Biographical Notes

Question 1

Alexander the Great

Answer 1

Son of Philip II and remembered for the Greek conquest of the Persian Empire before his sudden death in 323 B.C.

Question 2

Aristotle

Answer 2

Student of Plato and third of the great Greek philosophers, influential in a variety of areas, from ethics to biology.

Question 3

Cimon

Answer 3

Leading politician in Athens in the generation after the Persian Wars.

Question 4

Cleisthenes

Answer 4

Constitutional reformer whose innovations included the Council of 500, the 10 tribes and system of demes and trittyes .

Question 5

Cleon

Answer 5

the leading Athenian politician from c. 429–422 B.C.

Question 6

Cyrus the Great

Answer 6

Persian king who ruled from 558–530 B.C., conquered the neighboring Medes and brought about the expansion of Persian power from Afghanistan to the Ionian coast.

Question 7

Darius I

Answer 7

Persian king whose army was defeated at Marathon in 490 B.C.

Question 8

Darius III

Answer 8

Persian king defeated by Alexander the Great. The last Achaemenid king of Persia.

Question 9

Dionysus

Answer 9

God of Ecstasy, known to the Greeks as the One who Binds and Releases. Tragedy was performed in his honor.

Question 10

Sir Arthur Evans

Answer 10

British excavator of Cnossus and proponent of the view that Minoan Crete had colonized the mainland, giving rise to Mycenaean civilization.

Question 11

Hippias and Hipparchus

Answer 11

Sons of Pisistratus. Hippias ruled from 528/527 to 510 B.C.

Question 12

Isagoras

Answer 12

One of the leaders of the factional strife afflicting Athens from 510–508 B.C. Isagoras was supported by the Spartans, but defeated by his rival, Cleisthenes.

Question 13

Leonidas

Answer 13

Spartan king at the time of the Persian invasions, he died at Thermopylae (480 B.C.).

Question 14

Lycurgus

Answer 14

Legendary law-giver of Sparta.

Question 15

Menander

Answer 15

Popular late 4th-century playwright whose New Comedy blended romance, comedy, and domestic situations.

Question 16

Nicias

Answer 16

Unwilling and unlucky Athenian commander during the Sicilian Expedition

(415–413 B.C.).

Question 17

Pericles

Answer 17

Leading Athenian politician and general from ​c. 450–429 B.C.

Question 18

Philip II

Answer 18

King of Macedon, 359–336 B.C., and responsible for the unification of Macedon, its expansion, and the conquest of southern Greece.

Question 19

Pisistratus

Answer 19

Sixth century tyrant of Athens, responsible for unifying the Athenians and encouraging prosperity.

Question 20

Plato

Answer 20

Student of Socrates and perhaps the most influential of the Greek philosophers, especially associated with the theory of forms.

Question 21

Protagoras

Answer 21

Best known of the sophists, he advocated a form of agnosticism.

Question 22

Heinrich Schliemann

Answer 22

German excavator whose work on Ithaca and at Troy and Mycenae constituted the first major excavations of the Aegean Bronze Age.

Question 23

Socrates

Answer 23

Provocative Athenian philosopher who was executed in 399 B.C. on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens.

Question 24

Solon

Answer 24

Athenian lawgiver responsible for wide-ranging political and economic reforms.

Question 25

Themistocles

Answer 25

Athenian leader at the time of the Persian invasions, he was remembered for convincing the Greeks to stay and fight at Salamis.

Question 26

Xenophon

Answer 26

Athenian gentleman, soldier, and writer whose literary works included history, biography, and political pamphlets, as well as instruction manuals on cavalry tactics, hunting, and household management.

Question 27

Xerxes

Answer 27

Persian king whose invasion of Greece in 480–479 B.C. was defeated at Salamis and Plataea.