Midterm

Which of Plato's beliefs established the concept of dualism?

Human beings have immortal souls that are separate and distinct from their physical bodies.

Why did the Akkadians conquer nearby territories?

To obtain wealth by acquiring valuable ore mines

Who were the Sophists?

Traveling teachers who—for a fee—taught students philosophy and rhetoric

Why were the Mesopotamians willing to believe in powerful gods whose personalities were childlike and arbitrary?

This view of the gods helped explain why unpredictable and often devastating events such as floods and wars occurred.

What was Pericles' strategy for defeating the superior Spartan army?

To avoid land battles whenever possible while attacking Sparta and its allies by sea

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) rejected Plato's metaphysics, maintaining instead that explanations of the nature of reality must be based on

observation and the exercise of common sense.

In this portrayal of Athens, the long walls significantly provided

protection for the route between the urban center and the port.

Upon his death, Alexander reputedly left his vast kingdom to

"the most powerful."

The vase pictured below emphasizing athletic prowess is from which Mediterranean civilization?

. Greece

Where and when did the first Western civilizations emerge?

Mesopotamia (4000-3000 B.C.E.), Egypt (3050 B.C.E.), and Anatolia (2000 B.C.E.)

What was the term used for foreigners who received permanent residence status in exchange for paying taxes and serving in the military?

Metics

Which of the following statements characterized the political state of the Greek world by the 350s B.C.E.?

A power vacuum in which no one city-state was capable of dominating the others

The term Helot was used to designate which of the following?

A slave in Sparta who was of Greek origin

Where was the Hellenistic world's most impressive court, in terms of scholarship, learning, and library resources?

Alexandria

The art and literature of the Hellenistic Age (323-30 B.C.E.) reveals which of the following?

An interest in human individuality, emotions, manners, and other aspects of private life

The Spartan governmental structure can best be described as which of the following?

An oligarchy, consisting of a council of twenty-eight elders; five annually elected magistrates, or ephors; and two hereditary military and religious leaders, referred to as kings but sharing a status similar to that of the other members of the oligarchy

Aristotle is renowned as the first scientist to attempt to collect and classify all available information on which of the following?

Animal species

What political view did Plato and Aristotle share?

Athenian democracy was a bad form of government because it did not restrict decision making to the most educated and moderate citizens.

Which Greek city-state is renowned for having established the first democracy ("rule by the people") based on voting rights and full political participation for all male citizens?

Athens

Which of the following is best described as an urban center exercising political and economic control over the surrounding countryside?

City-state

How did Golden Age comedies differ from tragedies?

Comedies were openly critical of contemporary people and policies.

The Greek word aretê signified "excellence," a concept that historians insist led the Greeks to do which of the following?

Compete fiercely with one another in all fields of endeavor, from the arts to politics, athletics, science, and war, for the public honor that achieving excellence bestowed

What finally convinced Sparta to send Athens an ultimatum demanding that it curtail its aggressive foreign policy?

Corinth, a Spartan ally, threatened to ally itself with Athens if Sparta did not intervene on its behalf to prevent future Athenian aggression.

Tyrants in Archaic Greece were most likely to do which of the following?

Cultivate the goodwill of the people through public works projects and other policies that favored the interests of the masses

Which ruler founded the Persian Empire?

Cyrus

Athenian radical democracy tried to balance which two competing goals?

Desire to ensure participation of as many ordinary Athenian males as possible while also ensuring that leadership positions were in the hands of elite citizens.

The procedure known as ostracism in fifth-century B.C.E. Athens served as a safeguard against which of the following?

Despotism by any individual who had become so popular that he might overthrow the democracy

Which of the following is considered to be the West's first united country?

Egypt

How did Egypt benefit from its geographic location?

Egypt's Nile River flooded annually, depositing a rich layer of topsoil ideal for growing, and the wide swaths of desert to the east and west protected Egypt against outside invasion.

Because the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded predictably every year and brought life sustaining nutrients and waters to the land, the Egyptians generally viewed their gods as kind, peaceful, and serene.

False

Which of the following best describes ancient Greece's natural resources?

Greece had a mountainous, rocky terrain that was suitable for the cultivation of olives, grapes, and barley but little else.

In what order did Alexander embark upon his conquests of the known world, from earliest to latest, according to this map?

Greece; Egypt; Mesopotamia; India

The Olympic Games were open to any socially elite

Greek man good enough to compete.

What change in Athens's democracy did Cleisthenes implement by about 500 B.C.E.?

He established a ruling council of five hundred individuals chosen annually by lottery and representing the demes in proportion to the size of their populations.

How did the fifth-century Sophist Protagoras offend many Athenians?

He insisted that absolute truth did not exist because every issue had two irreconcilable sides.

How did Alexander the Great rule the territories he conquered?

He left existing governmental units in place

What was one reason that Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 B.C.E.) was able to inspire his soldiers?

He recklessly exposed himself to danger by riding into the center of battle and fighting alongside his troops.

Why did Philip II decide to attack Persia?

He was concerned that his own soldiers were dangerous without a war to occupy them.

Which writing style is exemplified in this image?

Hieroglyphs

Where did Alexander's troops finally mutiny?

India

What simplified version of Greek became the common language for international commerce and cultural exchange in the Hellenistic world?

Koine

Why did Hellenistic science rarely produce practical results?

Leading scientists were more interested in theoretical discoveries, and the technology needed to produce practical applications did not yet exist

Who or what were the ziggurats in ancient Sumer?

Massive temples that served religious functions

The relief sculpture of the Persian king, shown below, portrays the king as larger than his subjects. This portrayal is emblematic of

Near Eastern royal art.

Which of the following is a form of social and political organization in which a small group of men dominated policymaking in an assembly of male citizens?

Oligarchy

Why did astrology suddenly become popular in the Hellenistic era?

People felt a need for religion to bridge the disconnect between the precise nature of the heavens and the chaos of earthly life.

What major development occurred in the area highlighted in green on this map in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E., and why did it do so?

Philosophy; ideas were shared in this commercial crossroads.

What was one of Pericles' most important democratic innovations?

Providing a modest salary to any officeholder selected by lottery, thus enabling even poor men to serve as public officials

Which of Alexander the Great's former generals created a dynasty that ruled over Egypt?

Ptlomey

What activity was most central in the lives of Paleolithic peoples?

Searching for food

What did initiates into Greek mystery cults generally hope to obtain?

Secret knowledge and divine protection

By the 350s B.C.E., which city-state's endless war making and collaboration with the Persians caused so much strife that the weakened Greek city-states could not fend off the Macedonians?

Sparta

What Hellenistic philosophy argued that, although fate controls people's lives, one should nonetheless cultivate excellence, good sense, justice, courage, and temperance?

Stoicism

Which of the following regions was home to the birthplace of the world's first cities?

Sumeria

In which civilization was the writing shown in the figure below employed?

Sumerian civilization

Zarathustra made a significant contribution to Western thought when he proposed which of the following?

That individuals determined their own eternal fate through the moral choices they made while on earth

Why were the Greeks able to defeat the Persian fleet in the battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.E.?

The Greeks forced the Persians to fight in a narrow strait between the island of Salamis and the coast, where their sturdier ships rammed the flimsier Persian ships.

Why do historians consider the Greek victory over the far more numerous Persians during the great Persian invasion of 480-479 B.C.E. to have been truly remarkable?

The Greeks so valued their political freedom that they joined forces to preserve it.

The development of agriculture and the domestication of animals were key elements in which of the following?

The Neolithic Revolution

In order to combat Athens's growing power in the wake of the Persian Wars, Sparta led an alliance with its neighbors called the

The Peloponnesian League

Which of the following is best described as a Spartan social class that, although free, lacked citizen rights and was generally responsible for providing skill trade of craft services?

The Perioeci

What was the Sumerians' purpose in inventing writing?

The Sumerians invented writing to do accounting.

What did the successor kings rely on in order to maintain their kingdoms?

The administrative services of local urban elites, who were rewarded for their loyalty

Why was the notion of citizenship such a radical innovation in ancient Greece?

The ancient world was otherwise characterized by monarchies and legal inequality.

In what ways is the statue shown here emblematic of Hellenic art relative to its classical predecessors?

The boxer is shown tired and battered.

What environmental change is believed to have led to a radical change in the nomadic Paleolithic way of life?

The climate in certain Near East regions became milder and wetter, resulting in increased fertility of the land.

What is recounted in Homer's epic poem The Iliad?

The events of the Trojan War

The Buddha pictured here embraces both Greek and Indian styles. From Greek sculpture, what is employed?

The flowing folds of the garment

Why did the ancient Israelites have such a powerful influence on Western civilization, when their kingdom never enjoyed the same level of political and military power as the other great empires in the Near East?

Their monotheism and sacred scripture made the Israelites a fundamental building block in the foundations of Western civilization.

What farsighted leader convinced the Athenians to invest their resources of precious metals in the navy and later led Athens during the great Persian invasion of Greece?

Themistocles

Which strategy did early Persian rulers adopt to rule over their newly conquered peoples?

They allowed local people to keep their own beliefs and customs.

How did the lives of the local populations change once Alexander expanded his empire from mainland Greece to Persia?

They changed very little; they were subject to the same administrative systems.

Why were the political forms of the Greek city-states and the Greek concept of citizenship so unprecedented and unique?

They were based on the concept of citizenship for all free inhabitants and allowed for some degree of shared governing, except in tyrannies.

Why did some Athenians criticize democracy and argue in favor of an oligarchy?

They worried that the poor, who lacked proper education and moral values, would exploit majority rule to pass laws against the wealthy.

Which of the following religions is described as having these three central concepts: "good thoughts, good words, good deeds?"

Zoroastrianism

In this portrayal of a Greek symposium, the female in the middle is likely

a hetaera

Which of the following is best described as a central marketplace in which ancient Greeks gathered to shop, socialize, and discuss politics?

agora

Most early Paleolithic societies were characterized by a form of organization in which

all men and women had a roughly equal say in making important decisions.

After the Persian Wars, a formal defensive alliance that included city-states in northern Greece, on the Aegean islands, and along the Ionian coast

became the basis for the Athenian Empire, because Athens required the other member city-states to fund warships built and manned by Athenians.

What likely caused the frequent warfare between Mesopotamian city-states?

competition over the region's limited resources

The stone shown here demonstrates the

cultural interactions between Greeks and Egyptians during the Hellenistic period.

Which of the following is best described as a way of life of a group of people - the learned behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, often without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next?

culture

Upon conquering foreign regions, neo-Assyrian kings

deported many of the conquered peoples to Assyria to work as slaves on building projects.

In his History of the Peloponnesian War, the Greek historian Thucydides broke with tradition by

describing the moral failures and miscalculations of the Greeks.

Women in Greek city-states could also be citizens, an honor that

did not, however, grant them political rights, such as the right to vote or otherwise participate in political life.

The large rectangular building at the center in the image below was used in Athens primarily as a

divinity's residence.

Greek tragedies played a significant role in Greek society by

illustrating conflicts and moral dilemmas that pertained to the society of citizens in a city-state.

The early civilizations shown in this map developed along the geographic features they did to

irrigate their agricultural fields.

As a result of Solon's reforms, council members who prepared the agenda for the assembly were chosen by

lottery.

Polytheistic societies have

many gods.

King Philip II's victory at the battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.E.)

meant that the city-states of Greece would never again conduct their foreign policy independent of each other.

Several Hellenistic philosophies agreed that people could free themselves from anxiety about the world around them by

seeking inner personal tranquility.

Important discussions about politics, philosophy, and social matters often took place at drinking parties for upper-class Greek men called

symposia.

The Parthenon's frieze exemplifies Athenian confidence because it portrays

the Athenians in the presence of the gods.

The Mediterranean polyculture that the Minoans pioneered was based on

the cultivation of olives, grapes, and grains in a single, interrelated agricultural system.

Ancient Greek religion was based on a pantheon of gods, each representing different strengths or forces, and the Greeks believed that

they had to try to please the gods through prayers, ritual offerings, and the avoidance of offensive behavior

Greek warships propelled by 170 rowers on three levels and equipped with a battering ram at the bow were known as

triremes.

Until the conquests of Philip II and Alexander, the Greeks regarded the Macedonians as

uncivilized barbarians.

Homosexual relationships between men in Sparta

usually took place between an older man and an adolescent boy as a form of social and political education.

In Greek tragedies, leading characters, usually the high and mighty, suffered a reversal of fortune because of hubris, a Greek term for

violent arrogance