Chapter 4: the Ancient Greeks

Chapter 4: The Ancient Greeks

Multiple Choice

Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

____1.Which of the following did Athenian soldiers promise to do in their oath?

a. / pay back loans at harvest time
b. / sell themselves into slavery
c. / protect the constitution
d. / obey the oracle

____2.Who became popular by giving land to landless farmers?

a. / Xerxes / c. / Peisistratus
b. / Solon / d. / Agamemnon

____3.Why did Xerxes want to conquer Greece?

a. / to increase his country’s wealth / c. / for revenge
b. / to win glory / d. / all of these

____4.Which of these did the Mycenaeans learn from the Minoans?

a. / navigation by the sun and stars
b. / winemaking
c. / making iron tools
d. / pottery making

____5.Spartan men could return to their homes when they were

a. / 20. / c. / 40.
b. / 30. / d. / 60.

____6.The time around 600 B.C. is called the Dark Age because

a. / people forgot how to make candles.
b. / people forgot how to read and write.
c. / there was a great famine.
d. / there was a terrible plague.

____7.Early Greeks lived by

a. / fishing. / c. / herding goats and sheep.
b. / trade. / d. / all of these

____8.The Athenian assembly appointed ten generals, who

a. / collected taxes.
b. / led armies into battle.
c. / carried out the assembly’s laws.
d. / tried to increase trade.

____9.Who could be citizens of Greek city-states?

a. / native-born men and women
b. / free, native-born, land-owning men
c. / land-owning women
d. / foreign-born men

____10.The Greek alphabet was based on which of these alphabets?

a. / Egyptian / c. / Mesopotamian
b. / Phoenician / d. / Syrian

____11.In America, who has the right to vote?

a. / all citizens
b. / adult males
c. / all citizens, 18 years and older
d. / males and females

____12.Athenian laws are

a. / proposed by the council.
b. / signed by the president.
c. / approved by half the assembly.
d. / voted on by females.

____13.In America, citizens with voting rights can

a. / make the laws.
b. / vote for or against any law.
c. / propose new laws.
d. / vote for or against the officials who make the laws.
Herodotus’s History
Xerxes addresses the Persians: “I have found out a way whereby we may at once win glory, and likewise get possession of a land which is as large and as rich as our own . . . while at the same time we obtain satisfaction and revenge. . . . My intent is to . . . march an army through Europe against Greece, that thereby I may obtain vengeance from the Athenians from the wrongs committed by them against the Persians and against my father.”
—Herodotus
The Persian Wars, Book VII

____14.What was Xerxes planning to do?

a. / colonize Northern Africa / c. / unite the Greek city-states
b. / conquer Greece / d. / build an acropolis

____15.If Xerxes’ plan is successful, what will he gain?

a. / possession of a rich land / c. / glory
b. / satisfaction and revenge / d. / all of the above

____16.Who committed wrongs against the Persians?

a. / Europeans / c. / Greeks
b. / Turks / d. / Romans

____17.Which group promised to pass on their fatherland in a better condition?

a. / Spartan soldiers / c. / Minoan soldiers
b. / Delian soldiers / d. / Athenian soldiers

____18.The History of the Persian Wars was written by

a. / Herodotus. / c. / Agamemnon.
b. / Pericles. / d. / Apasia.

____19.The Mycenaeans came to Greece from

a. / Western Europe. / c. / Central Asia.
b. / India. / d. / China.

____20.In a direct democracy, who decides government matters?

a. / all the people / c. / elected representatives
b. / women / d. / the king

____21.When the Spartans needed room for expansion, they

a. / conquered neighboring land.
b. / set up colonies in Asia Minor.
c. / bought land from neighbors.
d. / all of the above

____22.The Minoans made their living as

a. / soldiers. / c. / weavers.
b. / traders. / d. / farmers.

____23.Xerxes was king of

a. / Athens. / c. / Delos.
b. / Persia. / d. / Crete.

____24.The Greeks won the Battle of Salamis because their ships

a. / could move around quickly. / c. / came from the Spartan Navy.
b. / outnumbered their enemies. / d. / sank.

____25.Mycenaeans could pay their taxes in

a. / Athenian coins. / c. / wheat, livestock, or honey.
b. / paper money. / d. / salt.

____26.The Delian League began as an alliance to

a. / protect the Greeks from the Persians.
b. / make Athens rich.
c. / make trade more profitable.
d. / build faster ships.

____27.Crete is approximately ____ miles from Cyprus?

a. / 100 / c. / 500
b. / 10 / d. / 200

____28.Which islands were on a trade route to the west?

a. / Cyprus and Sicily / c. / Corsica and Crete
b. / Corsica and Troy / d. / Corsica and Sicily

____29.Athens, Sparta, and Troy are in which area?

a. / Egypt / c. / Asia Minor
b. / Greece / d. / Greek Colonies
Pericles’ Funeral Oration
“Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; When it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses. No one . . . is kept [out of government] because of poverty.”
—Pericles, as recorded by Thucydides,
History of the Peloponnesian War

____30.Why did Pericles call his government a democracy?

a. / Only rich people could vote.
b. / Power belonged to the whole people.
c. / Public offices were for men only.
d. / none of these

____31.What did the Greeks use to decide who should hold public office?

a. / class / c. / wealth
b. / primary elections / d. / ability

____32.How did the Greeks apply the law?

a. / Everyone was equal. / c. / Poor people were better.
b. / Women were better. / d. / Rich people were better.