Deck 4: The Hellenistic World

Question 1

Alexander's military success against the Persians was in part attributable to

A) the chronic weakness of the Persian Empire.
B) numerically superior forces.
C) the role of Alexander's cavalry as a strike force.
D) troop loyalty in all campaigns.
E) his corps of archers.

Answer 1

the role of Alexander's cavalry as a strike force.

Question 2

Which of the following statements best describes Hellenistic cities?

A) small and governed by a military elite.
B) important centers of administration, most of which were dominated by Greeks and Greek culture.
C) urban centers, where the inhabitants spoke only their native tongue.
D) cities that had a population of 10,000 which were dominated by a trading class.
E) most were ruled by non-Greeks.

Answer 2

important centers of administration, most of which were dominated by Greeks and Greek culture.

Question 3

Alexander the Great's troops rebelled when he made the decision to invade and capture

A) Arabia.
B) Pergamum.
C) India.
D) Cochin.
E) Bactria.

Answer 3

India.

Question 4

The Hellenistic era describes an age that saw

A) the extension and imitation of Greek culture throughout the ancient Near East.
B) the absence of autocratic power for nearly three centuries.
C) the disappearance of a Greek cultural legacy until Roman times.
D) Alexander's successors maintain a united empire until Roman times.
E) the disappearance of Greek religious beliefs and practices.

Question 5

Philip II planned to defeat the Greek cities by

A) buying their submission.
B) undermining their morale with propaganda.
C) breaking up their hoplite formations with cavalry.
D) wearing them down by pinprick attacks.
E) destroying their walls with heavy cannons.

Question 6

In establishing his empire, Alexander the Great

A) saw himself as a descendant of Greek gods and heroes.
B) combined Greek and Persian practices to allow its administration.
C) allowed intermarriage between his soldiers and native Persian women.
D) a and c
E) a, b, and c

Question 7

The Hellenistic dynasty that lasted the longest was the

A) Antigonid.
B) Ptolemaic.
C) Seleucid.
D) Attalid.
E) Hashemite.

Question 8

All of the following were conquered by Alexander except

A) Syria.
B) Babylon.
C) Egypt.
D) Persia.
E) Arabia.

Question 9

The Antigonid kingdom was in

A) Palestine.
B) Egypt.
C) Macedonia.
D) Syria and Mesopotamia.
E) India.

Question 10

At the Battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.E.), Philip II

A) was killed, leaving Alexander in control of Greece.
B) drove the Persian navy out of the Aegean Sea.
C) unified Macedon for the first time in its history.
D) suffered a humiliating defeat.
E) defeated the Greek poleis, ending their independence.

Question 11

Which of the following was Alexander's last battle against the Persian king Darius?

A) Issus.
B) Tyre.
C) Gordium.
D) Guagamela.
E) Gaza.

Question 12

Which of the following was not one of Philip II's military reforms?

A) He abandoned the phalanx formation as too ineffective and inefficient.
B) He made use of cavalry contingents in breaking the opposing line of battle.
C) His warriors used a longer thrusting spear, double that of the Greek hoplite.
D) Made use of engineers who designed catapults to destroy enemy fortifications.
E) His infantrymen carried smaller shields and shorter swords than Greek hoplites.

Question 13

In his Philippics, Demosthenes

A) portrayed Philip II as a looming threat to Greek freedom.
B) foresaw a revival of Athenian culture under Philip II.
C) glorified the Macedonian armies as the saviors of Greece.
D) praised Philip II for freeing the Ionian cities.
E) portrayed Philip II as a looming threat to Persia.

Question 14

Isocrates

A) condemned Philip II for his aggression against the Greek city states.
B) agreed with Demosthenes that Alexander would be an improvement over Philip II.
C) hoped that Philip would unite the Greek world in a campaign against Persia.
D) was put to death for criticizing the gods.
E) supported Alexander of Macedonia in his struggle against his father, Philip.

Question 15

The Greek general who took Egypt after Alexander's death and converted it into the first Hellenistic kingdom was

A) Ptolemy.
B) Brassius.
C) Seleucis.
D) Antigonis.
E) Bucephalus.

Question 16

Alexander the Great's conquests in Asia occurred despite

A) his having no military expertise prior to his father's assassination.
B) the Persian king Darius III's refusal to make any peace settlements and resort to guerilla warfare.
C) the lack of a strong cavalry and inability to capture Egypt.
D) his eventual difficulties in convincing his troops to fight so far from home.
E) violent opposition back in Greece by most of the city-states.

Question 17

The Hellenistic states in the centuries after Alexander the Great

A) became despotic monarchies.
B) rarely fought amongst themselves.
C) combined Greek-Macedonians and Near Eastern natives in administrative positions.
D) showed little innovation in their armies.
E) all disappeared by the second century B.C.E.

Question 18

The famous Indian ruler who sent Buddhist missionaries to Greek rulers was

A) Akbar.
B) Asoka.
C) Chandragupta.
D) Shiva.
E) Bodhisattva.

Question 19

At the Battle of Gaugamela,

A) Alexander was able to win a close victory by bringing up cavalry at the last minute.
B) the Greeks under Alexander were able to break the center of the Persian line and with boldness turn the battle into a rout.
C) Alexander determined that the battle should be fought on a narrow plain, negating the numbers of the Persians and the importance of the war chariots.
D) Alexander struck the Persians at their weakest point.
E) Alexander was forced to retreat back to Susa.

Question 20

Which of the following statements about the Macedonians is correct?

A) They were greatly admired by the Greeks for their cultural achievements.
B) They were probably not Greek.
C) They were an urban people organized in city states like the southern Greeks.
D) They never participated in the Olympic Games.
E) Philip II turned Macedonia into the chief power in the Middle East.

Question 21

What was the greatest difference between education during the Hellenistic period and education during the classical period?

A) Rather than being a private enterprise, Hellenistic education became a duty of cities and their governments.
B) Poor and middle-class Greeks alike were allowed to go to Hellenistic schools.
C) The core curriculum became music and art rather than history, rhetoric, and philosophy.
D) The elective systems was first introduced, allowing students to choose the subject matter they preferred over any set, classical curriculum.
E) Educational establishments were completely under the control of religious bodies and institutions.

Question 22

The best example of Hellenistic 'New Comedy' was the Athenian playwright

A) Aristophanes.
B) Menander.
C) Euripides.
D) Aeschylus.
E) Polybius.

Question 23

Improvements in trade and commerce in the Hellenistic world were greatly aided by all of the following except

A) improvements in harbors.
B) revolutionary innovations in agriculture.
C) a money economy.
D) the development of major trade routes.
E) the emergence of a large merchant and artisan class.

Question 24

The surviving works of the Greek historian Polybius demonstrate

A) his following of Thucydides in seeking rational motives for historical events.
B) his focus on the growth of the Greek city-states from their origins to their collapse.
C) the continued failure of ancient historians to find accurate, firsthand sources.
D) his reliance on the models of Herodotus and willingness to ascribe historical change to the intervention of gods.
E) his use of oral sources and myth to supplement non-written documents.

Question 25

Which of the following was not a major source of slaves in the Hellenistic world?

A) citizens who could not pay their debts were sold into slavery.
B) children were sold into slavery by their parents.
C) prisoners of war became slaves of their captors.
D) persons kidnapped by pirates could be auctioned off as slaves.
E) persons whose parents were slaves.

Question 26

The scientific foundations of medicine made by Alexandrian physicians

A) continued uninterrupted through Roman times.
B) were made possible through the use of dissection and vivisection.
C) included, most importantly, a new understanding of the circulation of blood through the body.
D) made magical practices, amulets, and herbal potions obsolete.
E) abandoned their Greek roots and relied exclusively on previous Persian practices.

Question 27

The Alexandrian scholar Euclid's most famous achievement was

A) systematizing the study of geometry.
B) calculating the earth's circumference.
C) formulating and synthesizing the predominant elements in military science.
D) transferring the capital of Hellenistic science from Athens to Alexandria.
E) inventing the Archimedean screw.

Question 28

Who was credited with having been the first to separate medicine from philosophy?

A) Hippocrates.
B) Euclid.
C) Aristotle.
D) Herophilus.
E) Erasistratus.

Question 29

Among the most ill-treated of Hellenistic slaves were those

A) used in domestic service.
B) who worked in Egyptian gold mines.
C) who worked on the desert irrigation projects in Syria.
D) who surrendered in open combat during wars.
E) who were employed on construction projects in Susa and Persepolis.

Question 30

Which of the following statements is untrue concerning Hellenistic culture?

A) It was a great period of literature, especially in drama, history, and biography.
B) It was a period that saw the need to preserve the writings of the classical Greeks.
C) Sculptors and architects could very easily find work in the new Hellenistic cities.
D) Artists remained social outcasts, and were rarely patronized by the rich.
E) Hellenist sculpture was often more realistic and emotional than classical Greek sculpture.

Question 31

The Aetolian and the Achaean leagues were

A) military alliances of Greek cities.
B) formed primarily for social reasons.
C) located in central Greece and the Peloponnesus.
D) dominated by Athenian and Sparta representatives.
E) destroyed by Philip II.

Question 32

Hellenistic sculpture

A) never portrayed human figures.
B) was influenced by Egyptian standardized forms.
C) followed the idealism of fifth century Greek classicism.
D) abandoned the Greek practice of sculpting female nude figures.
E) was more emotional and realistic than classical Greek sculpture.

Question 33

Who wrote the treatise, "On Chastity"?

A) Sappho.
B) Hippocrates.
C) Phintys.
D) Cyme.
E) Phile of Priene.

Question 34

The economic life of the Hellenistic world was characterized by

A) tremendous innovations in labor-saving machinery, as with the "Archimedean screw."
B) a significant shift in industry and manufacturing from Greece to the east.
C) little variety in products used for trading.
D) the virtual disappearance of slavery in manufacturing.
E) the Athenian control of all economic activities.

Question 35

Hellenistic education as embodied in the gymnasium

A) was opposed by Hellenistic rulers who saw education as a threat to their power.
B) was open to all classes of society except slaves.
C) made no provision for physical education.
D) was focuses exclusively upon vocational training.
E) closely and widely followed classical Greek ideas about proper education.

Question 36

An especially important cultural center with the largest library in ancient times was

A) Thebes.
B) Athens.
C) Pergamum.
D) Alexandria.
E) Persepolis.

Question 37

The Greek god of healing, thought responsible for miraculous cures in the Hellenistic period, was

A) Hippocrates.
B) Asclepius.
C) Herophilus.
D) Erasistratus.
E) Euclid.

Question 38

The most famous scientist of his era, Archimedes of Syracuse, was responsible for all of the following except

A) uniting the disciplines of science and philosophy.
B) designing military devices to thwart siege attackers.
C) creating the science of hydrostatics.
D) establishing the value of the mathematical constant pi.
E) work on the geometry of spheres and cylinders.

Question 39

Which class of women achieved the most notable gains during the Hellenistic period?

A) lower class
B) middle class
C) upper class
D) slaves
E) working class

Question 40

By the 1ˢᵗ century B.C.E., which of the following was the largest city in the Mediterranean?

A) Antioch.
B) Rome.
C) Athens.
D) Carthage.
E) Alexandria

Question 41

The widespread popularity of Stoicism and Epicureanism in the Hellenistic world

A) demonstrated the renewed strength and belief in the polis.
B) occurred despite the continued growth of traditional Greek religious practices.
C) suggested a new openness to thoughts of universality.
D) amounted to proof of a growing homogenization of Greek thought.
E) was a rejection of all Greek thought.

Question 42

Of all the many varieties of products traded in the Hellenistic world, the greatest trade was in gold.

Question 43

Slavery was viewed as abnormal throughout the Hellenistic world.

Question 44

After the Battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.E.), the Greek city-states were required to take an oath of loyalty to Philip of Macedon.

Question 45

Stoicism

A) was formed by Epicurus.
B) later became very popular with the Celts and Germans.
C) maintained that people could gain inner peace by seeking virtue and living according to nature.
D) believed in a material afterlife.
E) argued that one should free oneself from public activities and responsibilities.

Question 46

Though an admirer of humanistic Greek culture, Alexander the Great nonetheless aspired to divine honors or divinity.

Question 47

The mystery cults and religions of the Hellenistic world

A) were completely foreign and thus unacceptable to the Greeks.
B) helped pave the way for the success of Christianity.
C) never achieved widespread popularity due to their inability to fulfill people's spiritual needs.
D) lacked an emotional initiation experience, unlike the Greek civic cults.
E) became the state religions of the various Hellenistic kingdoms.

Question 48

Which of the following statements is correct about the Hellenistic civilization?

A) It was an entirely stagnant civilization.
B) There were few achievements in science and art.
C) Signs of decline were apparent by the late third century B.C.E.
D) In comparison to earlier Greek society, there was more equality between the rich and the poor.
E) It preceded Hellenic civilization.

Question 49

In the Hellenistic era, medicine

A) entirely broke from using magical practices such as the use of amulets.
B) made radical advances due to the discovery of the germ theory of disease.
C) progressed due to the use of dissection and vivisection.
D) was seen as an acceptable product of divine wisdom and a viable substitute for any existing religion.
E) was mainly influenced by knowledge from China and India.

Question 50

After the death of Alexander the Great, his lead general, Ptolemy, ruled for fifteen years in Alexander's name from Bactria to Macedon.

Question 51

Unlike the Epicureans, the Stoics believed that complete withdrawal from the public world of politics and society was necessary in the quest for a passive and unattached life.

Question 52

Who maintained that the only things that exist are atoms moving through the void?

A) Isocrates.
B) Plato.
C) Epicurus.
D) Zeno.
E) Isis.

Question 53

Outside of Judea, the vast majority of Diaspora Jews completely assimilated themselves into Hellenistic society, becoming participating citizens in the various urban activities.

Question 54

All of the following are true about the cult of Isis except

A) it originated in the eastern Persian empire, an outgrowth of Zoroastrianism.
B) it was one of the most popular of the mystery religions.
C) she was associated with the giver of laws and letters to humankind.
D) her cult promised an eternal life.
E) she supposedly invented the marriage contract between husband and wife.

Question 55

Because of the enlightening philosophies of Epicureanism and Stoicism, female infanticide disappeared during the Hellenistic era.

Question 56

What was the primary difference between the philosophy of the Greek classical period and philosophy during the Hellenistic period?

A) Hellenistic philosophy dealt more with human happiness disassociated from the life of the polis.
B) Hellenistic philosophy was more political than classical philosophy.
C) Classical philosophy dealt primarily with ethics and human behavior.
D) Classical philosophy was centered in Athens; Hellenistic philosophy in Corinth.
E) Hellenistic philosophy advocated divine right monarchy.

Question 57

Alexander of Macedon personally killed the Persian king Darius III soon after the Battle of Guagamela.

Question 58

Which of the following led a revolt against Seleucid monarchy in Judea in the 160s B.C.E.?

A) Isaiah.
B) Antiochus IV.
C) Judas Iscariot.
D) Jesus of Nazareth.
E) Judas Maccabaeus.

Question 59

The Romans sacked Athens and Alexandria in the fourth century B.C.E. and then invaded Asia Minor.

Question 60

How did Greek religion change during the Hellenistic period?

A) It changed to various kinds of emperor worship.
B) Fertility gods took the place of the classical Greek gods.
C) The Greeks became very receptive to the eastern religious mystery cults.
D) The Greeks reverted back to a form of animism.
E) It was deeply influenced by Buddhism, brought to the west by Alexander and his successors.