History

Question 1

The Alphabet

Answer 1

1. Developed around 2000 BC by the Egyptians to communicate with their slaves.
2. Reduced a few thousand hieroglyphic characters representing words and ideas, to a few dozen representing sounds.
3. Diffusion throughout the world happened when slaves returned home, and with the Phoenicians.

Question 2

Hammurabi’s Code of Laws

Answer 2

1. King of Babylonia, ruled 1792-1750 BCE, was history’s first lawyer
2. First written codes of law in recorded history, spelling out rules for his citizens and punishments for lawbreakers.
3. Cruel by modern standards, including death for minor infractions, but the fact that they applied to everyone was unheard of in it’s time.

Question 3

Sparta vs Athens

Answer 3

1. a rivalry between 2 city states in ancient Greece (550-350 BCE), representing 2 different cultures.
2. Sparta’s was the culture of the hardened soldier, enduring relentless training from birth, excelled at the ground war; while Athens was culturally oriented, producing great philosophy, art and science, and excelled at naval war.
3. ended with the invasion of Phillip of Macedonia, father of Alexander. City-states were absorbed into the empire they built.

Question 4

Alexander the Great

Answer 4

1. (356-323 BCE), son of King Phillip II, from Macedonia (N.Greece), educated by the Athenian, Aristotle
2. Became king at age 20, greatly expanded his fathers territory by conquest to include Greece, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persian Empire.
3. The Greeks absorbed the culture of the conquered territories rather than destroy them, resulting in Hellenistic Period, in which a large part of the world spoke the same language, and shared a cultural background. His empire was divided among his officers and continued for hundreds of years until conquered by the Romans.

Question 5

Julius Caesar

Answer 5

1. Roman general (100-44 BCE) who conquered present-day France, Belgium, and western Germany and who resisted efforts from the Roman Senate, led by Pompey, to deflate his ascendancy.
2. Started a civil war when he marched his army across the Rubicon River (the point of no return, Jan. 49 BC) to the Capitol, then chased his enemies across Europe and ultimately to Egypt where Pompey was killed. Before leaving, he fell in love with Cleopatra, installing her as queen.
3. Returned to Rome as a dictator, but ultimately became careless, leading to his overthrow and murder on the Ides (15th) of March in 44 BC by a conspiracy including his best friend Brutus.

Question 6

Rosetta Stone

Answer 6

1. In 1799, French soldiers in Napoleon’s army found a mysterious black rock buried in the sands near Alexandria, Egypt, and dated from about 196 BC.
2. The stone was inscribed with three ancient languages: Greek, and two different versions of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
3. The French linguistic scholar Jean-Francois Champollion decoded after years of study with help by the British scholar Thomas Young. The stone was seized by the British in 1801 and now resides in the British Museum in London.