Ninth Graders' Ancient Greece: 2 Quiz

Answer: greaves

Most of what we know about what the soldiers wore comes from contemporary pictures, although one nearly complete bronze suit was found in a tomb in a place called Dendra. The suit is made of bronze plates. With it was a boars' tusk helmet, some bronze greaves (leg guards), two swords, and the remains of a wooden-framed shield. The whole find dates back to around 1400 BC.

Answer: hoplites

At the beginning of the Archaic Period, the most important part of any Greek army was the cavalry - the soldiers on horseback. Soldiers had to provide their own horses and weapons, so early armies were dominated by rich men who could afford to do this. During this era, foot soldiers tended to be fairly poor, so their weapons and equipment were poor as well. By the 7th century BC, however, there was a new elite class of foot soldiers, called hoplites, who were better equipped and better trained. Once the hoplites had grown in importance, cavalry units became smaller.

Answer: tragedy

Greek plays were divided into two distinct types: tragedies and comedies.
Tragedies were usually about heroes of Greek myths and dealt with moral choices, passions and conflict, and often had unhappy endings.
Comedies were about ordinary people, and often mocked leading politicians and personalities of the day.

Answer: bard

Before the spread of literacy, stories and information about the past were passed down by word of mouth. Professional poets, known as bards, journeyed widely throughout Greece, passing on stories of the gods and Mycenaean heroes. (The Greek word 'bardos' is derived from Celtic.

Answer: aristocracy

At the beginning of the Archaic Period, most Greek states were governed by groups of rich landowners, called aristocrats. This kind of government is known as an aristocracy.
The term derives from the Greek "aristokratia", meaning "rule of the best".

Answer: Darius I

Conflict with the Greeks first looked likely in 546BC, when the Persians succeeded in conquering the Greek states in Ionia, on the western coast of Asia Minor, in the area which is now Turkey.
At first, the Greek city-states did little to protest, until 500-499BC, when the Ionians rebelled. This time, they were backed by Athens and Eretria, who provided both men and ships. The Greeks destroyed the Persian city of Sardis, but the revolt collapsed when the Athenians and Eretrians withdrew their support.
The Persians never forgave Athens and Eretria for helping the Ionians.In 490BC, King Darius led an invasion against Eretria and crushed it.

Answer: Anaximander

For the ancient Greeks, philosophy wasn't just the study of ideas or trying to work out the meaning of life. It covered almost everything - from every branch of science to moral questions, such as how people should behave and what an ideal political system would be.
One scholar, Anaximander, concluded that much of the Earth had once been covered in water, and that people had developed from other animals - possibly fish.

Answer: Homer

Nothing is known about Homer's life, although tradition relates that he was blind. "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" were composed between 850BC and 750BC and they are the earliest surviving examples of Greek literature.

Answer: Seleucids

The ambitious leader Seleucus seized a huge part of Alexander's empire in the Middle East and Central Asia, but it was so big that his successors were never able to control it properly. Large parts soon began to break away. Wars, rebellions and disputes between the leaders of the Seleucid family all helped to weaken their hold on their dwindling empire.

Answer: Peloponnesian Wars

When Athens grew richer and more powerful, the other city-states began to feel threatened. Relations grew worse, especially between Athens and her great rival, Sparta. An atmosphere of suspicion and uneasy peace dragged on until 431BC. Then a war broke out, which tore the Greek world apart, and weakened the city-states beyond repair.

Answer: Euclid

Many basic mathematical rules were first thought out by Greek scholars, such as Euclid, Pythagoras, and Archimedes.
Euclid is considered the "Father of Geometry".
Pythagoras devised a theorem for calculating the size of the angles in triangles and introduced "pi" for determining the area and the circumference of a circle.
Archimedes discovered an important law of physics when he noticed that the water in his bath tub overflowed when displaced. From this, he deduced that an object displace its own volume of water.

Answer: Philip II

Decades of turmoil in Macedonia ended in 359BC, when Philip II became king and set about restoring order. Once firmly in control of his new kingdom, he began expanding his frontiers through military campaigns, taking over the regions to the east and south. By 342BC, Philip had extended Macedonia to include all of Thrace, Chalkidike, and Thessaly. Philip is the father of Alexander the Great.

Answer: Solon

In 594BC, an aristocrat named Solon was given power and introduced popular reforms. He provided food for the poor, stopped people who owed money from being sold as slaves, and gave citizens a say in the city's affairs.

Answer: Ptolemies

The dynasty founded by Ptolemy was in many ways the most successful of the three divisions of Alexander's empire. He only took charge of Egypt, a relatively small portion of the empire. As a result, he was able to keep his kingdom intact for longer. Ptolemy also won great prestige by having Alexander's body buried in Alexandria, the Ptolemaic capital. Eventually, however, quarrels over the succession, and the expanding Roman empire, brought this final Greek dynasty to an end.

Answer: phalanx

Rather than battling in one-to-one combat, as warriors had done in earlier times, hoplites fought in an organized formation called a phalanx. The phalanx was a long block of soldiers, usually eight ranks deep. Each man was protected partly by his own shield and partly by the shield of the soldier on his right hand side.
The man on the far right was left partly exposed. Because of this, the right wing of a phalanx was vulnerable. In battle, a general would often try to attack the enemy on this weak side.
In attack, a phalanx charged forward so that the full weight of men and shields smashed into the enemy. The two opposing phalanxes would then push against each other until one gave way.

Answer: Hippocrates

The first "doctors" were priests of Asclepius, the god of healing. Sick people visited one of his temples, where priests tried to cure them with prayers. The first man to adopt a more practical, scientific approach was Hippocrates of Kos. He tried to search for the causes of illnesses and to find out how the body worked.
His followers opened schools where his ideas were taught. They prescribed herbal medicines, a special diet, rest or exercise. They performed operations too - but without painkillers, so this was both dangerous and painful.
The oath to "do no harm" taken by modern physicians is named after Hippocrates.

Answer: Xerxes

Memories of the Persian defeat festered in the mind of Darius I's son, King Xerxes. In 480BC, Xerxes led another invasion into Greek territory - this time overland. To cross the Hellespont, a thin stretch of water separating Europe and Asia, Xerxes had his engineers construct two huge bridges, entirely from ships.

Answer: helots

Descendants of people who had resisted Spartan rule were known as helots, and were forced to work on the land - more or less as slaves. They were made to surrender most of their crops to their Spartan masters. Although there were many more helots than Spartans, the Spartans made sure they had no power - and no chance to rebel.

Answer: Siege of Athens

In 460BC, the Athenians began building vast walls to enclose their city and its sea-port at Piraeus. The walls were designed to stop an enemy from cutting Athens off from its navy. The Long Walls, as they were known, effectively turned Athens into a fortress.

The Spartans were nervous: they were sure the Athenians must be preparing for war. In 431, the mighty Spartan army marched into the province of Attica, the area immediately around Athens. While the Athenians could rely on their navy to import food, they could retreat behind the Walls and avoid a land battle.

But in 430BC, the city was struck by plague: it lasted four years, killing a quarter of the population, while the Spartans ruined land all around them. By 421BC, both sides were exhausted and signed a truce.

Answer: trireme

Triremes were formidable in battle, because they were fast and easy to steer. Although they had sails, they put them away and rowed into battle, because it was easier to start, stop and turn. The oarsmen propelled the ship through the water at up to 15km (9 miles) an hour - much faster than it could move under sail.
Triremes carried crews of up to 200 men, most of whom were oarsmen. The name trireme came from the Latin for "three oars", because the men sat on three levels inside the hull. Also on board were naval officers, soldiers, archers, and deckhands.

Answer: Zeus

Cronos was King of the Titans. He married his sister Rhea and they had five children. Before the children were born, Cronos was warned that one of them would kill him. So he snatched and swallowed each baby at birth. Then, when Rhea was giving birth to her sixth baby, Zeus, she tricked Cronos by giving him a stone wrapped in clothes instead of the baby. So, Zeus survived.
When he was fully grown, Zeus visited his parents in disguise, and slipped a potion into Cronos's drink. This made him cough up all the babies he had swallowed.
Zeus then led his brothers and sisters in revolt against Cronos and the other Titans. After a bitter struggle, the younger gods defeated the older ones and divided the world among themselves. Zeus became the ruler of the sky and king of all the gods.

Answer: Cerberus

People were buried with a coin to pay the ferryman, whose name was Charon, to take them across the river. Once across the water, they were met by a three-headed dog called Cerberus. His duty was to keep the living out of the Underworld, and prevent dead souls from escaping.

Answer: Gaea

According to Greek legend, before anything existed, there was a nothingness called Chaos. Out of this dark and empty state, Gaea, Mother Earth, slowly emerged to form the world.

Answer: Athena

According to Greek legend, Poseidon, god of the seas, and Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, fought over the naming of the greatest city in Greece. Poseidon promised the people riches through trade, but Athena planted an olive tree. The people decided that this was the more valuable gift, so the city was named Athens after her.

Answer: Uranus

Gaea (Mother Earth) gave birth to Uranus, the sky. Gaea and Uranus married and had many children. The most important were the Titans, who looked like humans but were vast in size. They were the first gods and goddesses.