In Egypt, however, the environment provided plenty for all, so there was no need to compete for resources, and everyone had in common the protection and nurturing of the gods—eventually manifested as a single god-king.

Quiz #3

1. The Nile delta is found in

a. Nubia

b. Kush

c. Lower Egypt(true)

d. Upper Egypt

The delta is where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean. This is downstream (Lower Egypt).

2. All of the following are true of the pyramids EXCEPT:

a. They are associated with the earliest period of united Egypt, the Old Kingdom

b. They were intended to protect the mortal remains of the pharaoh buried within

c. They could only have been constructed by alien gods from outer space(not true)

d. The largest and most famous, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), took 23 years to build

The pyramids were visible symbols of the pharaoh’s divine rule, unifying the people’s shared identity and religion. They represented power unlike any human’s and so reinforced the pharaoh’s divinity. Pyramids were also the ultimate in prestige and luxury, which was controlled by the pharaohs, and so showed precedence over all classes and over past kings as well. They employed huge numbers of people, impressing the people directly with his power and keeping them busy between harvests. They served as temples for the worship of pharaohs after death.

Like all monumental building (e.g., the ziggurats) they displayed Egypt’s (and so the pharaoh’s) immense economic power—to its own people and to outsiders as well, as well as serving as a visual focal point for a strong central identity as Egyptians and a home to a protective patron deity, in this case the pharaoh as a manifestation of Horus.

3. Akhenaten was famous for

a. religious reforms focusing on the supremacy of one god, Aten(true)

b. having no wife

c. being born in Arizona before moving to Babylonia

d. sharing the throne with his cousin Amenhotep

Akhenaten was an Egyptian pharaoh of the New Kingdom (during the 18th Dynasty). He and his queen, Nefertiti, sought to bring about religious reform in Egypt by shifting the focus of worship to Aten, calling him more important than the other gods. This brought about a form of polytheism in which one god is greatly predominant called henotheism. Akhenaten pushed the exclusive worship of Aten by changing his regnal name from Amunhotep IV to Akhenaten, building a new royal city sacred to Aten, and instituting new rituals and priesthoods.

In so doing, Akhenaten sought to undo the shift in religious power from the pharaohs, who had held unquestionable religious authority in the Old Kingdom, to the priests, who now held much greater power in the New Kingdom. The priests emphasized the significance of Amun-Ra, the sun god, in the pharaoh’s rule, so by associating the kingship with Aten he sought to wrest power from the priests. It was too late for that, however: the authority of the priests was now too well established, and the pharaoh’s power too diminished from the absolute in the New Kingdom. Egyptian religion reverted the control of the priests after the deaths of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, as signified by the regnal name of his son and eventual successor, Tutankhamun.

4. The collection of spells that was wrapped around a mummy is known as

a. “The Spells of Ra”

b. “The Tale of Sinuhe”

c. “Book of the Dead” (true)

d. “Osiris Among the Shades”

The Book of the Dead was what was used to ensure the passage of the spirit to the lands of the dead.

5. All of the following are true of the Semitic invaders who dominated Egypt between the Middle and New Kingdoms EXCEPT:

a. The Egyptians called them the Hyksos, meaning “foreign rulers”

b. They embraced and preserved Egyptian culture

c. They ruled peacefully over Egypt for many thousands of years(not true)

d. They fought using horses and chariots, bronze weapons, and complex bows

The Hyksos only ruled for about a hundred years. Despite being foreigners from the Semitic east, they embraced and promoted Egyptian culture and religion enthusiastically.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. The death of Enkidu involves a series of events and visions. What moment stands out to you? What does it suggest to you about Sumer?

Enkidu is distraught at first that his death will not be meaningful—that he will waste away rather than while achieving something great for Uruk and leaving a legacy by which he overcomes death. In his grief he blames Shamhat for civilizing him, but later repents and praises her for the gift she gave him.

The House of Dust is the term used to refer to the Sumerian afterlife; the name underlines that it is what is left after the ending of life, and not a place where life continues. In his dream, Enkidu sees (among other things) past kings who were powerful and constructive during their lives, but impotent and pathetic, bemoaning the loss of their ability to achieve.

Quiz #4

1. The use of iron was revolutionary as a basis for metalworking (tools and weapons) because

a. iron was easy to smelt and fashion

b. iron goods were prestigious thanks to their association with the Underworld

c. iron ore is very common and easy to procure and control in large quantities(true)

d. when combined with clay, iron could be produced in different color tones

Iron weapons are not significantly harder or stronger than bronze. Iron ore is very common and easy to procure and control in large quantities. This meant that iron-holding societies were stronger militarily and had a higher standard of living, because they could make many more weapons and many more tools.

This contrasts with bronze because bronze required two components, copper and tin, and controlling sources of both was difficult; bronze was also difficult to produce. As a result, bronze was a luxury good, reserved for the elite, and bronze agricultural tools and weapons were produced only for the wealthy few.

The mass production of iron tools and weapons helps shift the center of gravity from the few to the many, as well as bringing about improved health (increased birth rate, reduced death rate), greater distribution of resources, and mass armies capable of more ambitious conquest and occupation of conquered territories.

2. The Phoenicians were known for all of the following EXCEPT:

a. having no cities(not true)

b. successful, wide-ranging sea trade

c. Tyrian purple

d. the alphabet

The Phoenicians were the Semitic inhabitants of several cities in the coastal north of Canaan (modern-day Lebanon). They were ideally located to import raw materials from inland and then engage in trade around the Mediterranean coast in both directions. They developed a lucrative extensive Mediterranean trade route based on luxury goods that they manufactured from imported materials like raw textiles and marble and from their two most important local commodities—cedar wood and murex, the purple dye they converted into a coveted status symbol throughout the Mediterranean world.

Also their invention of the phonetic alphabet was spread throughout their trading network, introducing literacy to the Dark Age Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Latins.

3. According to the text, a language that became commonly used in many lands because of how widespread its speakers were, becoming a kind of lingua franca or common tongue, was

a. Dothraki

b. Aramaean(true)

c. Parseltongue

d. Sindarin

The Aramaean language was widely used as a lingua franca throughout the Fertile Crescent, because it was possible to find Aramaeans in many different cities in Assyria, Canaan, and beyond.

4. All of the following are true of the Philistines EXCEPT:

a. They were an Indo-European culture, surrounded by Semitic peoples

b. They possessed iron-working technology and used iron swords

c. They left behind lots of records and literature to richly inform us of their culture and history(not true)

d. They were likely descended from the Sea Peoples, whose migrations helped end the Bronze Age

The Philistines were a powerful people, likely descended from Indo-European refugees of the Bronze Age Aegean (the Sea Peoples), who were masters of iron and culturally very different from the surrounding Semites. However, we know little about them because they left almost no records or literature.

5. According to tradition, the Hebrew tribes were divided and in conflict with each other until they begged for “a king to judge us like all the nations” after

a. the Exodus from Egypt

b. the arrival in the Promised Land

c. the Battle of Jericho

d. the Philistines’ theft of the Ark of the Covenant(true)

The need to recover the Ark, which housed the original Torah, from the hostile Philistines (who had also forbidden the use of iron to the Hebrews) drove the tribes to set aside their hostility and ask the high priest Samuel to name a single king over all the Israelites, Saul.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. Now that you’ve finished reading The Epic of Gilgamesh, what do you think the story is truly about? What moments from the story most exemplify this?

This question is subjective; possible answers include the Sumerian awareness of universality of death and the consequent need to achieve lasting contributions that surpass it; the untrustworthiness of the gods requiring mortals to ensure their own fate; the importance of the bonds with others over the self; the nature of men as beasts and the role of women to convert them to citizens as mothers/wives; etc.

Quiz #5

1. Factors that helped make the Persian Empire more successful than the Assyrians included all of the following EXCEPT:

a. The Persians were more successful in convincing subject peoples they shared in the benefits of empire

b. The Persians earned a reputation for leniency and toleration toward peoples they ruled over and respect for native customs

c. The empire was organized loosely, with strong local imperial officials and a system of spies watching for corruption and oppression

d. Cyrus declared himself to be a god, standardizing all pagan religions throughout the empire(not true)

Possible factors include the following: The Persians lowered the chance of rebellion by ruling with as little oppression as was feasible, and by tolerating local religion and culture rather than forcefully imposing theirs.

The Persian king was explicitly not a god, but through ritual, trappings, and seclusion was converted into an abstract symbol that served as a focus of identity for all the diverse and unconnected peoples of the Empire.

The Persians did not keep standing armies, which tend to exploit and oppress local populations, and did not often go to war, having extended their frontiers to natural geographic barriers, so that the Empire’s subjects enjoyed a sense of peace and protectedness.

The system of satrapies was designed to ensure a sense of benevolent and protective rule in each region and culture.

The Great King had a system of spies whose role was to ensure the satraps were not corrupt or abusive.

Finally, the positive encouragement of local economies and vibrant trade within the empire brought about general prosperity, a higher standard of living, and improvements in the birth and death rates.

2. Efforts at unifying the Persian empire included

a. the first large-scale road system in antiquity(true)

b. adoption of Egyptian hieroglyphs as a common writing system

c. brutal wars against distant enemies to distract people from political controversies

d. a new monetary standard based on lead instead of gold and silver

The Persian empire established an extensive road system that connected Susa, the Persian capital, with Sardis, an ancient city in western Anatolia.

The Persians also established a common writing system, based on the version of cuneiform used in Babylon and a standardized currency based on gold and silver. After its initial establishment under Cyrus and the annexation of Egypt under Cambyses, the Persian empire was primarily focused on strong frontiers to protect Persian dominion, rather than aggressive expansionist wars.

3. Darius invaded central Asia in order to stop destructive raiding by

a. the Scythians(true)

b. the Hindus

c. the Viet Minh

d. a colony of angry megalizards

Persia was raided by bands of Scythians, forcing Darius to take action against them.

4. Persia conquered Egypt under the leadership of which king?

a. Cyrus

b. Cambyses(true)

c. Darius

d. Louis XIV

Though the groundwork was laid by the first king, Cyrus, Egypt was conquered under the second Great King, Cambyses.

5. The native Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, was

a. forcibly imposed on conquered territories

b. known for transparency of thought and permitting no secret knowledge

c. duelistic, expecting Persian nobles to engage in constant ritual swordfights with each other

d. dualistic, viewing the universe as being in perpetual conflict and balance between two opposing gods(true)

Zoroastrianism is a dualist religion, describing the world as the domain of two gods, one of order and light (Ahuramazda) and of of disorder and darkness (Ahriman). Both gods are needed, and are set in a complementary and balanced dynamic.

The Persian state’s perspective is that it stands with the side of order. Mortals choose either side; those who choose disorder and darkness (criminals, traitors, and rebels) are natural antagonists of the state.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What reasons might the Persian king have had for releasing the Judeans to return home and rebuild in Jerusalem?

At the times, the Jews were in exile in Babylon, confined there by the Babylonians that Persia had conquered. By allowing the Jews to return to Judea, Cyrus gained a new province inhabited by loyal and grateful subjects.

In addition, Judea was in a strategic location vital to the Persian empire, on the western frontier against the Persians’ rival in that area and its next target, Egypt. This helped make it possible for Cyrus’s successor to conquer Egypt.

Quiz #6

1. In Clouds, the character “Socrates” enters for the first time

a. through a golden door

b. lowered in a gondola or basket(true)

c. covered in tomato sauce

d. as a ghost, because he’s already dead

“Socrates” appears descending from above in a basket, much like gods at the end of a tragedy descending to dispense wisdom and justice (“deus ex machina”), only “Socrates” talks not about the wisdom of the gods but the “natural functions” and physical processes of the temporal heavens. His scruffy appearance presents him as a false god. He also starts out with his head literally in the clouds.

2. At the start of the Archaic period, population growth and limited resources meant “extra mouths to feed.” The Greeks addressed this problem in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

a. Creating colonies that expanded their population and economy to new locations

b. Expanding their territory through the use of their military

c. Periodic massacres of the population(not true)

d. Growing their trading economy, both imports (to feed the growing population) and exports (to strengthen their trading power)

At the start of the Archaic period, population growth and limited resources meant “extra mouths to feed.” The Greeks addressed this problem in several ways. They expanded their territory through the use of their military. They created colonies that expanded their population and economy to new locations. Their trading economy increased, increasing both imports (to feed the growing population) and exports (to strengthen their trading power).

3. A hoplite army consisted of

a. A mass of citizens fighting as equals, arrayed in ranks with their shields overlapping(true)

b. Important heroes fighting in single combat

c. Hired mercenaries from barbarian lands

d. Demons lured from across the River Styx

The hoplite army was a city’s citizen body—everyone who could afford the round shield, spear, and basic armor—defending the city’s property and people by creating a phalanx, or long unified row of soldiers with overlapping shields, several men deep. The hoplite army was extremely effective, uniting the power and force of the entire army by striking the enemy with one massive blow.

It’s a change because past military tactics had emphasized the role of the aristocracy, dwelling on single combat by hero types and so empowering the few over the many. The hoplite army is unified and anonymous; everyone acts together and as one, and any individual heroism actually destroys its effectiveness. It represents a social shift in power from the few to the many.

4. Among the Greeks, a tyrant was

a. a rich man who was stingy with his money

b. the commander of a Greek naval vessel

c. a governing body made up of the rich families

d. an illegal ruler sponsored by groups disadvantaged by the aristocrats(true)

Among the Greeks, a tyrant was someone who usurped power on behalf of the people during times when they are being repressed by the nobles. Tyrants often enact populist reforms, but the nature of their rule—on behalf of the people, but hostile to the nobles—is inherently divisive and naturally leads to new turmoil between the classes.

5. Homer’s works were important to the Greeks because they

a. were the basis for the Greeks’ understanding of the gods and their relationship with mortals

b. served as the basis for Greek education

c. taught morality by contrasting the greedy and prideful Bronze Age Greeks with the honorable example of the Trojans

d. all of the above(true)

Homer’s works told the story of the Bronze Age past and the failure of the Mycenaean civilization. It contrasted the venal, prideful, and selfish Mycenaean Greeks (like Agamemnon and Achilles) with the noble, honorable, and civic-minded Trojans (like Hector and Priam). In the Archaic period and forever afterward, Homer’s works served as the basis for Greek education. The Greeks (and those seeking to learn their tongue) learned their language and cultural values from the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Most of all, Homer’s works were the basis for the Greeks’ understanding of the gods and their relationship with mortals. From Homer the Greeks learned that the gods’ primary role was to respond to the destructive selfishness of mortals—ambition, greed, hubris, and arrogance—with punishment and destruction, not only for the offenders but for their families and even whole communities.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. In Clouds, why does the main character, Strepsiades, go to the Thinkery? What’s his end goal?

Strepsiades is upset because of the horse-racing debt accumulated by his playboy son, Pheidippides. He decides to send him to the Thinkery, so he can learn how to argue away his debts.

Quiz #7

1. In Sparta, the helots were

a. protective armor worn over the shin

b. hereditary slaves of the Spartan state(true)

c. elected officials in charge of the blacksmiths

d. a form of gastrointestinal disruption

The helots were state-owned serfs. In origin they were the conquered peoples of Laconia and neighboring Messenia, subdued early in Sparta’s history and permanent “prisoners of war.” Each helot family farm provided a fixed amount of food year-round for a Spartan warrior, freeing the Spartans from the distractions of managing land, laborers, and produce. The helot families retained for their own use anything beyond what was levied, which is why they are at least nominally considered serfs and not slaves.

The Spartan system was heavily dependent on the helots. Because they greatly outnumbered the Spartan citizenry, which was restricted to the warrior elite (the homoioi), the Spartans were constantly alert to the dangers of uprising among the helots and feared marching their armies too far from home. To reinforce their status as prisoners of war, young Spartans were required to literally hunt helots as part of their training. Helots were also paraded before the young warriors drunk and humiliated to train them to think of helots as an inferior class.

2. The Athenian lawgiver Solon was able to take power and enact sweeping reforms because he was trusted by “both sides.” Which sides was he talking about?

a. Sparta and Athens

b. rich and poor(true)

c. Greece and Persia

d. mortal and divine

Solon had the trust of both aristocrats and the commoners and so was able to enact reforms that benefitted Athens as a whole. He weakened the power of local and family influence by making participation in Athenian politics dependent on wealth, not blood, creating new classes that cut across local and family loyalties in order to strengthen Athenian unity and the prosperity that would come from a stronger and more vibrant unified economy. He strengthened Athenian agricultural production and relieved the debt slavery crisis that was crippling the poor peasantry. He fought not for the poor against the rich (as with the tyrants), or vice versa, but for a stronger Athens.

3. Sparta was known for all of the following EXCEPT:

a. Military training of all boys from age 7 onward

b. Fearless women who were trained as athletes

c. An expectation that men remain fit and ready to fight through age 60

d. Accumulation of great wealth through trade (not true)

Sparta was a poor city that focused all its efforts on war, not trade. All boys who survived the weeding out of the unfit as infants were removed to the barracks at age 7 to undergo a collective education by the state designed to train each succeeding generation in the all-importance of training to become invincible warriors. The education was built entirely around building the endurance and training necessary to live and fight as idealized hoplite warriors in harsh and unforgiving conditions. The shared experience, in small bands and larger groups that shared a mess and quarters, fostered loyalty, solidarity, and cooperativeness, but did not educate boys in arts, science, or anything else besides the skills necessary to become a Spartan warrior.

4. Powerful groups in democratic Athens included all of the following EXCEPT:

a. The well-born aristocrats on the fertile plain (eupatridai)

b. The artisans and merchants on the coast (demiourgoi)

c. The two kings and their royal families (basilei)(not true)

d. The minor landholding farmers on the hillsides (agroikoi)

Athens had no kings. Its social structure was made up of many groups with competing interests.

5. In Clouds, the character “Socrates” argues that the god Zeus is

a. actually the god of rhetoric

b. not real(true)

c. the only god

d. his brother

“Socrates” venerates natural phenomena and human cleverness; as such he denigrates the gods. He says there’s no such being as Zeus, since the things he’s given credit for, such as rain and thunder, are the work of the Clouds.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What do you think might be some potential disadvantages of radical democracy, as practiced in Athens?

One problem noted by those who favored the aristocracy is that the poorer classes were not educated (education was only available to the wealthy in the ancient world).

More generally, dangers faced by pure democracy include demagoguery (unscrupulous people gaining votes by telling people what they want to hear); division into faction, making consensus difficult to achieve; and tyranny of the majority, where interests of smaller groups of voters are locked out by the needs and wants of the majority.

Quiz #8

1. Pericles’s strategy for dealing with the Spartan threat to Athens was to

a. march out and fearlessly fight the Spartan army

b. evacuate the farmlands and bring everyone within the city walls(true)

c. sail to Sparta and attack the city

d. surrender and hope for the best

Pericles knew that the Athenian army could not defeat Sparta in pitched battle. He also knew the Spartans would not stay in Attica long enough to mount a long siege of the city, especially as Athens could be easily supplied by sea thanks to the Long Walls. Thus he ordered the farmers to hole up inside the walls of Athens with the urban population.

2. People who taught the skill of arguing a question from any or all positions, as part of the art of rhetoric, in classical Athens were called

a. sapiens

b. solons

c. socialites

d. sophists(true)

Sophists taught the skill of arguing a question from any or all positions, as part of the art of rhetoric, in fifth-century Athens. Democracy in Athens created a market for this service, since effectively persuading other voters to your point of view was a valuable ability in a society where ordinary votes mattered. Critics charged that sophists taught the ability to argue a position regardless of truth or morality.

Unlike sophists, who taught a skill, philosophers as a group sought the spread and increase of knowledge and understanding, whether of the physical world or of human behavior. They tended to question received wisdom and superstition in order to develop more rational explanations. Those who taught philosophy, generally, were interested in teaching their students how to question things in order to discover truth; sophists, by contrast, taught their students how to give the most convincing answer regardless of its truth or value.

3. Sparta’s victory over Athens was made possible by all of the following EXCEPT:

a. Sparta’s deal with India for naval assistance(not true)

b. The devastating effects of plague in Athens

c. The crippling losses from Athens’s expedition to Syracuse

d. The defection of an Athenian general, Alcibiades, to Sparta after accusations of religious desecration

It was Sparta’s deal with Persia, in exchange for Persian control over Greek Anatolia, that allowed the Spartans to end the war in a naval victory at Aegospotomi.

The massive loss of life due to plague meant that Athens was much weaker in terms of its agricultural and industrial labor force, so there was a huge impact on its economy. It was also weakened militarily, losing a great deal of manpower both for army and navy. Finally, the Plague removed the one leader most of Athens had faith in, Pericles; though he was under a cloud at the time due to accusations of corruption, his loss was like a blow. The overextension of their strength and resources by extending the war to Sicily ended in a huge catastrophe that permanently weakened Athens’s ability to fight off Sparta.

Another, more minor factor is the unexpected ability of a laconic Spartan general, Brasidas, winning over Athenian allies to Sparta, leveraging their disaffection and overcoming their feat of Athens.

4. The aftermath of the Peloponnesian War included

a. Athens and its empire rising stronger than ever

b. the Persians reoccupying Greek lands in Ionia(true)

c. decades of peace allowing the Greeks to recover

d. the philosopher Socrates being hailed as a hero of Athenian cultural achievement

As part of their alliance with Sparta toward the end of the war, Persia began to reoccupy the Greek lands in Anatolia, including Ionia and Caria. These were lands that Athens and its allies, the Delian League, had liberated from Persia in the years following the Persian wars.

The war devastated the economies, cultures, and populations of Athens, Sparta, and other Greek cities, while not solving the question of hegemony—leading to more wars in the following decades.

Socrates was tried for irreligion and corruption of the youth and executed not long after the war.

5. Famous tragic or comic plays from classical Athens include all of the following EXCEPT:

a. Lysistrata by Aristophanes, about the women of Greece denying their husbands sex until they stop the war

b. The Oresteia by Aeschylos, about Orestes seeking revenge for the murder of Agamemnon by his wife

c. Medea by Euripides, about a sorceress who gets even with her cheating husband, Jason, by killing her children

d. Helaiai by Thucydides, about the murder of fellow historian Herodotus by a vengeful scribe(not true)

Thucydides was an historian, not a playwright.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. In your opinion, why did Sparta and Athens really go to war?

Sparta and Athens had incompatible visions of the Greek ideal. Sparta saw all its citizens as peers, equally accomplished and capable, with none standing ahead of the others; the prototype of this was the hoplite warrior, and Sparta bred itself into a society of hoplites to pursue this ideal. Athens, on the other hand, saw individual accomplishment as more beneficial. Each excelled as best he could, and society was made up of all kinds, with different classes a natural outcome, and greater status according to wealth and property a given.

There was also an ethnic/dialectical difference: the more conservative Dorians, which included the Spartans, did not see themselves as having exactly the same heritage or goals as the more liberal Ionians, which included the Athenians and their eastward allies around the Aegean.

Most of all, Sparta embraced a society governed by the few, with the masses completely without a voice (only the warrior elite were citizens of Sparta). Athens embraced a society of the many, instituting radical democracy in order to give voice to a wide and diverse population. These visions of society simply could not be reconciled.

Quiz #9

1. The Conflict of the Orders was a struggle for power involving

a. plebeians against patricians(true)

b. Romans against Greeks

c. soldiers against sailors

d. Romulus against Remus

Early on in the Republic, the patricians kept control of government and the law. The plebeians had no officials to look out for their interests. They did not know what the laws were, and did not know how to prosecute their cases. They were largely locked out the magistracies, the senate, and the priesthoods. The patricians held rigidly to the idea that imperium—the right to command citizens—belonged only to patrician families, because the gods only trusted patricians.

The plebs had two major advantages. First, Rome could not fight wars without them. On several occasions they “seceded”—refusing to submit to the levy by which the armies were created, leaving Rome unable to fight its attackers. Second, the plebs had strength in numbers. They created laws for themselves and elected their own officials called tribunes, and because the plebs made up such a large portion of the citizen body these laws (called plebiscites) and officials had a major impact on Rome. Eventually, the Conflict of the Orders ended in 287 when a law was passed making plebiscites binding on all Romans.

2. Consuls were different from Roman kings in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

a. consuls served only for a year, kings for life

b. there were always two consuls; kings ruled alone

c. kings ran the state religion; consuls did not

d. consuls were elected, while Roman kings were chosen by right of combat(not true)

Roman kings ruled alone and for life, and controlled the state religion. When the monarchy was abolished, the king’s political and priestly functions were separated. The king’s priestly functions went to a special priest called the rex sacrorum, and control over the priesthoods was held by the pontifex maximus.

The political authority of the king was given to the consuls. However, the place of one king there were two consuls (collegiality), with each consul being able to stop the other if he acted recklessly or ambitiously. In addition, the consuls served only one year, and generally could not be reelected.

The collective effect was the share the king’s authority across the property-holding families and to prevent the concentration of power or influence in a single man or family.

3. In Rome, calling someone a “new man” meant that they

a. had just completed the rite of passage into adulthood at age 14

b. had no ancestors who were consuls, and so their family was new to the nobility(true)

c. had recently joined the legion and become a soldier

d. had metaphorically been born yesterday (i.e., that they were an idiot)

A “new man” was someone with no ancestors who had been consuls. Since the Romans determined “nobility” by whether someone had such an ancestor, a “new man” was someone who did not come from a noble family. A “new man” becoming consul was rare, but it did happen with outstanding individuals. (Two examples from the Late Republic are Gaius Marius and Marcus Cicero.)

4. All of the following were assemblies of the Roman Republic EXCEPT:

a. the centuriate assembly, which met just outside the walls of Rome and was organized by centuries (military companies ranked by economic class)

b. the tribal assembly, which met in the Forum and was organized by tribes (geographic regions)

c. the social assembly, which met on the pnyx and was organized by socii (color of ancestral footwear)(not true)

d. the curiate assembly, which conferred imperium and was organized by curiae (originally, ethnic divisions)

Assemblies of the Roman Republic included the centuriate assembly; the tribal assembly; and the curiate assembly.

5. According to patriotic legend, the Romans kicked out their kings and established a Republic after

a. a queen slapped a peasant

b. a senator killed a priest

c. a prince raped a noblewoman(true)

d. a general slew a god

According to legend, the son of the tyrannical seventh king, Tarquin Superbus, raped the most virtuous woman in Rome, Lucretia. This sparked an uprising among the nobility, who ended the monarchy and declared a Republic.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What was the significance of the Twelve Tables?

The Twelve Tables were twelve sets of laws that made rights, restrictions, and punishments public and available to all citizens. It’s the foundation of Roman law and the heart of the traditional customs (mos maiorum). Also, an incident associated with the board of ten (decemviri) charged with drafting these laws reaffirmed the Republic’s horror of personal ambition.