Fun History IX Trivia Quiz

Answer: Parmesse

Paramesse son of Seti was grandfather to Rameses II. He was an army officer from Lower Egypt who rose to be chief minister to Horemheb. When Horemheb died childless Parmesse became king and assumed the title Rameses I. Parmesse was the founder of the 19th dynasty (1295 B.C) but he reigned for less than two years. Upon his death his son Seti I assumed the throne.

Answer: 7

This small group of bodyguards consisted of men known and trusted by Alexander from childhood. From a very young age as pages at King Philip's court they shared the same education and were devoted to Alexander. Later, when Alexander died, the survivors would share the empire between them.

Answer: Tiglath-Pileser III

Pul or Tiglath-Pileser III (ruled 745-727 B.C.) reversed the declining fortunes ofthe Assyrian empire. In circa 740 B.C he defeated the Urartians and captured the city of Arpad after a lengthy siege. Tilgath-Pileser now developed a new strategy. Previously Assyrian kings had treated the Euphrates as a boundary for direct provincial rule. States further west were allowed nominal independence and were treated as vassals. Tilgath-Pileser III changed this.

The entire north Syrian region became a province directly ruled by Assyria as did futher Assyrian conquests in the Mediterranean area.

Answer: Cambyses

Cambyses was the elder son of Cyrus and Kassandane and was groomed for the throne from the day of his birth. In 538 B.C. he was made king of Babylon by his father. The historian Herodotus positively slates Cambyses as as drunken madman guilty of many atrocities. It is now thought that Herodotus was somewhat biased.

Answer: Athens

Pericles (c. 495-429 B.C.) was from an aristocratic family. He was a second son and grew up during the Persian crisis and witnessed the changing fortunes of such volatile times. He recognised the value of changing political and family alliances as and when the need arose.
According to Thucydides, under Pericles Athens was merely a nominal democracy ruled by its leading citizen - Pericles.

Answer: 498 B.C.

Alexander I (not Alexander the Great) was the first Macedonian king to get invloved in Greek affairs and was nicknamed 'the Philhellene'. By the time Alexander I became king the Persians had made heavy inroads into Europe and had made Thrace a province. Alexander sought the support of the Greeks at this time.

He also wanted to be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games, an event restricted to those of Greek birth.

Answer: Gaius Marius

Marius was the first 'novus homo' to make his way into the dominant ruling class of Rome. Born circa 157 B.C. he promptly did what the elite of Rome feared he would - he changed things. He converted the existing citizens' army into a full-time professional force. It is widely agreed that he broke the pattern of traditional power of the Senate and began the Era of Dynasts.

Answer: Celtic

Boudicca came from one of the very many Celtic tribes that inhabited the British Isles at that time, possibly Trinovante or Coritani. Her early life is not recorded. Personal injury and insult led to her revolt against Rome during which time she oversaw the slaughter and torture many thousands of men, women and children. Eventually she led her people to disaster.

She was finally cornered in the Midlands of England by a much smaller but professional Roman army. Although her army fought bravely (estimates say approximately 80,000 Britons died) she fled the field and escaped.

It is rumoured that she took poison.

Answer: Tsou

Ch'iu K'ung (551-479 B.C.) was born in the town of Tsou in the small feudal estate of Lu in the province now known as Shantung in north-east China. It seems that his father died when Confucius was very young but there are no early records concerning his parents.

It is known, though, that he had an elder brother and a niece and that he was married, but again there are no records that say anything at all about his wife. Confucius has been called both a reactionary and a feudal teacher, and a man of the people.

He was well educated and found time for archery and music. It is unclear precisely how he gained his education and it has been said that he never had a regular teacher. It is known that he studied religious and ancestral rituals and questioned both past and present practices.

His political career was not a success. He saw himself as a reformer and refused to compromise with those in authority in government.

Answer: Archons

The world, according to Manichaean myth, was created from the bodies of the evil rulers of darkness, the Archons. These, as the myth would have it, created the first two humans Adam and Eve using a mixture of sexual and cannibalistic performances. The religious leader Mani was the son of a Parthian prince named Patik, himself a religious man. Mani's mother was named Mariam who had dreams of her son becoming a great religious leader.

This family came from Hamadan in Iran (Persia) circa A.D. 200. Mani is said to have spent many years travelling in India, Persia, Parthia and the frontiers of the Roman Empire gaining converts.

There were many religious groups competing at this time including: Zoroastrian, Christian, Jewish, Mithraic, even Bhuddist and Hindu. Mani declared himself to be the fulfillment of all that had gone before him - Christ, Bhudda etc. Mani's activities were possible in the main because of his powerful patron Shapur.

When Shapur died in A.D. 273 Mani's luck ran out. Shapur's son Bahram had no time for Mani and had him put in chains and imprisoned. Mani died chained and broken in his cell in February 276 or 277.