[SOLVED] EARLY GREEK HISTORY

AP/HIST 3150 EARLY GREEK HISTORY

2021/22 FINAL EXAM

 

 

Answer ALL questions. Then upload your completed exam on the e-class site.

 

1. Identify and briefly explain the significance of TWELVE of the following. Write no more than two sentences for each (12 x 2% = 24%).

 

1. Themistocles
2. Aristagoras
3. Bouleutic quota
4. Pythagoras
5. Hektemoroi
6. Sostratus of Aegina
7. Pindar
8. Alcmaeonidae
9. Gyges
10. Samian Heraion
11. Polycrates
12. Gelon
13. Battle of the Fetters
14. Darius
15. kouros
16. Greater Rhetra
17. Pandora
18. Leonidas
19. Marathon
20. Gerousia
21. Persepolis
22. Oath of Plataea
23. Helots
24. Isagoras

 

 

2. Match up the following events and (in some cases approximate) dates (6%)

 

Outbreak of Ionian revolt	594
Battle of Thermopylae	560
Archonship of Solon	508
Alliance between Sparta and Tegea	480
Reforms of Cleisthenes	539
Cyrus’ capture of Babylon	499

 

 

3. Comment on TWO of the following texts. Show how the text contributes to our understanding of late archaic Greek history and discuss points of interest and any problems that it raises (2 x 15% = 30%). Aim to write 300 words (or more) on each.

 

(a) Such was Pisistratus’ first return. After this he was expelled for the second time, about the seventh year after his return [546/5]: he did not retain power long, but because of his refusal to have intercourse with Megacles’ daughter he became afraid of the two parties and withdrew. First, he settled in the region of the Thermaic Gulf at the place called Rhaecelus; from there he proceeded to the district about Pangaeum, where he enriched himself and hired soldiers; then he went to Eretria. It was only in the eleventh year [536/5] that he tried to recover his rule by force, with the support of many others, in particular the Thebans, Lygdamis of Naxos, and the cavalry who controlled the state at Eretria.

(Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 15.1-2)

 

(b)       I shall carry my sword in a branch of myrtle

Like Harmodios and Aristogeiton

When they killed the tyrant

And made Athens a place of isonomia.

 

Dearest Harmodios, you are surely not dead

But are in the Islands of the Blessed, they say,

Where swift-footed Achilles is

And, they say, good Diomedes the son of Tydeus

 

I shall bear my sword in a branch of myrtle

Like Harmodios and Aristogeiton

When at the festival of Athena

The killed the tyrant Hipparchos.

 

Your fame shall be throughout the world forever,

Dearest Harmodios and Aristogeiton,

Because you killed the tyrant

And made Athens a place of isonomia.

Anonymous drinking songs

 

 

(c) The Lydians who were to bring the presents to the temples were instructed by Croesus to ask the oracles if he should undertake the campaign against Persia, and if he should strengthen his army by some alliance. On their arrival, therefore, they offered the gifts with proper ceremony and put the question in the following words: ‘Croesus, King of Lydia and other nations, in the belief that these are the only true oracles in the world, has given you gifts such as your power of divination deserves, and now asks you if he should march against Persia and if it would be wise to seek an alliance.’ To this question both oracles returned a similar answer; they foretold that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a great empire, and they advised him to find out which of the Greek states was the most powerful, and to come to an understanding with it.’

(Herodotus 1.53)

(d)

Some think a fleet, a troop of horse,

or soldiery the finest sight

in all the world; but I say, what one loves.

 

Easy it is to make this plain

to anyone. She the most fair

of mortals, Helen, having a man of the best,

 

deserted him, and sailed to Troy,

without a thought for her dear child.

or parents, led astray by [love’s power]

 

[For though the heart be pr]oud [and strong,]

[Love] quickly [bends it to his will.]

That makes me think of Anactoria.

 

I’d sooner see her lovely walk

and the bright sparkling of her face

than all the horse and arms of Lydia.

 

(Sappho fr. 16)

 

 

(e) In this former war with Tegea the Spartans had continually the worst of it, but by the time of Croesus, under their kings Anaxandrides and Ariston, they had got the upper hand. This is the story of their success: after a long series of reverses in the war they sent to Delphi and asked of which god they should beg favour in order to ensure their conquest of Tegea, and the Priestess promised them victory if they brought home the bones of Orestes, Agamemnon’s son. Unable to find the tomb of Orestes, they sent again to enquire where the body lay, and the messengers received this answer:

 

In Arcady lies Tegea in the level plain,

Where under strong constraint two winds are blowing;

Smiting is there and counter-smiting, and woe on woe;

There earth, giver of life, holds Agamemnon’s son.

Bring him home and you will prevail over Tegea.

 

This oracle brought them no nearer than the previous one to finding the body. They searched everywhere; but all in vain until Lichas, who was one of the Spartan special agents called ‘Agathoergi’, or ‘good-service-men’, solved the riddle.

 

(Herodotus 1.67)

 

 

(f) While Athens and Aegina were at each other’s throats, the king of Persia continued to mature his plans. His servant never failed to repeat to him the words ‘Remember Athens’; the Peisistratidae, with their slanderous attacks upon the Athenians, were still with him, and besides, he himself was anxious to have an excuse to conquer all the Greek communities which refused to give earth and water. In consequence of the ill success of his previous expedition, he relieved Mardonius of his command, and appointed other generals, whom he proposed to send against Eretria and Athens, Datis, a Mede, and his own nephew Artaphernes, son of the other Artaphernes, and their orders were to reduce Athens and Eretria to slavery and to bring the slaves before the king.

(Herodotus 6.94)

 

 

4. Answer TWO of the following essay questions. Be sure to include references to relevant sources in your answers. (2 x 20% = 40%). Aim to write 500 words (or more) on each.

 

1. In what ways did archaic Sparta differ from other Greek city-states, and why?
2. What was the nature of the crisis faced by Solon, and how did he try to solve it?
3. Can we identify a distinctively aristocratic lifestyle and set of values in late archaic (c. 600-c. 480) Greece?
4. What were the reasons for, and the consequences of, the introduction of coined money to Greece in the 6^th century?
5. How united were the Greeks in the face of the early 5^th-century Persian threat?
6. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of Herodotus as a historian. EARLY GREEK HISTORY EARLY GREEK HISTORY EARLY GREEK HISTORY EARLY GREEK HISTORY EARLY GREEK HISTORY