Hellenic History Flashcards
Which of Solon’s classes, according to its name, could afford to yoke oxen together?
zeugitai
Those who inhabited Bronze Age Crete are known as the…
Minoans
The years c. 1100-800 are known as the…
Dark Ages
Near what island in the Saronic Gulf did Themistocles trap the larger, less maneuverable Persian fleet in 480?
Salamis
Which of these events sparked the conflict between Greece and Persia?
Ionian Revolt
Which of these was the site of a Minoan palace?
Phaistos
Thucydides was a historian best known for his. . .
history of the Peloponnesian War
Where in 479 did a Greek marine force defeat the Persians?
Mycale
Which nearby city was in charge of managing the Olympic Games?
Elis
The “Golden Age” of Athens refers to the period of time when which man exercised power?
Pericles
Where did Pausanias and an allied Greek force defeat the Persians in 479?
Plataea
Ptolemy was a general who served under…
Alexander
What capital of Lydia did Athens help burn down?
Sardis
Who assigned the member states of the Delian League their dues?
Aristides
What was the first colony?
Cumae
What term do archaeologists use to refer to mainland Bronze Age Greece?
Helladic
Who ambushed the Athenians at Aegospotami, effectively ending the Peloponnesian War?
Lysander
Which battle in 422 claimed a leader from both Sparta and Athens?
Amphipolis
Where did Alexander command the left wing against the Thebans?
Chaeronea
Mycenaean artwork heavily features which of these subjects?
warfare
In what year did the Athenians win at Arginusae but fail to save sailors and their bodies?
406
The “Hot Gates” where the Persians met a small resistance led by Leonidas are known as…
Thermopylae
In what year was the Delian League created?
478
Bucephalus was Alexander’s…
horse
To which city-state do all of the following relate: crypteia, perioiki, Taras, and Great Rhetra?
Sparta
After the death of Alexander, who claimed Syria?
Seleucus
Callicrates, Ictinus, and Phidias were all artists under the employ of which politician?
Pericles
Which of the following groups would likely have the oldest average member?
Gerousia
Where did the Spartans obtain their helots?
Messenia
Black Cleitus became famous by saving which more famous man in battle?
Alexander
The labyrinth of Knossos draws its name from the labrys, or…
doubleheaded axe
The Treasury of Atreus is a bit of a misnomer, as it actually served as a(n)…
tholos tomb
The Pnyx was the gathering place of the Athenian…
Ekklesia
In which of the following poleis did women generally enjoy the most freedom?
Sparta
The polemarch was the archon who…
ran military matters
At which of these sites did Heinrich Schliemann dig?
Tiryns
Which Greek lady from Halicarnassus sailed with Xerxes against Greece?
Artemisia
On what writing surface did ancient Greeks cast their votes?
shards of pottery
Where did Alexander first meet the Persians in battle?
Granicus River
After being admonished for drunkenly mocking the Eleusinian Mysteries before non-initiates, which wild
Athenian might have replied, “Turn down for what?!”
Alcibiades
. Of these, the only battle which could in any way be called a Spartan victory was the Battle of. .
300 Champions
The Battle of Himera was fought by Greeks in Sicily against…
Carthage
Who was the leader of the Thirty Tyrants?
Critias
Where did the Persian invasion of 492 wreck and fail?
Mt. Athos
Who fell victim to the tyrannicides in 514?
Hipparchus
Who, implicated in the Persian-loving scandal surrounding Pausanias, was ostracized c. 471?
Themistocles
Which city was the metropolis of Epidamnos?
Corcyra
Which of these did Xenophon hear being shouted at the end of the Greek mercenaries’ expedition out of
Persia?
thalassa, thalassa!
The Athenian Boule under the reforms of Solon consisted of how many men?
400
Who, despite originally opposing the Sicilian Expedition, ended up in sole charge of it?
Nicias
What is the term meaning, “submission to Persian power by sending earth and water?”
medismos
Which of these was left intact after Alexander strolled through?
Pindar’s house
Suppose Pheidippides, during his running in 490, wanted to visit more poleis than just Sparta. Which of
these would he (after learning to run over water) have found a bit crispy and desolate?
Eretria
Which of these best describes the leitourgia (liturgy)?
sponsoring of ships or plays by the rich
Where did Cyrus the Younger win a battle, but lose his life, in 401?
Cunaxa
Give the years of the battles Issus, Tyre, Gaugamela, Hydaspes
333, 332, 331, 326
The 432 siege of what Corinthian colony in the Chalcidice caused much ire towards Athens?
Potidaea
Which Athenian engineered the attack on Pylos and the capture of 121 Spartans at Sphacteria?
Demosthenes
Mt. Laurion was famous for being…
the location of a silver mine
Whose attempt to become tyrant at Athens ended with his supporters being stoned to death by Megacles,
leading to the stain on the Alcmaeonid family?
Cylon’s
Where was Alexander proclaimed the descendant of Zeus Ammon?
Sogdian Rock
Who was the daughter of Darius III and wife of Alexander?
Stateira
Who stopped a rebellion by his brother Cyrus the Younger and Cyrus’s Greek mercenaries?
Artaxerxes II
Who survived the ambush at Aegospotami and went on to help the Persians against Sparta?
Conon
Who led the victorious force at the Battle of Leuctra?
Epaminondas
During a conflict with Selinus in 426, which polis did Segesta call on for help?
Athens
Athenian jurors were known as…
dikastai
Where in 410 did the Athenians completely crush a Spartan fleet?
Cyzicus
At which river did Cimon defeat the Persians, convincing them not to try to expand westward?
Eurymedon
Name three Doric colonies
Rhodes, Sparta, Corinth
T or F
the hoplite phalanx warfare developed in a war between Sparta and Argos
F
Name three students of Socrates
Xenophon, Alcibiades, Critias
T or F
Callimachus had a peace named after him
F
Name three Theban men that are vaguely important probably
Pelopidas, Pagondas, Epaminondas
Where in 394 did the Persians completely crush Sparta’s hopes for a naval empire?
Cnidos
Where was Thrasybulus stationed when oligarchs overthrew the Athenian democracy in 411?
Samos
An Athenian decree in 432 closed all the empire’s ports to ships from…
Megara
During the Peloponnesian War, the concept of “might makes right” was displayed through Athens’s harsh
treatment of the neutral inhabitants of…
Melos
. The tyrant Hippias eventually found himself besieged on the Acropolis by what foreigner?
Cleomenes
Whose innovative use of peltasts defeated the traditional Spartan hoplites during the Corinthian War?
Iphicrates
Athens decided to execute all the men and enslave all the other inhabitants of what city…before debating
the matter and rescinding the order just in time?
Mytilene
Which Spartan commander devised his own plot to take Piraeus at night by surprise, but arrived after dawn
and thus caused the Athenians to ally with Thebes against Sparta?
Sphodrias
After he burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus seeking fame, the authorities forbade his name to
be mentioned, yet they could not stamp out the infamous name of…
Herostratus
Peisistratus of…
Athens
Cleisthenes of…
Sicyon
Periander of…
Corinth
Polycrates of…
Samos
Jason of…
Pherae
Father of Democracy
Cleisthenes
Father of Xerxes
Darius I
Father of Cimon
Miltiades
Father of Periander
Cypselus
Father of History
Herodotus
The year 399 saw the death of…
Socrates
Who, c. 470, starved in a temple of Athena before being dragged out to die by his captors, lest his death
pollute the temple?
Pausanias
Who assassinated Philip II at his daughter’s wedding in 336?
Pausanias
Which of Alexander’s generals was put to death because his son, suspected of treason, was also being put to
death?
Parmenion
At what battle did Pelopidas fall to the bodyguards of his opponent, one Alexander?
Cynoscephalae
Which mentor of Pericles limited the power of the Areopagus, later being assassinated for his efforts?
Ephialtes
Who might have written, “You see, what had happened was…” to start the first book of history, which
covered the Persian Wars?
Herodotus
Who, when facing the might of Persia with his 300 bodyguards, might have said, “One does not simply walk
into Greece,” only to be defeated at Thermopylae?
Leonidas
Knossos was the nexus of what Bronze Age island civilization?
Minoan
In the straits off of which island did the allied Greek fleet crush the Persians in 480?
Salamis
Where did Pausanias command the Greeks against the invading Persians in 479?
Plataea
What event signaled the transition from Delian League to Athenian Empire?
moving the League treasury to Athens
After what decisive battle near Arbela did Alexander essentially become King of Persia?
Gaugamela
Which Achaemenid was the opponent of Alexander?
Darius III
Miltiades, despite not serving as the polemarch, is famous for his contribution to which battle?
Marathon
Alexander’s last great victory, after which Bucephalus died, took place in 326 at what river?
Hydaspes
In which popular assembly at Athens could all males of age participate after military service?
ecclesia
Whose schemes to become tyrant at Athens included dressing a large woman up as Athena?
Peisistratus
Which poet/archon instituted several political, social, and economic reforms in 594?
Solon
Put the eras in chronological order:
Bronze Age, Dark Ages, Archaic Age, Classical, Hellenistic
Traditionally, why does the year 776 mark the beginning of Hellenic history for us?
it marks the beginning of the first Olympiad, by which the Greeks kept track of time.
Which of the following would one be most likely to see in Minoan art?
bull-leaping
Which of the following sites did Heinrich Schliemann NOT excavate?
A. Mycenae B. Tiryns C. Pylos D. Troy
C. Pylos
Under whose harsh laws might an apple thief have said, “Well, that escalated quickly,” just before being
executed for his crimes?
Draco’s
Bronze Age palaces followed what general floor plan?
megaron
What ambush by the Spartans in 405 effectively ended the Peloponnesian War?
Aegospotami
Which of the following poleis medized?
Thebes
Which son of Miltiades inherited his father’s debt but won a battle at Eurymedon River?
Cimon
Who correctly interpreted the Delphic oracle to “put your faith in wooden walls”?
Themistocles
Under the rule of Peisistratus, Thespis became the first great…
actor
Which of the following is NOT true about the practice of ostracism?
A. the ostracized person was exiled for 10 years
B. the ostracized person retained his property
C. the ostracized person’s family accompanied him in exile
D. the process required a minimum of 6,000 votes
C. the ostracized person’s family accompanied him in exile
Cleisthenes expanded the Boule from 400 men to…
500
Name the four Panhellenic Games
Pythian
Isthmian
Nemean
Olympic
Which group is traditionally thought to have migrated south into Greece, ending Mycenaean dominance and
settling in the Peloponnesus?
Dorians
Thera is an island famous for what event from the Bronze Age?
the volcanic eruption that helped ruin Minoan civilization
Which of these Bronze Age scripts has been deciphered?
Linear B
Who, after fleeing from Athens in fear of prosecution for a night of particularly hard partying, and after
going to Sparta and seducing the king’s wife, and after advising the Persian satrap Tissaphernes, might
have further shamed the Alcmaeonid name by shouting, “YOLO!” upon his return to Athenian
command?
Alcibiades
Which of these would one NOT find in the ruins of Mycenae?
A. Cyclopean masonry B. The Kerameikos C. The Lion Gate D. The Treasury of Atreus
B. The Kerameikos
What civilization, in addition to the Greeks, colonized much of the Mediterranean?
Phoenicians
Select the choice with the following reformed social classes in order from lowest to highest:
thetes, zeugitai, hippeis, pentakosiomedimnoi
Which sons of Peisistratus co-ruled as tyrants until one met his end at the hands of the tyrannicides at the
Panathenaic Festival of 514?
Hippias & Hipparchus
The Battle of Lade Island took place during which conflict?
Ionian Revolt
Which of the battles of 479 featured a Greek force landing in Ionia?
Mycale
Which of these women was NOT involved in Xerxes’s life?
A. Atossa B. Artemisia C. Amestris D. Aspasia
D. Aspasia
Which Corinthian colony did Athens support against Corinth and Epidamnus?
Corcyra
The Great Rhetra was a Delphic decree used by which reformer?
Lycurgus
Which of the Athenian archon positions was the “king” archon in charge of religious rites?
Basileus
Alexander was devastated by which lifelong friend’s death in 324?
Hephaestion
Which of the Diadochi wisely claimed Egypt after Alexander’s death?
Ptolemy
The treaty ending (open) hostilities between the Delian League & Persia was known as the…
Peace of Callias
Which of the following best describes a Greek tyrant?
a politician who came to power through unconstitutional means
To whom was Olympias of Epirus married?
Philip II
Which Theban general’s innovative leadership on the battlefield led to the period known as Theban
Hegemony?
Epaminondas
Xenophon’s account of the March of the Ten Thousand is found in his history, the…
Anabasis
What Thracian colony of Athens was the focus of much back-and-forth fighting in 424-422?
Amphipolis
Where in 406 did the Athenians win a naval victory but fail to rescue their survivors in a storm afterwards?
Arginusae
On what island did the Athenians trap and force the surrender of 121 Spartans?
Sphacteria
The siege of which northern colony was a direct catalyst for the Peloponnesian War?
Potidaea
After the Greeks drove out the Persians, which Spartan commander was embroiled in a scandal for
becoming too friendly with Persia?
Pausanias
Which of the following, in accordance with his reputation as a just man, once helped another man by voting
to ostracize himself?
Aristides
Which naval engagement coincided with Thermopylae and meant to delay the Persian navy?
Artemisium
The Spartan king Cleombrotus was killed in 371 at the Battle of…
Mantinea
Where in 401 did Cyrus the Younger’s rebellion against his brother come to a head?
Cunaxa
In what year was Socrates forced to drink hemlock?
399
In his Funeral Oration, what does Pericles call Athens?
the School of Hellas
Pericles’s Funeral Oration is a part of a larger work by which author?
Thucydides
Who, after arriving in Athens, might have said, “I don’t always run to and from Sparta seeking help, and
then run another 26 miles from the battle site to announce our victory, thus starting an athletic
competition, but when I do, I die right afterwards,” just before dying?
Pheidippides
Which art technique, using water and plaster, was widely used by the Minoans?
fresco
Which Ionian city was said by Pliny the Elder to have founded 80-90 colonies?
Miletus
What was the term for the unification of Attica under Athenian rule?
synoikismos
Which Olympic champion attempted to make himself tyrant at Athens?
Cylon
Who led the Ionian Revolt against Persia?
Aristagoras
During his trip to Egypt, Alexander was proclaimed a son of what Egyptian form of Zeus?
Ammon
How did Darius III meet his end?
he was killed by the satrap Bessus
Where did Alexander prove himself the future king of Asia by cutting through a knot that could not be
untied?
Gordium
Which Spartan general died at the Battle of Amphipolis?
Brasidas
The Peace of Nicias was rather tenuous, and thus in 418 the Spartans defeated Athens where?
Mantinea
Which Spartan commander was sent to relieve Syracuse during Athens’s “Sicilian Expedition”?
Gylippus
After which battle did the Athenians have to hurry, on foot, to beat the Persians, in boats, back to Athens?
Marathon
What part of a Spartan youth’s training, often fancied as a “secret police” force, included keeping tabs on
and even killing helots?
crypteia
Where in Egypt did the Greeks establish a trading post or emporion?
Naucratis
Taras was a colony composed originally of…
the illegitimate sons of Spartan women
Which of the following is NOT a Minoan palace site?
A. Gortyna B. Mallia C. Phaistos D. Zakro
A. Gortyna
For what personal reasons were the tyrant sons of Peisistratus targeted by the tyrannicides?
one of the tyrants had shamed the sister of one of the tyrannicides
In which of these was the Persian Mardonius NOT involved?
A. the 492 expedition which ended in shipwreck at Mt. Athos
B. the island-hopping campaign which defeated Naxos and Eretria in 490
C. the Battle of Plataea in 479
D. he was involved in all of the above
B. the island-hopping campaign which defeated Naxos and Eretria in 490
Who restored democracy in Athens twice, both in 411 after the oligarchic coup and in 404 against the Thirty
Tyrants?
Thrasybulus
What conflict between Phocis and the Amphictyonic League gave Philip II an opening to become king of
Thessaly, expanding his realm farther south?
Third Sacred War
How old was Alexander when he died in Babylon?
32
Which Bactrian princess was Alexander’s first wife?
Roxana
For roughly how many years did the Thirty Years’ Peace actually last?
15
Which of the following cities was the explicit cause of Athens’s expedition to Sicily in 415?
Segesta
Which Spartan king supported Isagoras’s bid for power in Athens?
Cleomenes
Periander was tyrant at which polis?
Corinth
Pick the option that puts the following styles of pottery in chronological order:
Geometric, Orientalizing, Black Figure, Red Figure, White Ground
During which conflict is the phalanx often thought to have originated?
Lelantine War
Which two poleis participated in the Battle of the 300 Champions?
Argos & Sparta
Thales was a philosopher known for what feat?
predicting the eclipse of 585
What moderate oligarch clashed with his more extreme colleagues after the coup of 411 and also as one of
the Thirty Tyrants, getting himself executed without trial for his views?
Theramenes
Battles at Naupactus, Mytilene, Olpae, and Delium were all part of what conflict?
Archidamian War
Cimon died during Athens’s campaign to subdue which island?
Cyprus
The Tunnel of Eupalinos on Samos was built under the rule of which tyrant?
Polycrates
A rivalry between which two colonies represented a debate between health and wealth?
Croton & Sybaris
Which poet wrote a memorial epigram for the war dead at Marathon?
Simonides
How did Pericles the Younger meet his end?
he was executed with other generals for their failure to rescue sailors
What Athenian won incredibly tough battles at Naupactus, making him a contender for the first great
admiral?
Phormio
Who, when trying to convince Nicias to flee the disastrous expedition to Sicily, might have said, “Ain’t
nobody got time for that,” referring to an ominous lunar eclipse?
Demosthenes
What team?
WILDCATS! GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!
