HISTORY MIDTERM 1

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

Following the collapse of the Hittite kingdom in Anatolia (1000 B.C.E.), which new regional power arose to fill the power vacuum?

The Neo-Assyrian Empire

Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata (411 B.C.E.) portrayed women seizing the initiative and acting aggressively against men in order to...

end the Peloponnesian War and restore ordinary life

Greek tragedies played a significant role in Greek society by...

illustrating conflicts and moral dilemmas that pertained to the society of citizens in a citystate

The majority of Athens's population consisted of...

individuals who lacked political rights

Why did Rome's most prominent men seek the post of pontifex maximus ("greatest bridgebuilder")?

it bestowed increased political power, since the officeholder was the head of state religion

The term Diaspora describes the experience of those Jews who...

lived outside the Jewish homeland but still followed Jewish law

During the Roman republic, the political career of a patrician typically consisted of...

military service and election to, in succession, the offices of quaestor, aedile, praetor, and consul

Jewish prophets came to believe that the hardships their people had endured were Yahweh's punishment for...

neglecting their covenant with Yahweh and mistreating their poor

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

To consolidate its power on the Italian peninsula, republican Rome often required conquered neighboring peoples to...

provide military aid in times of war

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

Historians refer to the period from around 500 to around 400 B.C.E. as the Golden Age of Greece because during this period...

the Greeks put forward innovations in architecture, sculpture, drama, and philosophy

How did ordinary male citizens contribute to the development of Athenian radical democracy?

They pressed for judicial reform and equal treatment under the law

Who were the Sophists?

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

What did Roman morality primarily emphasize?

Virtue, faithfulness, and respect

Socrates was the first philosopher in ancient Greece to...

make ethics and morality the main focus of his teachings

Which of the following was one of the educational traditions of Golden Age Athens?

A mentor-protégé relationship whereby a male adolescent would learn from an older man by accompanying him in the course of his public functions, athletic exercises, and social interactions

Which of the following 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

What precipitated the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire?

A seventh-century B.C.E. rebellion and a subsequent invasion by the Medes and Chaldeans

How did Alexander's military conquests further the spread of science back home in Greece?

Alexander brought scientists with him and had information as well as plant and animal specimens sent back to his tutor, Aristotle

Who was Aristotle's most famous pupil?

Alexander the Great

Why have historians described the democracy created in mid-fifth-century Athens under Pericles as "radical"?

All citizens, regardless of wealth, enjoyed equal protection under the law because the court system was removed from elite control.

What was Plato's Academy in Athens, established around 386 B.C.E.?

An informal group of individuals who studied philosophy, mathematics, and theoretical astronomy

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

Animal species

How did Zoroastrianism view the world?

As an arena of war between the good Ahura Mazda and the evil Ahriman—a war in which human beings must align themselves with truth and purity to avoid falling into hell

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

The Parthenon's frieze exemplifies Athenian confidence because it portrays...

Athenians in the presence of the gods

How did Pericles make citizenship more exclusive?

By granting citizenship only to those children whose mother and father were both Athenian by birth

Which term did the Greeks use to denote astronomers?

Chaldeans

How did Golden Age comedies differ from tragedies?

Comedies were openly critical of contemporary people and policies

What Roman woman of the second century B.C.E. gained fame for having turned down a marriage offer from King Ptolemy VIII of Egypt and giving birth to two leading politicians, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus?

Cornelia

Which ruler founded the Persian Empire?

Cyrus

Which of the following Persian rulers expanded the boundaries of the empire all the way to the edge of India and Greece?

Darius I

Why do historians use the term Dark Age when speaking of the eastern Mediterranean region between 1200 and 1000 B.C.E.?

Economic conditions were poor, and historians' knowledge of the era is limited

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

What factor enabled Julius Caesar to triumph in the civil war that lasted from 49 to 45 B.C.E.?

He wielded immense popular support, and his army remained loyal even in the most difficult of times

What Greek physician was regarded as a pioneer in using clinical observation to make medical diagnoses and may have been the author of the view that the human body consists of four humors, or fluids?

Hippocrates

Patria potestas referred to the right of the father to hold formal power over which of the following?

His children and his slaves

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

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

Which of the following finally ended the struggle of the orders, a political power struggle between Rome's most aristocratic families (the patricians) and the rest of Rome's citizens (the plebeians)?

In 287 B.C.E. the plebeians won the right to draft and pass laws in their own assembly

What specific function did the Roman Senate fulfill during the years of the Roman republic?

It advised and consulted with the highest republican officials

How did Israelite law differ from the legal codes previously established in Mesopotamia?

It applied the same rules and punishments to all, without regard to social standing or rank

Which statement most accurately describes the complex Roman legal system during the republic?

It evolved in response to protracted conflicts over power

How did the office of tribune differ from most other political offices?

It was established to serve and protect the plebeian order, not all of society

During the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Chaldeans rebuilt the great temple of their chief god,

Marduk

In which of the following areas did Rome not seek to emulate Greece?

Military and political organization

What was the dominant form of political organization in the Hellenistic world?

Monarchy

What basic tenet did Plato hold fast to throughout his long career, despite the fact that his thinking continued to evolve and never constituted a unified system?

Moral values are universal and absolute, not relative

When the Greeks began writing again about 800 B.C.E., they adopted and adapted an alphabet they received from the...

Phoenicians

What did the term plebiscites originally refer to?

Resolutions passed by the Plebeian Assembly

How did the status of wealthy Roman women differ from that of most Greek women in the Classical Age?

Roman women had a slightly higher status, since they not only managed their households but also were able to play an indirect but important role in politics

Why was Socrates put on trial by his fellow citizens in 399 B.C.E.?

Socrates' accusers charged him with impiety, arguing that his philosophy denied the existence of the gods and lured the youth away from Athenian moral traditions

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

What did the Athenians do that so enraged the Persian king Darius I?

The Athenians aided the Greek Ionian city-states in their uprising against their Persian overlords

What finally led to Athenian defeat and the conclusion of the Peloponnesian War?

The Spartans enlisted the help of the Persians to build a navy that could force the Athenians to surrender

What was the most important of the Roman assemblies, in which plebeians outnumbered patricians?

The Tribal Assembly

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

The tale of the rape of Lucretia reflects which of the following?

The belief that this outrage led the morally virtuous Romans to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republican government

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

The events of the Trojan War

Why did the Peloponnesian War produce significant tensions in Athenian society?

The flood of refugees from the countryside led to overcrowding, producing social conflicts

Which of the following was one of the few aspects of the former Mycenaean civilization to survive the Dark Age in Greece?

The oral transmission of Greek cultural traditions

What institution of the early Roman republic was based on a network of relationships characterized by mutual obligations?

The patron-client system

Why were Assyrian women unlikely to rise to positions of political power?

The pursuits most admired by the Assyrian elite were warfare and hunting, which were

How were the violent deaths of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus a turning point in the history of the Roman republic?

Their deaths broke with the traditional taboo against political violence and introduced factions into Roman politics

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

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

How did Athenians traditionally justify restricting women's freedom of movement?

They insisted that women needed to be protected from seducers and rapists

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

What did the covenant established between Yahweh and the Israelites require the Israelites to do?

Worship Yahweh as their only god and live according to his laws

In his study of ethics, Aristotle argued that...

an ethical system must help people achieve self-control and overcome the passions

Freed slaves in the Roman republic could not hold elective office or serve in the army...

but their children possessed citizenship without any limitations

In the ideal society described by Plato in The Republic, women...

can serve as guardians or rulers because they have the same virtues and abilities as men

Upon conquering foreign regions, Neo-Assyrian kings...

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

The Hellenistic era inaugurated widespread social and political changes in the eastern Mediterranean world, including...

the extensive movement of the Greek language into the Near East

Why did the Roman aristocrats create a republican system of government and not a monarchy?

they had come to believe that it was necessary to share power between adult male citizens