1. All of the following are true of Sargon EXCEPT:

a. He claimed to be the lover of Ishtar

b. He was king of the Akkadians

c. He ruled weakly and passively(not true)

d. He established the first Near Eastern empire

Sargon was a king of Akkad, one of the Semitic cities that rose in Mesopotamia after the Sumerians, during the Bronze Age. He’s credited with creating the first multinational empire, after conquering or absorbing many of the lands and peoples of the Fertile Crescent. He rules over this empire oppressively and ruthlessly—one of the reasons it did not last.

2. The Old Babylonian Empire was known for

a. Mathematics and astronomy(true)

b. Romance novels

c. Inventing an early form of baseball

d. Lasting for thousands of years

The Bronze Age Babylonian Empire, also known as the Old Babylonian Empire, attracted those skilled in mathematics and astronomy and was one of the first powerhouses in these fields. The empire lasted c. 1894 BCE – c. 1595 BCE, about 400 years.

3. All of the following are true of the Code of Hammurabi EXCEPT:

a. It was a compilation of laws relating to civil and criminal procedures

b. Its penalties were harsher than older laws

c. It helped to unify the empire by placing it under a single legal system

d. The three classes—noble, free, and slave—were treated exactly equally(not true)

It was a law code, one of the earliest known in history, issued by Hammurabi, a king of the Old Babylonian empire during the 18th century BCE. For the most part it dealt with applying justice to conflicts between individuals, often having to do with property or commercial transactions, with different provisions depending on class.

4. The Indo-European people who settled in central Anatolia (modern Turkey) were the

a. Hittites(true)

b. Mennonites

c. Kassites

d. Outtasights

The Hittites were an Indo-European people who settled in central Anatolia. They were among the earliest masters of bronze.

5. All of the following are true of the Indo-Europeans EXCEPT:

a. They were originally nomads

b. They were pastoral (animal herders)

c. They never went anywhere and stayed in their homeland until they died out (not true)

d. Their language was the origin of many related later languages, including Persian, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit

The Indo-Europeans were a pastoral people and so constantly in search of new grazing lands as their populations increased. As such, whole nations of Indo-Europeans left the Indo-European Homeland on the central Asian steppes, migrating into new lands to the south, west, and east. These nations were the ancestors of the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Vedic Hindu peoples, among many others.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. Give an example of one of the punishments you remember from the Code of Hammurabi.

Examples of provisions include:

• If a man accuses another man and charges him with homicide, but cannot bring proof against him, his accuser shall be killed.
• If a man breaks into a house, they shall kill him and hang him(?) in front of that very breach.
• If a man has a debt lodged against him, and the storm-god Adad devastates his field or a flood sweeps away the crops, or there is no grain grown in the field due to insufficient water—in that year he will not repay grain to his creditor; he shall suspend performance of his contract [literally “wet his clay tablet”] and he will not give interest payments for that year.
• If a merchant should give silver to a trading agent for an investment venture, and he [the trading agent] incurs a loss on his journeys, he shall return silver to the merchant in the amount of the capital sum.
• If a man takes in adoption a young child at birth [literally “in its water”] and then rears him, that rearling will not be reclaimed.
• If an [awīlum] should blind the eye of another [awīlum], they shall blind his eye.
• If a builder constructs a house for a man but does not make it conform to specifications so that a wall then buckles, that builder shall make that wall sound using his own silver.
• If an ox gores to death a man while it is passing through the streets, that case has no basis for a claim.
• If a man rents a boat of 60-[kur] capacity, he shall give one sixth [of a shekel] of silver per day as its hire.
• If a slave should declare to his master, “You are not my master”, he [the master] shall bring charge and proof against him that he is indeed his slave, and his master shall cut off his ear.

1. The Nile delta is found in

a. Nubia

b. Kush

c. Lower Egypt(true)

d. Upper Egypt

The delta is where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean. This is downstream (Lower Egypt).

2. All of the following are true of the pyramids EXCEPT:

a. They are associated with the earliest period of united Egypt, the Old Kingdom

b. They were intended to protect the mortal remains of the pharaoh buried within

c. They could only have been constructed by alien gods from outer space(not true)

d. The largest and most famous, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), took 23 years to build

The pyramids were visible symbols of the pharaoh’s divine rule, unifying the people’s shared identity and religion. They represented power unlike any human’s and so reinforced the pharaoh’s divinity. Pyramids were also the ultimate in prestige and luxury, which was controlled by the pharaohs, and so showed precedence over all classes and over past kings as well. They employed huge numbers of people, impressing the people directly with his power and keeping them busy between harvests. They served as temples for the worship of pharaohs after death. Like all monumental building (e.g., the ziggurats) they displayed Egypt’s (and so the pharaoh’s) immense economic power—to its own people and to outsiders as well, as well as serving as a visual focal point for a strong central identity as Egyptians and a home to a protective patron deity, in this case the pharaoh as a manifestation of Horus.

3. Akhenaten was famous for

a. religious reforms focusing on the supremacy of one god, Aten(true)

b. having no wife

c. being born in Arizona before moving to Babylonia

d. sharing the throne with his cousin Amenhotep

Akhenaten was an Egyptian pharaoh of the New Kingdom (during the 18th Dynasty). He and his queen, Nefertiti, sought to bring about religious reform in Egypt by shifting the focus of worship to Aten, calling him more important than the other gods. This brought about a form of polytheism in which one god is greatly predominant called henotheism. Akhenaten pushed the exclusive worship of Aten by changing his regnal name from Amunhotep IV to Akhenaten, building a new royal city sacred to Aten, and instituting new rituals and priesthoods. In so doing, Akhenaten sought to undo the shift in religious power from the pharaohs, who had held unquestionable religious authority in the Old Kingdom, to the priests, who now held much greater power in the New Kingdom. The priests emphasized the significance of Amun-Ra, the sun god, in the pharaoh’s rule, so by associating the kingship with Aten he sought to wrest power from the priests. It was too late for that, however: the authority of the priests was now too well established, and the pharaoh’s power too diminished from the absolute in the New Kingdom. Egyptian religion reverted the control of the priests after the deaths of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, as signified by the regnal name of his son and eventual successor, Tutankhamun.

4. The collection of spells that was wrapped around a mummy is known as

a. “The Spells of Ra”

b. “The Tale of Sinuhe”

c. “Book of the Dead” (true)

d. “Osiris Among the Shades”

The Book of the Dead was what was used to ensure the passage of the spirit to the lands of the dead.

5. All of the following are true of the Semitic invaders who dominated Egypt between the Middle and New Kingdoms EXCEPT:

a. The Egyptians called them the Hyksos, meaning “foreign rulers”

b. They embraced and preserved Egyptian culture

c. They ruled peacefully over Egypt for many thousands of years(not true)

d. They fought using horses and chariots, bronze weapons, and complex bows

The Hyksos only ruled for about a hundred years. Despite being foreigners from the Semitic east, they embraced and promoted Egyptian culture and religion enthusiastically.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What do you think made unification possible in Egypt, when it was impossible in Sumer?

The main point here is that the city-states of Sumer were in competition for limited resources, and so remained in rivalry with each other and were often hostile. In Egypt, however, the environment provided plenty for all, so there was no need to compete for resources, and everyone had in common the protection and nurturing of the gods—eventually manifested as a single god-king.

1. The use of iron was revolutionary as a basis for metalworking (tools and weapons) because

a. iron was easy to smelt and fashion

b. iron goods were prestigious thanks to their association with the Underworld

c. iron ore is very common and easy to procure and control in large quantities(true)

d. when combined with clay, iron could be produced in different color tones

Iron weapons are not significantly harder or stronger than bronze. Iron ore is very common and easy to procure and control in large quantities. This meant that iron-holding societies were stronger militarily and had a higher standard of living, because they could make many more weapons and many more tools.—This contrasts with bronze because bronze required two components, copper and tin, and controlling sources of both was difficult; bronze was also difficult to produce. As a result, bronze was a luxury good, reserved for the elite, and bronze agricultural tools and weapons were produced only for the wealthy few.—The mass production of iron tools and weapons helps shift the center of gravity from the few to the many, as well as bringing about improved health (increased birth rate, reduced death rate), greater distribution of resources, and mass armies capable of more ambitious conquest and occupation of conquered territories.

2. The Phoenicians were known for all of the following EXCEPT:

a. having no cities(not true)

b. successful, wide-ranging sea trade

c. Tyrian purple

d. the alphabet

The Phoenicians were the Semitic inhabitants of several cities in the coastal north of Canaan (modern-day Lebanon). They were ideally located to import raw materials from inland and then engage in trade around the Mediterranean coast in both directions. They developed a lucrative extensive Mediterranean trade route based on luxury goods that they manufactured from imported materials like raw textiles and marble and from their two most important local commodities—cedar wood and murex, the purple dye they converted into a coveted status symbol throughout the Mediterranean world.—Also their invention of the phonetic alphabet was spread throughout their trading network, introducing literacy to the Dark Age Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Latins.

3. According to the text, a language that became commonly used in many lands because of how widespread its speakers were, becoming a kind of lingua franca or common tongue, was

a. Dothraki

b. Aramaean(true)

c. Parseltongue

d. Sindarin

The Aramaean language was widely used as a lingua franca throughout the Fertile Crescent, because it was possible to find Aramaeans in many different cities in Assyria, Canaan, and beyond.

4. All of the following are true of the Philistines EXCEPT:

a. They were an Indo-European culture, surrounded by Semitic peoples

b. They possessed iron-working technology and used iron swords

c. They left behind lots of records and literature to richly inform us of their culture and history(not true)

d. They were likely descended from the Sea Peoples, whose migrations helped end the Bronze Age

The Philistines were a powerful people, likely descended from Indo-European refugees of the Bronze Age Aegean (the Sea Peoples), who were masters of iron and culturally very different from the surrounding Semites. However, we know little about them because they left almost no records or literature.

5. According to tradition, the Hebrew tribes were divided and in conflict with each other until they begged for “a king to judge us like all the nations” after

a. the Exodus from Egypt

b. the arrival in the Promised Land

c. the Battle of Jericho

d. the Philistines’ theft of the Ark of the Covenant(true)

The need to recover the Ark, which housed the original Torah, from the hostile Philistines (who had also forbidden the use of iron to the Hebrews) drove the tribes to set aside their hostility and ask the high priest Samuel to name a single king over all the Israelites, Saul.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What were some of the ways Yahweh was understood to be different from other ancient gods?

Yahweh demanded that the Hebrews worship no other gods but him. Rather than being bound to the land, Yahweh bound himself to his people through a Covenant of mutual loyalty. He was also active and present in Hebrew culture, speaking directly to the people through prophets and scriptures. All of this was revolutionary and completely in contrast to ancient tradition.

1. The Scythians were

a. a class of beer-loving harvesters of grain

b. a nation of horse-loving nomadic Indo-Europeans of the steppes (true)

c. a profession of silence-loving librarians of the great temple at Babylon

d. a troupe of sailor-loving sailors from beyond the Indian Sea

“Scythians” is a general term used by the Greeks to describe the Indo-European peoples inhabiting the areas around the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. These peoples were various nations descended from the original Indo-European inhabitants of the area, and retained a lifestyle that was decentralized and nonurban, with a largely pastoral economy making use of horses, oxen, and wagons and a loose clan-based social structure spread out over a broad territory. Because of the wide lands they inhabited they were an early link between Europe and Asia.—Because they were in some ways the antithesis of urban civilization, to the Greeks they represented barbarians in general: strong but uneducated, good with animals and in possession of great natural abundance.

2. The ancient Greeks’ knowledge of India was limited before

a. the conquests of Alexander the Great(true)

b. the fall of Rome

c. the voyages of Columbus

d. the Industrial Revolution

Early on, those in the west (like Herodotus) had only hear-say traders’ reports, and beyond India being on the edge of the world most of what was known was nonsensical legend.—Alexander’s conquests in the east in the fourth cenry BCE launched a period of intensive study of the Indian peoples by the Macedonians and Greeks, starting with Alexander’s admiral Nearchus, who traveled across India and wrote of its animals and peoples. Another Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, wrote a similar account in the third century.—The other main source of information about early India is Hindu religious literature, including poems and hymns called the Vedas that date back to reooughly 3000 BCE. Also important are the discourses known as the Upanishads, which discuss important theo-philosophical ideas like karma; and the Puranas, or epic tales. Though they don’t provide a historical narrative, they contain a great deal of cultural and social information.

3. Asoka, king of the Mauryan empire in northern India, was known for all of the following EXCEPT:

a. waging a bloody war that claimed 200,000 dead

b. converting from traditional Hinduism to Buddhism

c. helping Buddhism become a world religion

d. shunning any and all contact with the Hellenistic peoples of the west(not true)

Aśoka, one of the most successful emperors of southern Asia, ruled over most of India in the mid-third century. After engaging in a huge war resulting in 100,000 deaths, Aśoka converted to Buddhism. From that point on, his governance and Edicts reflected Buddhist principles. Subsequently he worked to spread Buddhism throughout Asia, hoping it would be a better unifier of peoples than imperial conquest.

4. The kingdom of Bactria, where Alexander founded many colonies that became outposts of Greek culture, was located in what is now

a. Afghanistan(true)

b. Ethiopia

c. Florida

d. Ultima Thule

Bactria was located in what is now Afghanistan, between Iran and India. It was the furthest Alexander the Great reached in his conquests and he founded several major colonies there; these Greek-Asian cities became an important extension of Greek culture in Asia.

5. All of the following are true of the Parthians EXCEPT:

a. Like the Persians they had no standing army, only a small bodyguard for the king

b. They helped establish the “Silk Road,” creating a trade link between China and the Mediterranean

c. Their society was entirely classless, with no nobility and no kings(not true)

d. They embraced both Greek culture and their own language and traditions

The Parthians were an Indo-European people, related to the Scythians, who migrated freom the steppes north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the mid-Iron Age and established a powerful kingdom between Iran and India. Though the royal succession was frequently disputed they nonetheless grew in power and influence at the expense of the Seleucid Empire ruling over the former Persian lands.—Their economy was agricultural, but they benefitted from growing trade between east and west Asia and encouraged the passage of caravans bringing expensive goods from China to Parthua and on to Syria. An embassy sent to the Han Emperor in the 2nd century BCE led to the establishment of what’s now called the Silk Road, a 4,000 trade route linking China with the Mediterranean world.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What key ideas would you say are most associated with Buddhism as it arose in ancient India?

Siddhartha Gautama was a prince in the 6th century BCE who abandoned his privileged life after discovering the suffering of the masses. He advocated mental training as a means of achieving nirvana (the enlightenment that allows release from endless reincarnation). On attaining enlightenment he became the Buddha (“the awakened one”).

1. In Clouds, the character “Socrates” enters for the first time

a. through a golden door

b. lowered in a gondola or basket(true)

c. covered in tomato sauce

d. as a ghost, because he’s already dead

“Socrates” appears descending from above in a basket, much like gods at the end of a tragedy descending to dispense wisdom and justice (“deus ex machina”), only “Socrates” talks not about the wisdom of the gods but the “natural functions” and physical processes of the temporal heavens. His scruffy appearance presents him as a false god. He also starts out with his head literally in the clouds.

2. At the start of the Archaic period, population growth and limited resources meant “extra mouths to feed.” The Greeks addressed this problem in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

a. Creating colonies that expanded their population and economy to new locations

b. Expanding their territory through the use of their military

c. Periodic massacres of the population(not true)

d. Growing their trading economy, both imports (to feed the growing population) and exports (to strengthen their trading power)

At the start of the Archaic period, population growth and limited resources meant “extra mouths to feed.” The Greeks addressed this problem in several ways. They expanded their territory through the use of their military. They created colonies that expanded their population and economy to new locations. Their trading economy increased, increasing both imports (to feed the growing population) and exports (to strengthen their trading power).

3. A hoplite army consisted of

a. A mass of citizens fighting as equals, arrayed in ranks with their shields overlapping(true)

b. Important heroes fighting in single combat

c. Hired mercenaries from barbarian lands

d. Demons lured from across the River Styx

The hoplite army was a city’s citizen body—everyone who could afford the round shield, spear, and basic armor—defending the city’s property and people by creating a phalanx, or long unified row of soldiers with overlapping shields, several men deep. The hoplite army was extremely effective, uniting the power and force of the entire army by striking the enemy with one massive blow.—It’s a change because past military tactics had emphasized the role of the aristocracy, dwelling on single combat by hero types and so empowering the few over the many. The hoplite army is unified and anonymous; everyone acts together and as one, and any individual heroism actually destroys its effectiveness. It represents a social shift in power from the few to the many.

4. Among the Greeks, a tyrant was

a. a rich man who was stingy with his money

b. the commander of a Greek naval vessel

c. a governing body made up of the rich families

d. an illegal ruler sponsored by groups disadvantaged by the aristocrats(true)

Among the Greeks, a tyrant was someone who usurped power on behalf of the people during times when they are being repressed by the nobles. Tyrants often enact populist reforms, but the nature of their rule—on behalf of the people, but hostile to the nobles—is inherently divisive and naturally leads to new turmoil between the classes.

5. Homer’s works were important to the Greeks because they

a. were the basis for the Greeks’ understanding of the gods and their relationship with mortals

b. served as the basis for Greek education

c. taught morality by contrasting the greedy and prideful Bronze Age Greeks with the honorable example of the Trojans

d. all of the above(true)

Homer’s works told the story of the Bronze Age past and the failure of the Mycenaean civilization. It contrasted the venal, prideful, and selfish Mycenaean Greeks (like Agamemnon and Achilles) with the noble, honorable, and civic-minded Trojans (like Hector and Priam). In the Archaic period and forever afterward, Homer’s works served as the basis for Greek education. The Greeks (and those seeking to learn their tongue) learned their language and cultural values from the Iliad and the Odyssey.—Most of all, Homer’s works were the basis for the Greeks’ understanding of the gods and their relationship with mortals. From Homer the Greeks learned that the gods’ primary role was to respond to the destructive selfishness of mortals—ambition, greed, hubris, and arrogance—with punishment and destruction, not only for the offenders but for their families and even whole communities.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. In Clouds, why does the main character, Strepsiades, go to the Thinkery? What’s his end goal?

Strepsiades is upset because of the horse-racing debt accumulated by his playboy son, Pheidippides. He decides to send him to the Thinkery, so he can learn how to argue away his debts.

1. Pericles’s strategy for dealing with the Spartan threat to Athens was to

a. march out and fearlessly fight the Spartan army

b. evacuate the farmlands and bring everyone within the city walls(true)

c. sail to Sparta and attack the city

d. surrender and hope for the best

Pericles knew that the Athenian army could not defeat Sparta in pitched battle. He also knew the Spartans would not stay in Attica long enough to mount a long siege of the city, especially as Athens could be easily supplied by sea thanks to the Long Walls. Thus he ordered the farmers to hole up inside the walls of Athens with the urban population.

2. People who taught the skill of arguing a question from any or all positions, as part of the art of rhetoric, in classical Athens were called

a. sapiens

b. solons

c. socialites

d. sophists(true)

Sophists taught the skill of arguing a question from any or all positions, as part of the art of rhetoric, in fifth-century Athens. Democracy in Athens created a market for this service, since effectively persuading other voters to your point of view was a valuable ability in a society where ordinary votes mattered. Critics charged that sophists taught the ability to argue a position regardless of truth or morality.—Unlike sophists, who taught a skill, philosophers as a group sought the spread and increase of knowledge and understanding, whether of the physical world or of human behavior. They tended to question received wisdom and superstition in order to develop more rational explanations. Those who taught philosophy, generally, were interested in teaching their students how to question things in order to discover truth; sophists, by contrast, taught their students how to give the most convincing answer regardless of its truth or value.

3. Sparta’s victory over Athens was made possible by all of the following EXCEPT:

a. Sparta’s deal with India for naval assistance(not true)

b. The devastating effects of plague in Athens

c. The crippling losses from Athens’s expedition to Syracuse

d. The defection of an Athenian general, Alcibiades, to Sparta after accusations of religious desecration

It was Sparta’s deal with Persia, in exchange for Persian control over Greek Anatolia, that allowed the Spartans to end the war in a naval victory at Aegospotomi.—The massive loss of life due to plague meant that Athens was much weaker in terms of its agricultural and industrial labor force, so there was a huge impact on its economy. It was also weakened militarily, losing a great deal of manpower both for army and navy. Finally, the Plague removed the one leader most of Athens had faith in, Pericles; though he was under a cloud at the time due to accusations of corruption, his loss was like a blow. The overextension of their strength and resources by extending the war to Sicily ended in a huge catastrophe that permanently weakened Athens’s ability to fight off Sparta.—Another, more minor factor is the unexpected ability of a laconic Spartan general, Brasidas, winning over Athenian allies to Sparta, leveraging their disaffection and overcoming their feat of Athens.

4. The aftermath of the Peloponnesian War included

a. Athens and its empire rising stronger than ever

b. the Persians reoccupying Greek lands in Ionia(true)

c. decades of peace allowing the Greeks to recover

d. the philosopher Socrates being hailed as a hero of Athenian cultural achievement

As part of their alliance with Sparta toward the end of the war, Persia began to reoccupy the Greek lands in Anatolia, including Ionia and Caria. These were lands that Athens and its allies, the Delian League, had liberated from Persia in the years following the Persian wars.—The war devastated the economies, cultures, and populations of Athens, Sparta, and other Greek cities, while not solving the question of hegemony—leading to more wars in the following decades.—Socrates was tried for irreligion and corruption of the youth and executed not long after the war.

5. Famous tragic or comic plays from classical Athens include all of the following EXCEPT:

a. Lysistrata by Aristophanes, about the women of Greece denying their husbands sex until they stop the war

b. The Oresteia by Aeschylos, about Orestes seeking revenge for the murder of Agamemnon by his wife

c. Medea by Euripides, about a sorceress who gets even with her cheating husband, Jason, by killing her children

d. Helaiai by Thucydides, about the murder of fellow historian Herodotus by a vengeful scribe(not true)

Thucydides was an historian, not a playwright.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. In your opinion, why did Sparta and Athens really go to war?

Sparta and Athens had incompatible visions of the Greek ideal. Sparta saw all its citizens as peers, equally accomplished and capable, with none standing ahead of the others; the prototype of this was the hoplite warrior, and Sparta bred itself into a society of hoplites to pursue this ideal. Athens, on the other hand, saw individual accomplishment as more beneficial. Each excelled as best he could, and society was made up of all kinds, with different classes a natural outcome, and greater status according to wealth and property a given.—There was also an ethnic/dialectical difference: the more conservative Dorians, which included the Spartans, did not see themselves as having exactly the same heritage or goals as the more liberal Ionians, which included the Athenians and their eastward allies around the Aegean.—Most of all, Sparta embraced a society governed by the few, with the masses completely without a voice (only the warrior elite were citizens of Sparta). Athens embraced a society of the many, instituting radical democracy in order to give voice to a wide and diverse population. These visions of society simply could not be reconciled.

1. All of the following are true about Carthage EXCEPT:

a. In accordance with tradition its rulers were always female(not true)

b. It was founded as a colony of the Phoenician city of Tyre

c. It developed a great sea-trading empire

d. It was located on the North African coast in what is now Tunisia

Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians, and inherited their trading model based on converting natural resources into high-value luxury goods and entrepreneurial trade routes in which master traders took a handful of ships great distances to trade with many markets.—Geographically, Carthage was positioned at the choking point between the western and eastern Mediterranean, putting it in a position to control east-west trade and dominate the western Med. In addition, Carthage was possessed of two excellent natural harbors, making it an ideal trading port and shipbuilding facility. Carthage became a powering trading power and maritime force at a time when few other important cities had developed along the coasts of the western Mediterranean; with those cities that were there, including the Greek colonies in Sicily, the Etruscan city-states, and early Rome, Carthage made trading partnerships or treaties of mutual benefit.

2. According to Roman tradition, the city’s first king, Romulus, was believed to have

a. been suckled by a wolf

b. killed his brother

c. established the senate

d. all of the above(true)

There were two separate traditions regarding the founding. One was that Aeneas founded Rome, giving Rome a heroic founder who, as a Trojan, was on a level with the Greeks (whom the Romans saw as culturally advanced).—The more common story is that Rome was founded by Romulus, who was abandoned as a baby with his brother Remus and nursed by a she-wolf. Romulus killed Remus and became the first king. His actions and association with the wolf suggest that Romans saw themselves as ruthless men who do what is necessary.

3. The term paterfamilias refers to

a. “the ways of our ancestors”: traditional Roman behavior and customs

b. “the father of the family”: the elder male with life and death authority over the household(true)

c. “the high priest”: the priest in charge of the Vestal Virgins and other priests

d. “the crunchy frog”: the small honeyed amphibians wealthy Romans ate as a delicacy

The paterfamilias was the senior male figure in an extended family (all those connected by a vertical male bloodline). According to custom and law, the paterfamilias was the owner of all the family’s property, and the sole representative of its interests to the public. All that happened within the family—private matters, as contrasted with public matters (res publica)—were entirely in the hands of the paterfamilias, who had complete power (patria potestas) of justice and disposition over all the men, women, children, freedmen, slaves, and possessions of his bloodline, up to and including the right to execute or sell into slavery.—In practice, this absolute power was mitigated by the need to consider the reputation of the family within the community, and by the advice of the family council and of the senior matron of the family.

4. Early Italy was inhabited by all of the following EXCEPT:

a. Etruscans

b. Egyptians(not true)

c. Samnites

d. Greeks

Italy was inhabited by many civilizations, including Etruscans in the north, the hill-peoples (including the Samnites), and the Greek colonies in the heel and Sicily.

5. According to patriotic legend, the Romans kicked out their kings and established a Republic after

a. a queen slapped a peasant

b. a senator killed a priest

c. a prince raped a noblewoman(true)

d. a general slew a god

According to legend, the son of the tyrannical seventh king, Tarquin Superbus, raped the most virtuous woman in Rome, Lucretia. This sparked an uprising among the nobility, who ended the monarchy and declared a Republic.

Optional Extra Credit

EC. What’s one way that early Rome was connected to the Etruscan civilization to the north?

The Etruscans appeared in northern Italy (around what is now Tuscany) early in the Iron Age. It’s not certain where they came from. They developed a wealthy and sophisticated urban society made up of 12 independent cities. Their economy was focused on trade and manufacturing, especially metalwork; they traded with each other, other nearby communities, and Mediterranean trading powers like the Phoenicians and the Greeks. Influences on the Romans included several aspects of the idea of monarchy, including the fasces, the bundled rods that were a symbol of authority. Other influences were the triumph, or the ceremonial procession honoring a victorious king or general, and haruspicia, an Etruscan means of divination.