Battles of Antiquity Flashcards

1
Q

Xerxes was so confident in victory that he watched which battle from a throne on the slopes of Mount Aegaleus? It was a defeat for the Persians: the Persian admiral Ariabignes was killed in hand-to-hand combat, and the Queen of Halicarnassus, Artemisia, had to sink some of her allies’ ships to escape.

A

Battle of Salamis (480 BCE)

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2
Q

One of the earliest battles in recorded history (1274 BCE), this battle was fought near the Orontes River in what is now Syria between Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite king Muwatalli II

A

Battle of Kadesh

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3
Q

What 31 BCE battle is often considered to signal the end of the Roman Republic?

A

Battle of Actium

Following his victory in the battle, Octavian titled himself Princeps, and later Augustus.

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4
Q

What 48 BCE battle was the decisive battle between Gaius Julius Caesar’s legions and the army of the republic under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (“Pompey the Great”)?

A

Battle of Pharsalus

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5
Q

Following the Battle of Cannae (216 BCE), what strategy did the the Romans adopt that eventually wore down Hannibal’s army and forced the Carthaginians to leave Italy?

A

The Fabian strategy, in which battles are avoided in favor of a war of attrition

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6
Q

Who fought the Battle of Issus (333 BCE) along the Pinarus River near what is now Iskenderun in Turkey’s Hatay province? (The battle was the subject of a 1528 painting by Albrecht Altdorfer, the leader of the Danube School.)

A

Alexander the Great and Darius III (of the Persian Empire)

(The battle ended with Darius fleeing the field and the capture of his tent and family.)

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7
Q

During which battle did Maxentius, who had usurped the throne of the western half of the Roman Empire from Constantine, drown in the Tiber river?

A

Battle of Milvian Bridge (312 CE)

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8
Q

What was the second major battle between Alexander the Great and the Persian Empire, and the first to feature Darius III?

A

Battle of Issus (333 BCE)

(It followed the Battle of Granicus.)

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9
Q

What 53 BCE battle between the Roman Republic and Parthian Empire, one of the most crushing defeats in Roman history, ended the First Triumvirate after Crassus’s death?

A

Battle of Carrhae

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10
Q

What 480 BCE Greek and Persian naval battle took place simultaneously with the more famous land battle at Thermopylae?

A

Battle of Artemisium

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11
Q

What battle was fought in 326 BCE between Alexander the Great and King Porus of the Paurava kingdom on the banks of a monsoon-swollen river in Punjab? It was the most costly battle fought by the Macedonians, though they were victorious because Alexander’s river-crossing flanked the opposing army?

A

Battle of the Hydaspes
(the Hydaspes was the Greek name for the river)

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12
Q

Who commanded Octavian’s fleet at the Battle of Actium (31 BCE), which consisted of small, nimble Liburnian ships contrasted with Antony’s fleet of massive Quinqueremes?

A

Marcus Agrippa

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13
Q

What battle stopped the Huns’ advance into Gaul? The Roman army was commanded by Flavius Aetius and included Visigoths under Theodoric I. The Hunnic army was led by Attila

A

The Battle of Chalons (or Catalaunian Fields) (451 CE)

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14
Q

Prior to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 CE), Constantine supposedly had a vision of God promising victory to his forces if he painted his shields with what Christian symbol?

A

Chi-Rho

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15
Q

What battle on the Hellespont (Dardanelles) ended the Peloponnesian War and the Athenian Empire?

A

Battle of Aegospotami (405 BCE)

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16
Q

What 338 BCE battle between Philip II of Macedon and an alliance of some of the Greek city-states led by Athens and Thebes was the culmination of Philip’s final campaigns, resulting in a decisive victory for the Macedonians?

A

Battle of Chaeronea

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17
Q

Who reluctantly engaged Julius Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BCE? The battle ended in his defeat and he fled, disguised as an ordinary citizen. (He was later assassinated in Egypt by order of Ptolemy XIII.)

A

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (“Pompey the Great”)

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18
Q

What early battle between the Egyptians and Hittites was probably the largest chariot battle in history, with over 5000 chariots engaged?

A

Battle of Kadesh

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19
Q

Who were the commanders at the Battle of Adrianople (378 CE)?

A

The Romans were led by the eastern emperor Valens, while the Goths were led by Fritigern.

(Eager for glory, Valens decided not to wait on reinforcements from the western emperor Gratian, and instead attacked the Goths. In the battle, over two-thirds of the Roman army was killed, including Valens.)

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20
Q

Who led the Persian army at the time of Xerxes I’s 480-479 BCE invasion of Greece (beginning with the Battle of Thermopylae)?

A

Mardonius

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21
Q

At what battle, fought near what is now Preveza in the Ambracian Gulf of Greece, did Octavian’s fleet defeat the combined forces of Cleopatra and Mark Antony?

A

Battle of Actium (31 BCE)

22
Q

What was the final battle in the Wars of the Second Triumvirate between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian and the leaders of Julius Caesar’s assassination, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus? (Brutus faced Octavian, while Antony’s forces fought those of Cassius.)

A

Battle of Philippi (42 BCE)

23
Q

In what battle did King Leonidas and his Spartan troops put up a heroic defense of the pass (the “hot gates”), although they were betrayed by Ephialtes, who told the Persians about a path that led behind the Spartans?

A

Thermopylae (480 BCE)

24
Q

What Athenian general devised a plan to lure the large, slow Persian ships into the narrow straits at the Battle of Salamis, where the Greek ships were able to outmaneuver and destroy much of the Persian fleet?

A

Themistocles

25
Q

Who were the commanders at the Battle of Chalons (or Catalaunian Fields) (451 CE)?

A

The Roman army was commanded by Flavius Aetius and included Visigoths under Theodoric I. The Hunnic army was led by Attila

26
Q

After a setback at the Battle of Arginusae in 406 BCE, the Spartans reinstated Lysander as the commander of their fleet, who won them what victory for Sparta? Only a fraction of the Athenian fleet survived, including the general Conon, and the ship Paralus, which brought the news of defeat to Athens.

A

Battle of Aegospotami (405 BCE) on the Hellespont

27
Q

At what battle of 52 BCE did Julius Caesar defeat the Celtic peoples of Gaul, establishing Roman rule of the lands beyond the Alps?

A

Battle of Alesia

28
Q

Who were the commanders at the Battle of Alesia (52 BCE)?

A

Julius Caesar and Vercingetorix

Commius commanded the Gaulish relief army. The Romans built a wall to surround Alesia (a “circumvallation”) and a second wall around that (a “contravallation”) to protect themselves from the Gaulish relief army.

29
Q

The Battle of Marathon (490 BCE) ended whose invasion of mainland Greece?

A

Persian King Darius I

(The defeated Persian commanders were Datis and Artaphernes.)

30
Q

What was the first battle of the second Persian invasion of Greece, under Xerxes I and his general Mardonius?

A

Thermopylae (480 BCE)

31
Q

Whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at the Battle of Heraclea in 280 BC and the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC?

A

King Pyrrhus of Epirus

(A Pyrrhic victory is thus a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.)

32
Q

What battle, a decisive victory for the Miltiades and the Athenians (the Spartans stayed name to celebrate a religious festival), ended Persian King Darius I’s invasion of mainland Greece?

A

The Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)

(Among the few Athenian dead of the battle were archon Callimachus and the general Stesilaos.)

33
Q

What 371 BCE Theban victory shattered Sparta’s immense influence over the Greek peninsula, which Sparta had gained after its victory in the Peloponnesian War?

A

Battle of Leuctra

34
Q

During which naval battle of 480 BCE were the greater Persian numbers an active hindrance in the cramped conditions of the Straits, leading to a decisive Greek victory?

A

Battle of Salamis

35
Q

Julius Caesar beseiged Alesia following what Roman defeat in the Gallic Wars?

A

Battle of Gergovia

36
Q

During which battle did an alliance of Germanic tribes ambush and destroy three Roman legions and their auxiliaries, marking the last attempt of the Romans to conquer the Germanic territories east of the Rhine river?

A

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (aka the Varian Disaster) (9 CE)

37
Q

What Punjabi ruler of the Paurava kingdom was reinstated by Alexander as one of his satraps following his defeat by Alexander at the Battle of the Hydaspes?

A

King Porus

38
Q

Whose victory at the Battle of the Great Plains in 203 BCE forced Hannibal to leave Italy and return to North Africa for the final showdown of the Second Punic War at the Battle of Zama?

A

Scipio Africanus

39
Q

What 479 BCE battle (which allegedly occurred on the same day as the Battle of Plataea) destroyed Xerxes I’s Persian navy?

A

Battle of Mycale

40
Q

What battle near what is now Edirne, Turkey signalled the beginning of the spread of Germanic peoples into the Western Roman Empire? Over two-thirds of the Roman army was killed, including the eastern emperor Valens. (Ammianus Marcellinus ended his history of the Roman Empire with the battle.)

A

Battle of Adrianople (378 CE)

41
Q

Who fought the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE), fought near the Orontes River in what is now Syria?

A

The Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite king Muwatalli II.
(Although Ramses proclaimed a great victory for himself, he was lucky to achieve a stalemate.)

42
Q

What member of the First Triumvirate and the wealthiest man in Rome led his army to one of the most crushing defeats in Roman history against the Parthian Empire in 53 BCE?

A

Crassus

43
Q

What Greek messenger ran to Athens with news of the victory at Marathon (490 BCE) but collapsed upon arrival?

A

Pheidippides

44
Q

What was the final battle of the Second Punic War, fought near Carthage in what is now Tunisia? Scipio’s strategy of opening up his lines to allow Carthaginian elephants through without harming his troops, led to a complete Roman victory. (Also, the Numidian king Masinissa switched sides, and brought his considerable cavalry force to join the Romans.)

A

Battle of Zama (202 BCE)

45
Q

Who commanded the Greek troops at the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE)?

A

The King of Sparta, King Leonidas

(The battle was part of the Athenian General Themistocles’ plan to halt the advance of the Persians.)

46
Q

Who defeated the Romans, led by the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro, at the Battle of Cannae (216 BCE)?

A

Carthaginians, led by Hannibal

47
Q

Prior to which battle did Constantine supposedly have a vision of God promising victory to his forces if he painted his shields with the Chi-Rho Christian symbol?

A

Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 CE)

48
Q

What was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece, fought in 479 BCE between the alliance of the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I? The Persian commander Mardonius was killed and a large portion of the Persian army was trapped in its camp and slaughtered.

A

Battle of Plataea

49
Q

What battle was the largest battle of the Second Punic War and one of the worst defeats in Roman history?

A

Battle of Cannae (216 BCE)

50
Q

What 331 BCE battle was the decisive battle of Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Darius III’s Persian Achaemenid Empire?

A

The Battle of Gaugamela, also called the Battle of Arbela

51
Q

The Battle of Aegospotami (405 BCE) ended which war?

A

Peloponnesian War

(which also ended the Athenian empire: following the battle, the Spartans besieged Athens and forced its surrender)